GREEN NINJA
TEACHER SUPPORT MATERIALS
NAME OF GREEN NINJA VIDEO: “What’s the Bag Deal?”
MAIN TOPIC OF VIDEO: Pros and cons of plastic and paper bags
Click HERE to watch this episode! (Link)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Frame:
1. What is carbon footprint?
2. How do carbon footprints relate to climate change?
3. Which is better- paper or plastic bags?
4. Which material is more easily recyclable, paper or plastic?
5. Which material can biodegrade completely, paper or plastic?
Focus:
1. What is the carbon footprint of paper bags?
2. What is the carbon footprint of plastic bags?
3. Why is it important to consider the things that go into the bag?
4. What do you think about reusable/washable bags?
5. How can we get people to change their buying habits?
Follow-up:
1. What kind of bags do you and/or your parents use most often?
2. Considering what you have just seen and heard, how would you respond when
asked, “paper or plastic?”
3. How could you try to convince someone to recycle shopping bags?
4. What’s your carbon footprint like?
5. How could we help people become more environmentally sensitive to the kinds
of things they buy?
ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Frame:
1. Carbon Footprint: The measure of carbon dioxide governments, businesses, and
individuals are responsible for. For example, the amount of carbon-based
greenhouse gas emissions produced by power stations that burn fossil fuels to
generate electricity and/or by transportation that uses oil-based fuels that a
person is responsible for. The more electricity and fuel used, the bigger the
footprint.
2. Carbon-based greenhouse gases are one of the gases that act like a greenhouse
and trap solar heat next to the earth preventing the heat from escaping.
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3. Which is better, paper or plastic, depends on what is being considered. Both can
be recycled, plastic does not decompose in land fills, forests are still being cut
down to make pulp for paper, and plastic is made from fossil fuels.
4. Both paper and plastic can be recycled easily if reused or if recycling collection
containers are made conveniently available.
5. If paper does go into a landfill or is placed in a composting pile, it will decompose
fairly quickly. Plastic, on the other hand, may take hundreds of years to
decompose.
Focus:
1. Paper bags have a carbon footprint of 117.8 grams of carbon dioxide.
2. Plastic bags have a carbon footprint of 12.0 grams of carbon dioxide.
3. How does the carbon footprint of different food differ? Red meat vs. fish, meat vs.
vegetables, etc. For example, producing a kg of beefsteak produces over 42,000
grams of carbon dioxide, frozen codfish, 3,200 gram of carbon dioxide. Buying
locally produced food rather than food that needs to be transported over long
distances. What kind of packaging and how much is necessary? Buying foods
that are locally in season rather than those that need to be imported. Maybe just
buying less. Consider the amount of food that is thrown away and the growing
number of adults and children that are seriously overweight.
4. Re-usable bags are an answer. How do we get people to use them? Maybe if
supermarkets made it financially attractive to bring them in
might help. Netstyle bags are easier to wash and could be made at
home or in school
using macramé weaving, like some of the plant
hangers that were popular
a few years ago.
5. Get some ideas from the way advertising gets people to change what they buy
and how they behave. Look carefully at TV ads, ads in magazines, statements by
famous people. Kids letting their parents know how important climate change is
in their futures and what they want them to do about it. One of the most effective
ways of getting parents to stop smoking has been having their children tell them
they don’t want hem to die.
Follow-up:
1. Another opportunity for polling, graphing the data, and considering the results.
Class discussion of implications.
2. Similar to #1. How would you defend your decision? What would you have
chosen before you began this lesson?
3. Use the information from the Focus Section.
4. There are a number of resources that are designed to help students determine
their own basic carbon footprint. Some are mentioned in the Additional Notes
and Resources section that follows.
5. This would be a class culmination activity. How are we going to let others know
what we know now? Small groups brain storming certain aspects of the lesson
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and then reporting back to the class. This is a real opportunity for creative
thinking by everyone.
ADDITIONAL TOPICS AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES:
The following suggestions reflect student learning through different modalities. Many
students are visual learners, some learn better in groups, some by themselves. Giving
students the opportunities to demonstrate their artistic and other strengths while
engaged in an educational activity results in real learning taking place.
1. Organize a classroom debate. You could divide the class in half: one-half in favor
of the topic, one-half opposed. Provide direction and time for research on the topic.
If the class is not familiar with debate format, take time to present the concept with
appropriate examples. Possible debate topics: Paper vs. Plastic, Plastic: For and
Against, Paper: For and Against, Class suggestions.
2. Polls. Poll the class prior to beginning study and then poll them again after they
have completed their study. Look for opportunities to have students explain why
they changed their minds or why they didn’t. Have students individually poll
members of their families or neighbors and record data that may have a bearing on
their opinions: Age, Don’t know, Never thought about it, etc. If amount of data
seems appropriate, conduct a statistical analysis (an area developed in almost all
math grade levels): mean, mode, median and what those numbers tell you about
the poll.
3. Math Application. Watch for opportunities to use topic information in presentation
of math topics and homework questions. Students can also have the opportunity
to construct a class question using the information they have. Appropriate
questions could be inserted in tests, etc. Graph construction and interpretation are
popular math topics and are easily developed. Basic math operations, scaling,
predictions, rounding, approximating, etc. are all possibilities. Maybe even take an
entire text chapter and redo it from an environmental perspective.
4. Language Arts: Creative Writing: What could the Earth be like ____ years from
now if we didn’t… poems in a variety of styles, songs, raps, student environmental
news sheet, vocabulary puzzles.
5. Creative Art: Posters presenting a point of view or an area of concern, an editorial
cartoon or a cartoon strip, cartoon heroes/enemies to interact with the Green Ninja.
Design t-shirts on a computer and print on iron-on sheets. (Could be developed
into a classroom fundraiser.)
6. Story Booklets: Have students write and illustrate a simple folded paper booklet
dealing with the topic(s) being discussed.
7. Dramatic Arts: Short play developed around an environmental theme, puppet show.
Could be video taped and shared.
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8. Power points: Working with groups of two or three students, develop short
presentations using pictures, graphs, information, etc. downloaded from the
Internet.
9. Mind Stretchers: Brainstorm ideas for additional uses for paper and plastic bags.
Ways to encourage people to recycle (deposits?).
10. Daily Demos. Have class and teacher quickly share how they helped the
environment since the last class. (One student stated he had used a tree instead
of the toilet to save water!)
11. Game Design: There are all kinds of possibilities for groups of students to design
board games or classroom games with environmental themes. Consider physical
activity games to be played during recess or physical education that involve
running, jumping, physical movement.
12. Using Google Image Search: Locate “Editorial Cartoons- Carbon Footprint” (or
Recycling, Paper Bags, Plastic Bags, etc.), print an appropriate cartoon for a class
discussion: What topic is being presented, what is the cartoonist’s point of view,
how strong a case is being made?
13. Puzzles: There are a number of puzzle-maker programs available on the Internet.
Crossword, word search, etc. are fun activities to use for vocabulary practice and
test prep. If the class has computer access, students designing puzzles can be an
interesting assignment. One excellent site is mentioned in the Resources Section.
14. Game Shows: There are a number of Internet sites (some are mentioned in the
Resources section), that allow you to quickly set-up TV-style game shows like “So
You Want to be a Millionaire,” and “Jeopardy,” that allow you to supply your own
questions and answers. Since many classrooms have Internet projectors or
access to one, this is another fun reinforcement group activity.
15. Climate Science Fair: This could be a class, grade, or school wide.
Similar to a traditional science fair, but all the projects/ presentations would have a
Climate Change theme.
ADDITIONAL NOTES AND RESOURCES:
Web Sites:
1. “A Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change.”
Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. An excellent resource
site. Contains a student carbon footprint calculator.
http://epa.gov/climateange/kids/index.html
2. “Climate Change Facts: Answers to Common Questions.”
Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Very user friendly.
Extensive information.
http://epa.gov/climatechange/facts.tml
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3. “Puzzlemaker.”
Free, easy to use tool for constructing 10 different kinds of puzzles. Excellent
for vocabulary practice, homework, student projects.
www.discoveryeducation.com/freepuzzlemaker
4. “Design a Board Game.”
Downloadable manual for designing board games. Modules on designing
board games, producing quiz shows. Uses mathematics instruction as the
content area but applicable to any content area.
www.mathshell.com/publications/numeracy/boardgame/boardgame_teacher.
pdf
5. “Global Warming.”
National Geographic site containing a number of topics, articles, photos,
videos, climate and global warming quizzes, and how you can be part of the
solution.
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming
6. “The Big Thaw.”
Outstanding article by National Geographic regarding global warming.
Contains a photo gallery, How to Help section, field notes, and an area for
learning more. Easily lends itself to classroom computer projection.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/06/big_thaw/big_thaw-text/1
7. “Paper Bags/Plastic Bags.”
Do a Google Search for the topic. There are dozens of sites addressing all of
the areas presented in the video. Good starting point for student research
and presentations
Books.
There are hundred of books designed for all student levels. Here are
three outstanding ones:
Harrington, Jonathon (2008). The Climate Diet: How You Can Cut
Carbon, Cut Costs, and Save the Plane, Earthscan, Sterling, VA
A wealth of information on carbon footprints and comparative data.
Numerous lists on what you can do to reduce your footprint.
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Woodward, John (2008). Eyewitness Books: Climate Change, DK
Publishing, New York, NY
The quality is typical of Eyewitness Books. Topics are explained in
easy to understand text with hundreds of illustrations.
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Gore, Al (2006). An Inconvenient Truth (DVD), Paramount Pictures
Hollywood, CA
The Bible of Global Warming. His film and the book developed
from it resulted in Gore winning the Nobel Prize.
Credit: This teacher resource has been adapted from content originally developed
by Don Loveless.
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