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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

  1. 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.

     

  2. 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).

     

  3. 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.

     

  4. 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.

     

  5. 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.

     

  6. 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).