Education Commons^™

"Does The Common Core Further Democracy? A Response To ‘The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy’,", Johann N. Neem

History Faculty and Staff Publications

The Common Core does not advance democratic education. Far from it, the opening section of the language standards argues that the goal of public K–12 education is “college and career readiness.” Only at the end of their introductory section do the Common Core’s authors suggest that K–12 education has any goals beyond the economic: learning to read and write well has “wide applicability outside the classroom and work place,” including preparing people for “private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a republic.” The democratic purposes of K–12 education are not goals but, in the Common Core’s words, a “natural outgrowth” of …

Developing Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Learner-Centered Teaching During Content And Field Immersions, Donald J. Burgess, Scheree Dowdy, Carly Boyd

Secondary Education

If we are to preserve a habitable planet our children need teachers who understand science and ecological principles in relation to critical issues of sustainability and social justice. (Orr, 2004). Yet, in an increasingly urban landscape children often lack the opportunity to explore and learn about the natural environment right outside their classrooms (Louv, 2005; Pyle, 2002). Children growing up in migrant families are no exception. They may live close to the land and have families that work the land intimately but still may not have the opportunity to share and refine their knowledge through exploration of their own schoolyards. …

Exploring Global Issues: Social, Economic, And Environmental Interconnections, Second Edition, Student Text, Laura Skelton, Sheeba Jacob, Danica Hendrickson, Danielle Shaw, Colleen Clemens, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Exploring Global Issues - Have you ever stopped to think about how connected people in the world are to each other? In the 21st century, people around the world interact with each other more than ever before. If you have ever used social networking websites like Facebook, you know how easy it is to communicate with individuals from many different locations.Technologies such as the Internet and cell phones help transmit ideas rapidly.These days,you are likely to find youth in very different parts of the world listening to the same music, watching the same movies, and studying similar issues in school.

Exploring Global Issues: Social, Economic, And Environmental Interconnections, Second Edition - Teacher Guide, Facing The Future, Western Washington University, Laura Skelton, Sheeba Jacob, Danica Hendrickson, Danielle Shaw, Colleen Clemens

Facing the Future Publications

Exploring Global Issues: Social, Economic, and Environmental Interconnections, Second Edition - Teacher Guide

In today’s interconnected world, students are charged with the task of understanding events in deeply complex ways. Learning about events happening in the world without looking at their root causes and considering multiple perspectives can leave students unprepared to understand global complexities. On the other hand, making connections among events and understanding patterns can offer rich insight into global issues and can teach students the skills needed to become citizens who make thoughtful and informed decisions.

The Global Energy Crisis, Katie Calhoun

Facing the Future Lessons

The world is at an energy tipping point. Countries and communities can choose to be proactive or wait and be reactive, however it is much less costly to do the former. In this project, high school environmental science students will examine the current energy use and concerns in a named country or community, analyze the pros and cons of the current energy situation and how it effects the social, economic and environmental aspects of the culture, then create a more sustainable, resilient plan for that country.

Off-Grid, Zero Net Energy Tiny Homes - Lesson Plan, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of residential buildings is a key to achieving carbon emissions reduction targets and limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the target set forth in 2015 at the UN COP21 climate summit in Paris. Sustainable and green building markets are gaining momentum as part of the effort to reduce carbon emissions associated with building energy use and construction materials. California especially is a leader in the green building movement, with policies in place requiring energy savings and water conservation for all new construction. The California Energy Commission announced in 2015 the goal …

Big World, Small Planet – Module 4: Wants Versus Needs: Pushing The Boundaries, Student Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 4: Wants Versus Needs: Pushing the Boundaries, Student Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 4: Wants Versus Needs: Pushing The Boundaries, Teacher Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 4: Wants Versus Needs: Pushing the Boundaries, Teacher Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 1: Getting Started With Sustainability, Teacher Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 1: Getting Started with Sustainability, Teacher Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 1: Getting Started With Sustainability, Student Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 1: Getting Started with Sustainability, Student Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 3: Meeting Human Needs Sustainably, Teacher Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 3: Meeting Human Needs Sustainably, Teacher Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 2: Learning From The Natural World, Teacher Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 2: Learning from the Natural World, Teacher Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 2: Learning From The Natural World, Student Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 2: Learning from the Natural World, Student Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Big World, Small Planet – Module 3: Meeting Human Needs Sustainably, Student Edition, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Big World, Small Planet – Module 3: Meeting Human Needs Sustainably, Student Edition

We live in an interconnected world. Movies, music, news, manufactured goods like clothing and electronics, and people travel across the globe. With this much exchange of ideas, culture, and material goods, our actions in one region are sure to affect people living in other regions. Understanding how and where we connect can help us understand how we might impact others. This understanding can also help us find ways to make these new lines of contact work benefit of all.

Curriculum Development, Courtney Knox

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project examined the process of developing curriculum and analyzed its efficacy. Initially there were two sets of curriculum involved, but only one is included here because I was unable to gain the permission to publicly publish the other. The curriculum that is included is the curriculum I developed the Math Club at Fairhaven Middle School in Bellingham, WA. This curriculum was developed and implemented independently of any official curriculum regulations. Thus, I was free to personalize and change the curriculum based on what I saw was most needed in the classroom setting. However, there were still challenges that needed …

Engaging Students In Conservation: Beaver Restoration - Lesson Plan, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

BEAVER RESTORATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST - Lesson Plan

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a social, mostly nocturnal mammal well adapted to survive in – and create – wetlands. Balanced with a broad, flat tail and powered by webbed hind feet, adult beavers can swim underwater for as long 15 minutes, staying warm with dense, dark brown fur coats that are waterproofed with secretions from special oil glands. Beavers are perhaps best known for their ever-growing, sharp incisors’ capacity to fell entire trees. Though nourished by the thin cambium layer of living cells beneath the trees bark, beavers …

Singular They: Lesson Plan, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Singular They - Now, the singular they is addressing another problem with English grammar: There is no room for gender identities other than the he/she binary of singular pronouns. Grammarians are drawing lines in the sand over this return to they as a singular pronoun.

Carbon Farming: Lesson Plan Recommended For Grades 8 - 12, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Carbon Farming & Agroecology in California Farmlands: The mounting scientific evidence of climate change and predictions for the future (sea level rise, increasing droughts, flooding from extreme weather events, and global temperature rise) carries with it a need for human action. Both adaptation and mitigation are necessary action pathways upon which society must embark. Adaptation, or dealing with the inevitable changes already happening, is distinct from mitigation, which minimizes the predicted consequences through activities that reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This lesson focuses on mitigation activities possible through the lens of agriculture, specifcally agriculture practiced in …

Engaging Students Through Global Issues: 2nd Edition, Activity-Based Lessons And Action Projects, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

The activities in the second edition of Engaging Students Through Global Issues are organized around eight sustainability big ideas (Nolet, 2016). High-quality education about sustainability helps learners investigate the meaning and implications of these ideas and incorporate these ideas into their own thinking, problem solving, and decision-making. When learners dig deeper into the meaning and implications of a sustainability big idea, they are better able to acquire new knowledge and skills and apply that knowledge and those skills in new situations. The eight sustainability big ideas that frame the activities in ESTGI are: Connecting with Nature, Equity and Justice, Health …

What A Waste! Exploring Household, Industrial, And Nuclear Waste, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

What a Waste! Exploring Household, Industrial, and Nuclear Waste: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Recommended for Grades 9–12

Waste is a major global sustainability issue and is deeply rooted in many facets of our lives—from the products we buy to the sources of our energy. Every year, the world generates nearly 2.4 trillion pounds of municipal solid waste; by 2025, this number is expected to double to 4.8 trillion pounds.1 In most countries with increasing population, prosperity, and urbanization, it remains a major challenge for municipalities to collect, recycle, treat, and dispose of increasing quantities of waste.2 Hazardous waste is another key …

Water, Science, And Civics: Engaging Students With Puget Sound, An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Recommended For Grades 6–8, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Imagine a classroom where students are mastering social studies and science content as they:

• create digital public service announcements that educate the local community about how to decrease water pollution.
• propose solutions at town hall meetings to keep Puget Sound healthy.

Water, Science, and Civics engages students in these types of lessons. Not only do students master standards, but they also develop 21st century skills related to digital literacy, media literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration with peers, and taking multiple perspectives. They become thoughtful leaders who participate in problem-solving activities similar to ones they will encounter as active citizens …

Water, Science, And Civics: Engaging Students With Puget Sound, An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Recommended For Grades 9-12, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Imagine a classroom where students are mastering social studies and science content as they:

• create digital public service announcements that educate the local community about how to decrease water pollution.
• propose solutions at town hall meetings to keep Puget Sound healthy.

Water, Science, and Civics engages students in these types of lessons. Not only do students master standards, but they also develop 21st century skills related to digital literacy, media literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration with peers, and taking multiple perspectives. They become thoughtful leaders who participate in problem-solving activities similar to ones they will encounter as active citizens …

Buy, Use, Toss? A Closer Look At The Things We Buy - An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Recommended For Grades 9–12, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Some concepts just naturally engage students’ curiosity. Consumption—how we “buy, use, and toss”—is one of those engaging concepts. Because consumption is current, relevant, and real, it is an ideal context for teaching core subject matter and 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and collaboration. Consumption is by nature an inter-disciplinary concept. Students can build math and science skills while calculating the carbon footprint of shipping blue jeans across the ocean, or they can engage in civic discourse during a discussion of how we dispose of our waste. Buy, Use, Toss? is a two-week unit that provides multiple entry points to …

Making Connections: Engaging Students In Language, Literacy, And Global Issues - Student Text, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

When you watch the news or read about current events in class, you may think, “Why do I need to know what’s happening in the world?” Is it possible that parts of your life could be connected to the life of, say, a doctor at a hospital in Uganda, or to a rainforest in Brazil, or to the economy in India? Making Connections gives you the opportunity to learn about global issues, to see how they connect to your own life, and to identify positive contributions you can make to your community and the world.

Real World Math: Engaging Students Through Global Issues, Teacher Guide, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

When introducing new mathematics concepts to students, you may have heard them ask, “When will I ever use this?” and “How does this affect me?” Real World Math: Engaging Students through Global Issues promotes student engagement by providing real data on global issues with a focus on practical solutions.

Foundational algebra and geometry skills are taught here within the context of global issues and sustainability. Sustainability refers to the ability of current generations to meet their needs without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Students will investigate a range of sustainability issues, including quality of life, …

Understanding Sustainability: Two-Week Unit For Life, Physical, And Earth Sciences Grades 6-8, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

The purpose of this unit is to teach important sustainability concepts and their interconnections, including natural resources, human population growth, and resource consumption. Students will also investigate their local environment and design and implement an action plan to reduce their Ecological Footprint.

Understanding Sustainability: A Social Studies Curriculum, Recommended For Grades 9 - 12, Facing The Future, Western Washington University

Facing the Future Publications

Understanding Sustainability: A Social Studies Curriculum, Recommended for Grades 9 - 12

This unit of study encourages students to explore a variety of topics related to global sustainability. Students will develop an understanding of important sustainability concepts and their interconnections, such as resource consumption, human population growth, and poverty and social equity. They will investigate historic examples of civilizations that failed to respond to gathering threats to the survival of their economies, societies, and natural environments. Drawing on the lessons of past civilization collapses, students will consider how to create a sustainable future for people in today’s local and global …