Message from jhahn

[Anonymous]

Jennifer Hahn
Curriculum Project
Course: Economics
Grade Level: High School Seniors
Topic: The environmental costs of economic growth.

Aim: To what extent is China choking on its own growth?

New York State Educational Standards in Economics:
• Analyze the effectiveness of varying ways individuals, societies, nations, and regions of the world attempt to satisfy their basic needs and wants by utilizing scarce resources.
• Understand the nature of scarcity and how nations of the world make choices which involve economic and social costs and benefits.

Objectives: Students will…
1. identify the environmental costs of economic growth.
2. assess which environmental threat is greatest.

Procedure:
1. Show: youtube: China celebrates status as number one polluter (2min) from the Onion. FYI: China is #1 polluter but USA is still #1 on a per capita basis so in essence Americans are still #1.
2. Show students slide show “The world’s smokestack,” as it will open their eyes to the environmental degradation in China. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?_r=1
3. Show the map of environmental degradation in China and read aloud. Discuss additional environmental problems such as the fish farms, low efficiency of heavy industry, air pollution for the entire world to see during the Beijing Olympics, China’s industrial revolution like the west. Students should rank these problems as which seems more threatening or which should be dealt with 1st. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/26/world/asia/20070826_CHINA_GRAPHIC.html#
4. Discuss and compare rankings as a class.
5. Assign students different NY times articles from the series that examines China’s environmental crisis. There are 10 articles and students will be assigned the article that corresponds to what they thought was most threatening.
6. Homework or class work: Students must read the article and watch the corresponding video clip (all accessible online- and they should read the article online as part being a paper-less/green lessosn) and write a minimum of 15 sentences that summarizes the issue. Summaries should include a description of the problem, actions by China that have furthered the problem and/or have tried to manage the problem, the risks to human health or the world and an explanation as to why this problem needs immediate attention.

Day 2
1. Show the video of Lake Tai- how China jailed an environmental activist. This will hopefully fuel the students’ anger and make them want to speak about the environmental issues. Because China has stifled discussion of some environmental issues it is important for others around the world to raise awareness. Raising awareness will be the focus of this lesson.
2. Students pair up with another student who read the same article for homework. Each pair will present their article to a fictitious UN panel which will decide which problem needs the most attention. Pairs will be in competition with their classmates. Which environmental issue is most pressing? Either 2-3 students will be chosen to join the UN board or other teachers may act as UN board members. UN board members will determine which pair has given the most persuasive discussion.
3. Final assessment: On the same piece of paper that each student wrote their article summaries, students must do an additional writing assignment. Now each student must decide which environmental issue would be most important for other Americans to learn about (this issue must be different from the one they read about). They must describe the issue and explain why Americans should be aware of it.

Possible extension activity:
If the students are interested in the subject, the final assessment may lend itself to a community service activity. Students could create informational pamphlets on an issue or think of a different means of presenting this information to the community. They could visit the middle school or elementary school or create an informational board at the public library. I would like the students to think about what type of audience they would like to reach out to and how they would like to present the information.

Why this is an important topic
1. to recognize the hidden costs of growth
2. to realize what US consumption is fueling- b/c we buy Chinese goods
3. to show the importance of environmental regulations
4. to motivate some community action – spread the word