Every year my fourth graders read Lynne Cherry’s The
Great Kapok Tree. They research a rainforest organism, create posters
urging their schoolmates to act now to help protect the rainforest, and finally
they create a dramatization of the story. Weeks of research, memorizing lines
and rainforest facts, and creating props and costumes culminates in a Broadway
worthy performance for friends and family.
As I assume most teachers do, I try to refresh our
project every year. Some years we write letters to the newspaper, sell
t-shirts, or create PSA type videos. This year I had the good fortune to
connect with Karen Ogen of South Carolina.
I know Karen from my days as a Discovery Education
“Star” Educator. Discovery produces and archives educational videos, articles,
photos, speeches, and songs available to schools as for fee product. For those
teachers lucky enough to have access, Discovery also offers an unbelievable
opportunity to meet and collaborate
world-wide with educators, scientists, and other professionals. Karen, as a Discovery Star, had the
opportunity to travel to Churchill, Canada and learn first-hand about climate
change and the polar bears.
This week Karen met with my students using Skype.
Karen shared photographs of her trip. The students were amazed to see the size
of the polar bear’s claw. When Karen shocked my students when she opened the
skull of a female polar bear and placed its enormous teeth against her own
head.
We were able to visualize the dramatic changes to the
sea ice over time using one of several recorded animations
available on the web. Students clearly understood the connection
between the climate change, sea ice changes, and our future.
The connection my students have made to our study of
the rainforest has been amazing. While they always seem to “get” the need to
“go green” before, now they seem to really understand the implications for
themselves and their future.
I am reminded of the old children’s tale that tells of
a kingdom lost for want of a nail. Our world, our future will surely be lost
for want of a connection. If we fail to understand that what happens in the
Artic, or the Amazon, or anywhere else in the world affects us all we are
doomed. The connections that we can so easily make today through Twitter,
Skype, Facebook, etc. allow us to personally connect to people and places
thousands of miles away.
