EDUCATION for EDUCATION PLANET EARTH FALL 2015 | ISSUE 107 | $7.95 Slow Cooking with Kids PLUS Teaching Empathy Through Animals | Introducing Teens to Climate Justice | Making solar powered model cars | A Thoreau-inspired wildcrafting course | Skyping with scientists | Monthly green school challenges PM40069238 North American Association EARTH for Environmental Education MATTERS An environmental and energy education conference – for a sustainable future. Canmore, Alberta October 15-17, 2015 Building a Stronger and More Inclusive Movement Register today at www.abcee.org/conference www.naaee.net/conference H for art On E ati C anEt du E PL GreenTeacher.com WintEr 2014 | issuE 101 | $7.95 moRe than juSt a magazine Visit our newly-designed website and enjoy more free articles and teaching ideas than ever before, including: • Read whole articles and excerpts from Thriving our magazine and books in an OutdOOr EnvirOnmEnt PLUS Recycling Prescription Drugs | Harvesting Native Plants | Studying Decomposition in Kindergarten | Becoming Stormwater Stewards | Using • Comment on and discuss recent articles Multiple Intelligences in Nature Education | Teaching Green Home Design PM40069238 • ConneCt with educators through our webinars SubScribe now to receive full acceSS to: • ShaRe articles easily with friends and colleagues 30+ back issues of the magazine 50+ webinars (PluS education certificates for the Follow uS on twitteR webinars at no cost) M @GreenTeacherMag ViSit greenteacher.com or Find uS on FaCebook e-mail [email protected] C facebook.com/GreenTeacherMagazine for more information Issue 107, Fall 2015 FEATURES Slow Cookers for Kids By Dan Hendry . ./3 Page 4 Stories in the Data By Bob Coulter and Skyler Wiseman . ./6 Living Deep & Sucking out the Marrow By Keith Badger . ./9 Exploring by the Seat of our Pants By Joe Grabowsky . ./14 A Lean Green Sun Harvesting Machine By Mark Walker . ./18 Climate Justice in the Classroom By Ryan Cho . ./21 Inspiring the Bioregional Imagination By Patrick Howard . ./25 Page 29 Love Our Coral Reefs By Melody L . Russell, Stanton Belford, Laura Crowe and David Laurencio . ./29 Take the Green Challenge By Naomi Dietzel Hershiser . /33. Teaching Empathy through Animals By Robyn Stone . ./38 DEPARTMENTS Resources . /41. Page 40 Green Teacher is published quarterly in September, December, March and June. Subscriptions: Canada-CAD $34, USA-USD $34, all others USD $42 air mail ISSN 1192-1285; GST Registration No. 124125337; Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069238 US Postmaster: Send address changes to Green Teacher, PO Box 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-0452. Canada Post: Send address changes to Green Teacher, 95 Robert St., Toronto, ON M5S 2K5. Return postage guaranteed. Printed in Canada. GREEN TEACHER 107 Page 1 Editorial Issue 107, Fall 2015 General Editor Encouraging Empathy Tim Grant “In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet Editorial Assistant possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we Amy Stubbs treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration Editing and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human Amy Stubbs, Tim Grant rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.” ― Jane Goodall (primatologist, anthropologist and conservationist) Regional Editors Canada Gareth Thomson Alberta (403) 678-0079 “Caring – about people, about things, about life – is an act of maturity.” Laurelei Primeau British Columbia (604) 942-0267 Tracy McMillan (author of Why You Are Not Married) Bob Adamson Manitoba (204) 261-7795 Raissa Marks New Brunswick (506) 855-4144 Craig White Newfoundland (709) 834-9806 OW DO YOU TEACH young people Steve Daniel Northwest Territories (867) 873-7675 Janet Barlow Nova Scotia (902) 494-7644 to care for themselves and others in the Christine Smith Québec (819) 566-0238 world? Educators have puzzled over Barbara Hanbidge Saskatchewan (866) 254-3825 H this for years. Environmental and social justice Remy Rodden Yukon (867) 667-3675 advocates have similarly pondered this question United States for just as long. Karen Schedler Arizona (602) 266-4417 Kay Antunez de Mayolo, N. California, (650) 773-4866 The answers are many and you will find Helen de la Maza S. California (714) 838-8990 some of them well-represented in this issue of Kary Schumpert Colorado (303) 772-2548 Green Teacher. As Robyn Stone explains in Mary Lou Smith Connecticut (860) 455-0707 Kim Bailey Georgia (770) 888-2696 her article, animals in classrooms have great Cathy Meyer Indiana (812) 349-2805 potential for encouraging empathy. At her Shelene Codner Iowa (319) 404-1942 Laura Downey-Skochdopole Kansas (785) 532-3322 pre-school, she encourages young minds to take into account the feelings Jeanine Huss Kentucky (270) 745-2293 of the classroom animals in their care. When young people begin to Sandra Ryack-Bell Massachusetts (508) 993-6420 John Guyton Mississippi (228) 324-4233 recognize the feelings of other living beings, they are well on their way Bob Coulter Missouri (314) 442-6737 to adopting pro-social behaviour. All young people are empathetic by Lauren Madden New Jersey (609) 771-3319 Lois Nixon North Carolina (919) 467-6474 nature: but cultivating those tendencies into positive behavior is our role Sara Ivey Oklahoma (405) 702-7122 as educators. Catherine Stephenson Pennsylvania (724) 357-5689 In our cover story, you will read about a group of college students Anne DiMonti Rhode Island (401) 245-7500 Tim Brown Utah (801) 596-8500 who recognized that many of their classmates were eating poorly due to Jen Cirillo Vermont (802) 985-0331 inadequate food budgets. After developing successful on-campus pro- Dan Waxman Virginia (703) 993-7782 grams, they worked with local middle schools to teach younger students Green Teacher is a nonprofit how to plan, shop and cook tasty meals for their family with inexpensive organization incorporated and healthy ingredients. Empowered by their on-campus success, their in Canada. We are grateful for the financial support of the Ontario own empathy extended to those well outside their normal social circles. Media Development Corporation. The growing movement of climate justice asks us to empathize with Design and Production those we are unlikely to ever meet. As Raymond Cho reminds us, the Cover photo by Dan Hendry; Layout and cover design impacts of climate change are more severe on those around the world by Lisa Rebnord; printing by Annex Publishing and Printing, Simcoe, Ontario, on Forest Stewardship who produced the lowest emissions. Council® certified paper. Empathy is a building block of morality. It helps us to have successful relationships with others. Equally important, research confirms that Contact Us 95 Robert Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2K5, Canada empathy also enables us to overcome prejudice and racism and to help Toll-free: (888) 804-1486 Fax: (416) 925-3474 reduce inequality. Needless to say, it is an important building block for [email protected] www.greenteacher.com U.S. address: PO Box 452, Niagara Falls, NY 14304 a sustainable future. As always, it is our hope that the usual eclectic mix of articles and activities in this issue will inspire you to try new activities – and find new ways to encourage empathy among the young people you work with. GT’s Summer issue? Attentive readers would have noticed that we did not publish a Summer issue. Our Spring issue was released so late in June, that we had little choice but to re-label this issue as our Fall issue. Nonetheless, we’ll be extending everyone’s subscriptions by one issue to make up for the shortfall. – Tim Grant Page 2 GREEN TEACHER 107 Photographs: Dan Hendry Slow Cookers for Kids A unique way to build an interest in, and the skills needed to cook healthy local foods By Dan Hendry budgets. Entitled “Food Cents”, these seminars soon morphed into Recipes for an Empty Wallet, a recipe book that is avail- “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. able for free online in both English and French editions.1 Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The Enactus students next approached the Limestone – Chinese Proverb. District School Board to see if Recipes for an Empty Wallet could benefit Grade 7-8 students. Recognizing its value, AST YEAR, college students in Kingston Ontario Board staff worked with the student leaders to further took this proverb to heart and decided to address the enhance the recipe book. In the process, they decided to cre- Lissue that too few kids know how to cook or what ate a more specific program that would provide each Grade food to buy. After helping their fellow students to stretch 7-8 student with three days of instruction by a St. Lawrence their limited food budgets, they created valuable teaching College chef and culinary arts students, a copy of Recipes and learning moments for hundreds of middle school stu- for an Empty Wallet and a slow cooker. The intent of the dents in our school district. program was to teach young students cooking and budgeting After learning that most provincial social assistance pro- skills – skills that are currently not addressed by most curri- grams for post-secondary students allocate only $7.49 a day cula. It is my hope that the following details will inspire for food, a team of student leaders from St. Lawrence College others to create similar programs in their own communities. committed themselves to address this gap via the power of entrepreneurial action, while also boosting local food sustain- A recipe for success ability and literacy. Operating as a campus chapter of Enac- Dubbed Slow Cookers for Kids, the program helps to elimi- tus, an international student organization, they organized nate the barriers between students and cooking. The pro- seminars to help students eat healthfully on the tightest of gram also gets students excited about cooking, willing to GREEN TEACHER 107 Page 3 After safety lessons, Grade 7-8 students get to work on recipes that progress from simple to sophisticated.