Planting+the+Trees+of+Kenya+Reinforcing+Activity



** NCSS Notable Trade Book Lesson Plan ** Lesson Plan Author: Carolyn O’Mahony – Oakland University Title of NCSS Notable Trade Book: ** || Nivola, C.A. (2008). //Planting the trees of Kenya: The story of Wangari Maathai.// New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. || || This book tells the story of Wangari Maathai who left a verdant Kenya to attend college in the USA. Upon her return home she found the Kenyan landscape changed. Large scale tea plantations had replaced small subsistence farms. There had been rapid desertification. People were malnourished, underemployed and hungry. Initially Maathai taught village women how to plant and tend for seedlings, then she worked throughout the country “inspiring people to take charge of their environment, the system that governed them, their lives and their future” (author’s note). In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. She became a member of Parliament in 2002 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for connecting the health of the environment to the health of her country’s people. She was teaching people to demand for policies that protect the environment because conflict happens when resources are few. “Environmental protection has become another pathway to peace” (Mjoes, 2004). || NCSS Standards: ** || II. Time, Continuity & Change a. demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views. VI. Power; Authority and Governance h. recognize and give examples of the tensions between the wants and needs of individuals and groups, and concepts such as fairness, equity, and justice. || || // Planting the Trees // Tea leaves World map Poster paper and pens Optional: Computer with internet access. Historical and current images of your local community. Address of your local government planning department || || To build children’s awareness of choices people make about land-use and that: (1) those choices affect the quality of life for others; and (2) individuals, including children, can choose to act directly (plant trees etc and increase biodiversity) or indirectly (contact policy-makers) to change their environment. || // Exploration/ Introduction: // // Development: // // Expansion: //
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|| Before teaching this lesson the teacher should watch the 2009 interview with Wangari Maathai (www.nobelprize.org) Introduction: Ask: //What do you like to do at the weekends?// Hopefully someone will talk about playing outside. Bring the conversation around to trees. Did they climb in them or not? Encourage them to think about how trees are a part of their lives. How exactly to introduce this lesson would depend upon the context for teaching. Some children might not play outside. Others might spend their days out there. In which case you might want to ask how they came to school. What did they notice on their way there? Bring the conversation around to trees and how all people need plants, and not just for playing on. Introduce //Planting the Trees// as a story about making life better for people in a place called Kenya, and, as inhabitants of the same planet, us. Locate Kenya on a map. Show how it lies on the equator. Talk about how climate at the equator tends to be wet and hot: ideal for growing plants yet how people’s choices can lead to desertification. Pass around the tea leaves for children to touch, smell. Explain how they are part of the story (large scale agriculture). Read the book with interactive questioning. After reading the book together explain how Maathai used what she had learned in her studies to help others. Emphasize that it was not just what she knew but her //commitment to helping// people that made good things happen. She encouraged her people to plant native trees and plants that they knew would thrive, to bring back the diversity of plant-life into the area. She has sometimes been in trouble, not because she taught poor people to plant trees, because she tells them that they should expect their government to look after the environment. She is now a major figure in Kenyan political life. Development: As a class, create two three-part charts. The first chart documents how Maathai described her village’s environment: (1) when she was a child; (2) when she returned from the US; and (3) now. The second chart would review the villagers’ quality of life in the three time periods. Discuss what caused the changes over time. Based on the story, can we infer what different people (villagers, large plantation owners, government officials, Maathai) might have been thinking at each point in the story? Have children write individual responses to the questions “What caused the changes to the environment in Kenya?” “What did Wangari Maathai do to help the environment?” Expansion: Talk about the difference between (1) taking action through influencing environmental policy and (2) taking direct action on the environment. (1) Influencing Policies Show land use maps and long-term land use plans. These are available from many local authorities but links to some are provided below in case they are not available easily in your municipality. Find out if your community has a green-belt policy or if the school (or school district) has a long-term plan for growth or a green-space policy. Have the students identify what they like about their community then offer suggestions how their environment might be improved. Connect their brainstorming to local decision-makers’ policies. || || Involvement in creating the charts as a large group. Individual responses to the questions “What caused the changes to the environment in Kenya?” “What did Wangari Maathai do to help the environment?” Individuals’ identification of characteristics of their own environment and suggestions for changes. || || (1) Send students’ letters to their local officials. Invite a city planner or School Board member to come to your classroom to respond to the students’ questions and suggestions and to explain the processes for making policy changes. Create a flow chart together illustrating how decisions are made. Display it in the classroom, along with photocopies of the students’ letters and policy-makers’ responses. If your school district does not have such a policy, have the students work together with knowledgeable adults from the community to write one. (2) Discuss the idea of direct action in the environment, especially in terms of increasing plant diversity (and discouraging the planting of monocultures or invasive species). Study the feasibility of your class following up on one of your student’s suggestions such as creating a garden outside your classroom windows or in a nearby public space. Study the origins of and activities on: Arbor Day (April, 22), Make A Difference Day (October 24), Guerilla Gardening Day (May 1). Coordinate your efforts with local and national groups involved in these events such as 4H, your local council (Cooperative Tree Planting Program), Arbor Day Foundation, or your state’s native plant producers’ association. Enlist their help in obtaining appropriate plants to plant in your garden. Raise funds by increasing the biodiversity in your area. Buy native plant seeds in bulk (e.g. one pound) then make your own student-designed seed packets. Place a teaspoon of seeds in each envelope then sell them. If the plants are native to the area, they are bound to sprout. || || American Forests (n.d.). //Introduction to American Forests.// Retrieved on October10, 2009, from [] Arbor Day Foundation (n.d.). //Replanting America’s national forests//. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from [] Fleischman, P. (2004). //Seedfolks.// New York: HarperTeen Equator Initiative (n.d.). //Equator Dialogues//. Retrieved October 13, 2009 from [] Mjos, O. D. (2004). //Nobel Peace Prize Presentation Speech.// Retrieved October 3, 2009, from [] Nobelprize.org (2009). //Interview with Wangari Maathai.// Retrieved October 3, 2009, from [] Reynolds, R. (n.d.) //Fight the filth. Grow guerilla gardens.// Retrieved October 14, 2009 from [] Reynolds, R. (2009). //On guerilla gardening: A handbook for gardening without boundaries.// London, UK: Bloomsbury. Rochester Hills City Council (n.d.). //Existing Land Use Map.// Retrieved October 13, 2009 from [] Rochester Hills City Council (n.d.). //Future Land Use Map.// Retrieved October 13, 2009 from [] United States Geological Survey (n.d.). //International land cover and biodiversity.// Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://lca.usgs.gov/lca/projects.php?id=3 ||
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