Water Issues

Wildlife Issues

Find suggested books, websites, articles, videos, lesson plans, activities and other resources on wildlife conservation, habitat, and protection issues to help you learn and/or teach about this topic. Curated by the Institute for Human Education.

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Resources for Teaching How Black Lives Matter at School

by Marsha Rakestraw News headlines remind us daily that racial injustice and violence and discrimination against Black people (and other people of color) continue to thrive, and the impact on people of color, especially children and families, is significant and long-lasting. With school systems in the US made up largely of white teachers, many schools…

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Person throwing a box of food into a compost dumpster

17 Resources for Teaching About Food Waste

by Marsha Rakestraw “Every day, we’re teaching kids that food is trash.” ~ Jonathan Bloom Our school food systems in the US are not set up to minimize waste or encourage healthy habits. Students are often rushed at lunchtime, may have unappetizing food options, may be given (or take) much more food than they’ll eat,…

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An artistic #MeToo sign on a wall

8 Resources for Teaching About #MeToo and Sexual Harassment

by Marsha Rakestraw Updated: 3/2/2021 The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements expanded the conversation about how common sexual harassment and assault of women is and the roles of power and patriarchy in perpetuating the objectification and oppression of women and girls. In early 2018, an offshoot campaign, the #MeTooK12 arose to help spotlight the prevalence of sexual…

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woman looking into rows and columns of screens, each of which has a different person on it

11 Activities to Help Students Understand Different Perspectives

by Marsha Rakestraw In mid-January, two boys, ages 12 and 13, killed more than 500,000 bees and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of property. Allegedly just for kicks. In December 2017, a young Muslim woman was attacked on a transit train in Vancouver, Canada. Most people watched; only one young man intervened. Incidences of…

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Human Rights Graduate Program Institute for Humane Education

8 Resources for Teaching About Unconscious Bias

by Marsha Rakestraw We all have biases. We’ve heard many times that those biases are an evolutionary adaptation that helped us survive, but even after these thousands of years, we haven’t yet learned to recognize and overcome many of our unconscious (and conscious) biases related to race, gender, disability, age, geography, and even species. Research…

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tree hugger

Becoming Humane Beings (lesson plans)

by Marsha Rakestraw Right at the start of the school year is a great time to encourage students to think about the world they live in, the choices they make, what a humane world looks like, and the power they have to help bring such a world to reality. What does it mean to become…

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Resources for Teaching About Charlottesville, White Supremacy, Racism, and Hate

by Marsha Rakestraw Over the weekend, hatred and violence descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, as white nationalists amassed  to “take America back,” and opponents gathered to protest white supremacy and oppression. On Friday night white supremacists marched on the University of Virginia campus, carrying torches, chanting, and surrounding a small group of counterprotesters. On Saturday, people…

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