|
Connections
: Our Relation to Earth
No
man is an island, entire of itself;
Everyone
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...
John
Donne, "Devotion 17"
Summary
This activity
facilitates the broad objectives of learning about interconnectedness
in a way which itself is inherently interconnected. Each student
is associated with one aspect of a system - such as the art world.
The class forms a circle and individuals co-create or co-define
(both visually and in words) the various ways in which each relates
to the others. The final outcome is a web of connections which
is visually stunning.
Program
Area
This activity
is suitable for the Visual Arts program of the Grade 9 Arts curriculum.
It can also be used in art classes in grades 10 through 12. The
sophistication of the anticipated outcomes is the main variable
as the activity is relocalized in a specific grade level.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching,
learning, and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:
- Demonstrate
cooperation, communication, analysis, and illustration skills
in one-on-one and small group situations;
- Express
ideas visually through the translation of ideas into illustrations;
- Demonstrate
creativity and critical thinking through the processes of analysis,
judgment, negotiation and illustration.
Materials
The following
materials are required for this activity:
- 10 to
12 rolls of scotch or masking tape;
- 10 to
12 balls of coloured wool or string (which are reusable because
they will not be damaged by this activity);
- 10 to
12 chairs;
- 10 to
12 sheets of matching coloured paper (approx. 85 cm by 56 cm);
- 30 to
40 sheets of matching coloured paper (approx. 21 cm by 28 cm);
- 30 to
40 name tag type stickers of matching colours (approx. 12 cm
by 5 cm); large felt pens of matching colours;
- a large
open classroom space.
Note: It
is only important that the colours are close to those specified.
Background
The key
idea of this activity is that connections are an important way
of seeing the world. Our inability to understand the connections
between the things we do and their effects on nature is the major
source of our environmental problems. We routinely throw things
away. There is no such place as "away" from a global
perspective. The earth is a closed system, with only energy (in
the form of sunlight and heat entering and leaving). The need
for people to develop a sensitivity to the idea of the earth as
a closed system, and the interconnectivity of all things is critical
for the survival of the planet as we know it.
As John
(Jack) Miller points out in The Holistic Curriculum, the primary
objective of holistic learning is "making connections."
Making connections can be thought of in three major ways: spatial
connections, temporal connections, and polarity connections. Spatially,
all things are connected and interconnected-from the smallest
microbes to cosmic bodies. In the classroom, students start with
a guided visualization exercise. Here, students start with their
"own space" and the people they know in the class. This
is their initial physical and psychological (body-mind) orientation.
It is hoped that these people are well and that no great suffering
comes to them in their lives. They then make compassionate connections
with the rest of the class, wishing them all well. This feeling
is then extended to other classes and by extension, to the school,
the local community, right up to the whole human population, Earth
population, and then Earth itself. The image of Earth from space
is evoked in order to associate compassion with this powerful
metaphor. Turning and reversing the direction of the focus, the
students are then asked to progress back down to considering the
situation of a newborn child. In this way, spatial connections
are made. In the temporal sense, all things are also connected
in that they have a common past, a shared present, and a common
future. Students go from a known past (which in school they research
and try to understand) to an unknown future-where most of the
concerns lie. Between these two is the present, where action occurs.
Polarity
refers to the various bipolar aspects of life: creativity and
logic; inspirationally and rationality; left brain and right brain
thinking; the impersonal global situation and the personal situation.
The goal is the fostering of a sense of interconnectivity: to
see the local in the global; and to see the global in the local.
Local actions (the small but important steps) must fit in to global
solutions, and global problems need to be seen in terms of their
local manifestations.
Ultimately,
the outcome of this activity is a physical web of interconnectedness
which is a powerful and memorable symbol. This activity particularly
is useful for those learners who perceive information more readily
when it is presented in concrete as well as abstract forms.
References
Greg. Earthrights.
p. 51.
Miller,
John (Jack) P. The Holistic Teacher. Toronto: OISE, 1993.
Pike, Graham,
and David Selby. Global Teacher, Global Learner. p. 141.
Classroom
Development
- Guided
visualization
Start the class with a visualization activity to help students
to focus on the themes to be discussed. This will help the student
to gain some physical experience with the topic. Have the students
sit in a circle and close their eyes. Perhaps have some soft
music playing or a tape of the sound of waves breaking in the
background. Begin with something along the following lines:
Think
of yourself and the people you know in the class. Let us hope
that these people are well and that no great suffering comes
to them in their lives. Think about the rest of the class,
wishing them all well. Extend this feeling to other classes
and to the school. Wish them all well. Continue extending
your perceptions to local community, the city, the province,
the nation, the continent, and whole human population, Earth's
population, and then Earth itself.
Turning
and reversing the direction of the focus, the students are
then asked to progress back down to considering the situation
of a newborn child.
- Introduce
the topic
Decide upon a topic which suits the needs and abilities
of the class, and which is divisible into 8 to 12 aspects. It
is these aspects which are to be connected. Introduce this topic
to the class, with an appropriate background. Examples of topics
which are divisible in this way include:
a) a
web of roles involved in creating a work of public art divided
up into functional roles (artist, urban planner, architect,
politician, art critic, fund raiser, materials supplier, construction
worker, lawyer);
b) a
web of the world of art which is divided up into the various
careers associated with artistic activities (artist, painter,
printmaker, musician, sculptor, performer, playwright, composer,
art collector, art critic, art historian, materials supplier).
- Organize
into smaller groups
According to any method you choose, reorganize the class
into 8 to 12 groups. A small class of 10 would have only 1 student
in many groups, while a class of 36 would have 3 per group.
Alternatively, students may form groups by being free to choose
between the various sub-topics according to their interest.
Otherwise assign each group one sub-topic and associate this
sub-topic with a colour. Give each group 1 felt pen and 1 sticker
or card (which identifies the group's sub-topic)-each one being
the colour of the group's sub-topic. Also give each group one
chair, 10 to 12 smaller cards (approx. 21 by 28 cm), one large
sheet of paper (approx. 85 by 56 cm), and one ball of wool-again,
all of which are the colour of the group's sub-topic.
- Form
a circle
Clear the centre of the room. Have the students arrange
the chairs in a circle facing inwards, each group around one
chair. Each group, in their small area, discusses, writes something
about, and then illustrates their sub-topic on the large coloured
sheet. When completed, place the sheet on the chair, propped
up by the back of the chair, along with the ball of wool and
the small sheets of coloured paper.
- Make
connections
Students then head out from their home bases to meet a student
from another area whose sub-topic they think relates in some
way with theirs. The two students start by describing their
own sub-topic. They discuss the relationship between the two,
and once they agree what the connection is, they each write
about it on one of their small coloured pages. They then illustrate
the connection on the same page. When they have finished, the
students must link the two subtopics by running a line between
the two chairs with the wool, looping the wool around the back
of the chairs. Finally, the students tape their small page to
their own large card on the chair in their home area, close
to the point where the connecting wool joins. Each student then
goes on to find another student from another sub-topic. For
each of the following negotiations, the process to be followed
is the same.
- Discussion
As the activity continues, a spider's web of connections
develops. The centre of the circle will start to fill up with
connecting strands of wool, and students will have to crawl
under the web to pass the balls of wool to make new connections.
Finally, students should be asked to describe some of the negotiations
and connections they have decided upon and illustrated. Fuller
discussion of certain connections will follow naturally, and
even the absence of certain connections can lead to worthwhile
discussion.
Further
Development
Have the
students transfer their web to a large wall space.
Cross-disciplinary
Links
This activity
could easily be translated to any number of subjects by carefully
choosing the topic, for example continuing on from example b)
of section 2 above:
- Units
dealing with business issues can use this model in career education:
making a web of different career options;
- Units
dealing with ecological issues can use this model to make a
food web of ecological interdependence divided up into different
species of organisms (fox, rabbits, mice, hawks, trees and other
plants) as well as abiotic environmental factors (sun, rain,
temperature);
- A unit
dealing with community issues can develop a web of local community
interdependence divided up into different occupational roles
in the local community (teacher, lawyer, grocer, student, bus
driver);
- A unit
dealing with religious and cultural issues can make a web of
beliefs or religions or ideologies which can divided up into
various cub-topics (monotheism, Hinduism, Christianity, capitalism,
consumerism);
- A unit
dealing with the environment can make a web of environmental
issues divided up into various problems (carbon dioxide, ozone,
acid rain, industrial pollution, water pollution, over-consumption,
population growth, soil erosion);
- A unit
dealing with current affairs can make a web of general issues
divided up into types (environmental, social, equity, health,
educational, political, economic, gender, race, religion, age);
- A unit
dealing with global issues can make a web of contemporary social
issues (arms race, unemployment, pollution, foreign aid, terrorism,
imperialism, human rights, poverty, famine, disease, immigration).
|
|