Curriculum Guide One Strange Rock Curriculum Guide Journeys in Film www.journeysinfilm.org NUTOPIA AND PROTOZOA PICTURES AND In Partnership with USC Rossier School of Education OVERBROOK ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION Copyright ©2018 NGC Network US, LLC, and NGC Network International, LLC. All rights reserved. Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock Educating for Global Understanding www.journeysinfilm.org Journeys in Film Staff National Advisory Board Joanne Strahl Ashe, Founding Executive Director Liam Neeson, National Spokesperson Eileen Mattingly, Director of Education/Curriculum Content Specialist Brooke Adams Amy Shea, Director of Research Alexi Ashe Meyers Roger B. Hirschland, Executive Editor Sharon Bialy Martine Joelle McDonald, Program Director Ted Danson Ethan Silverman, Film Literacy Consultant Professor Alan Dershowitz Sara Jo Fischer Journeys in Film Board of Directors Gary Foster Joanne Strahl Ashe, Founder and Chairman Scott Frank Erica Spellman Silverman Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Diana Barrett Jill Iscol, Ed.D. Julie Lee Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter Michael H. Levine Bruce R. Katz William Nix Authors of this curriculum guide Professor Richard A. Schweder Julie Farhm Tony Shalhoub Joanne Goelzer Mary Steenburgen Michael Handwork Walter Teller Joel Kutylowski Loung Ung Patricia Lawson Elizabeth Clark Zoia Richard Levergood Beth Mennelle Harold Ramis (In Memoriam) Brandon Michaud Sonia Weitz (In Memoriam) Barry Rock Andrew Wallace Project Coordinator Barry Rock, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Department of Natural Resources and EOS (Institute for the Study of Earth, Ocean, and Space) University of New Hampshire Journeys in Film National Geographic 50 Sandia Lane 1145 17th Street NW Placitas, NM 87043 Washington, DC 20036 505.867.4666 www.natgeo.com www.journeysinfilm.org Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock Table of Contents Introduction About Journeys in Film 6 A Letter From Liam Neeson 8 Introducing One Strange Rock 9 To the Teacher 11 Lessons Lesson 1: A Tour of the Solar System 13 (Earth Science, Geology, Biology, General Science) Lesson 2: The Goldilocks Planets 29 (Earth Science, Geology, Biology, General Science) Lesson 3: The Soil Is “Alive”: The Gaia Hypothesis 55 (Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry) Lesson 4: Mighty Microbes 71 (Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry) Lesson 5: The History of Life 111 (History, Geology, Biology, Chemistry) Lesson 6: Seeing Earth From Space 151 (Creative Writing, English, Social Studies) Lesson 7: The History of the Space Program 165 (History, Physics, Social Studies) Lesson 8: The Air We Breathe 185 (Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, Social Studies) Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock About Journeys in Film Founded in 2003, Journeys in Film operates on the belief Why use this program? that teaching with film has the power to prepare students To be prepared to participate in tomorrow’s global arena, to live and work more successfully in the 21st century as students need to gain an understanding of the world beyond informed and globally competent citizens. Its core mission their own borders. Journeys in Film offers innovative and is to advance global understanding among youth through the engaging tools to explore other cultures and social issues, combination of age-appropriate films from around the world, beyond the often negative images seen in print, television, interdisciplinary classroom materials coordinated with the and film media. films, and teachers’ professional-development offerings. This comprehensive curriculum model promotes widespread use For today’s media-centric youth, film is an appropriate and of film as a window to the world to help students to mitigate effective teaching tool. Journeys in Film has carefully selected existing attitudes of cultural bias, cultivate empathy, develop quality films that tell the stories of young people living in a richer understanding of global issues, and prepare for locations that may otherwise never be experienced by your effective participation in an increasingly interdependent students. Students travel through these characters and their world. Our standards-based lesson plans support various stories: They drink tea with an Iranian family in Children of learning styles, promote literacy, transport students around Heaven, play soccer in a Tibetan monastery in The Cup, find the globe, and foster learning that meets core academic themselves in the conflict between urban grandson and rural objectives. grandmother in South Korea in The Way Home, watch the ways modernity challenges Maori traditions in New Zealand Selected films act as springboards for lesson plans in subjects in Whale Rider, tour an African school with a Nobel Prize- ranging from math, science, language arts, and social studies winning teenager in He Named Me Malala, or experience the to other topics that have become critical for students, transformative power of music in The Music of Strangers: including environmental sustainability, poverty and hunger, Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble. global health, diversity, and immigration. Prominent educators on our team consult with filmmakers and cultural specialists in the development of curriculum guides, each one dedicated to an in-depth exploration of the culture and issues depicted in a specific film. The guides merge effectively into teachers’ existing lesson plans and mandated curricular requirements, providing teachers with an innovative way to fulfill their school districts’ standards-based goals. 6 Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock In addition to our ongoing development of teaching guides for culturally sensitive international films, Journeys in Film brings outstanding documentary films to the classroom. Working with the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, Journeys in Film has identified exceptional narrative and documentary films that teach about a broad range of social issues in real-life settings such as famine-stricken and war-torn Somalia, a maximum-security prison in Alabama, and a World War II concentration camp near Prague. Journeys in Film guides help teachers integrate these films into their classrooms, examining complex issues, encouraging students to be active rather than passive viewers, and maximizing the power of film to enhance critical thinking skills and to meet the Common Core Standards. Journeys in Film is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock 7 A Letter From Liam Neeson Working in films such as Michael By using carefully selected documentary and international Collins and Schindler’s List, I’ve films that depict life in other countries and cultures around seen the power of film not only the globe, combined with interdisciplinary curricula to to entertain, but also to change transform entertainment media into educational media, we the way audiences see themselves can use the classroom to bring the world to every student. and the world. When I first Our film program dispels myths and misconceptions, met Joanne Ashe, herself the enabling students to overcome biases; it connects the future daughter of Holocaust survivors, leaders of the world with each other. As we provide teachers she explained to me her vision for a new educational with lessons aligned to Common Core Standards, we are program called Journeys in Film: Educating for Global also laying a foundation for understanding, acceptance, trust, Understanding. I grasped immediately how such a program and peace. could transform the use of film in the classroom from a Please share my vision of a more harmonious world where passive viewing activity to an active, integral part of learning. cross-cultural understanding and the ability to converse I have served as the national spokesperson for Journeys in about complex issues are keys to a healthy present and a Film since its inception because I absolutely believe in the peaceful future. Whether you are a student, an educator, effectiveness of film as an educational tool that can teach a filmmaker, or a financial supporter, I encourage you to our young people to value and respect cultural diversity and participate in the Journeys in Film program. to see themselves as individuals who can make a difference. Please join this vital journey for our kids’ future. They are Journeys in Film uses interdisciplinary, standards-aligned counting on us. Journeys in Film gets them ready for the lesson plans that can support and enrich classroom programs world. in English, social studies, math, science, and the arts. Using films as a teaching tool is invaluable, and Journeys in Film Sincerely, has succeeded in creating outstanding film-based curricula integrated into core academic subjects. 8 Journeys in Film: One Strange Rock Introducing One Strange Rock Narrated by astronauts, the only persons to have had the The One Strange Rock documentary consists of 10 episodes, opportunity to see our home planet from space, the National each 50 minutes long, ideal for use in multiple class periods Geographic documentary One Strange Rock addresses a very or as potential homework assignments. The documentary fundamental question raised by humankind’s exploration of draws on the experiences and individual stories of eight the Cosmos: Why is the Earth, the third rock from the sun, so astronauts who bring insight and emotion to the telling very different from the rest of our solar system? of the Earth’s amazing story. A dynamic mix of exciting new science and dramatic videography, One Strange Rock This documentary tells the story of Earth’s history as seen weaves