Initial thoughts..
Washington DC city kids throw their garbage away and do not give it much thought after it is ‘gone.’ I want to push my students to understand what their carbon footprint means, to observe their own patterns of behavior and take notice of the resources used and the waste they produce. I want them to compare their energy use to students living in other parts of the world.
We investigate the water in Soapstone Creek, a tributary to the Potomac River and walkable from my school. It is illegal to swim and fish in any open water in DC because of unhealthy nitrates; this sparks student interest and in the past students get fired up about writing letters to those in government. We compare this Soapstone creek water to a location in Paige County, Virginia, where our students go camping one time a year. In addition, we visit a landfill in Virginia, and learn about how methane is recycled to power a nearby factory.
I keep coming back to a question along the lines of-- "Look at your Carbon Footprint. How can you act personally make a change?"