Activity
1. Before students come into the classroom, write the
following options on the board:
- Prevent
soil contamination (dispose properly of chemicals, paints,
batteries)
- Reduce paper waste in our landfills (stop junk mailings)
- Save energy (turn off the lights when you aren’t
using them)
- Support renewable energy sources (promote wind/hydro-electric
power plants) that are clean.
- Reduce fossil fuel usage (buy hybrid cars, non-gasoline
powered cars) and reduce particulate matter in the
air.
- Reduce air pollution (ride share or use public transportation)
and particulate matter in the air.
- Prevent child lead poisoning, carefully maintain
painted surfaces.
- Change water filters regularly. If you use a
filtered water system, filters must be changed
regularly
to be effective.
- Support environmentally friendly products (buy
biodegradable cleaning supplies)
These
products and practices listed above deal with various
environmental health issues. You may want to write
only the first part of each option and exclude
the segment in parenthesis; thereby encouraging
students to come up with their own ideas on how
to put into practice each principle. However, this
may prove difficult for some students.
2. Inform students that today they are going to use
their knowledge of the 3 appeals in order to create
a commercial promoting an environmentally friendly
product or practice. Put students into groups of 4
and assign or allow them to choose one topic from those
you have written on the board. Explain to them that
the goal of the project is to create a commercial that
clearly uses one or more of the 3 appeals, that is
persuasive and professional. However, allow students
to be creative and dynamic with their commercials.
Each group of four should have one member in each of
the following roles:
- spokesperson (will narrate the commercial),
- script writer (will write the spoken text in
the commercial)
- actor (will act in the commercial)
- graphic designer (will create a poster or visual
background for the commercial)
3. Give students about 25 minutes to create
and practice their commercials.
4. In the last 15-20 minutes of class,
allow the groups to present their commercials
to their classmates
while
you film them. You may want to limit
the
time allowed for each commercial to approximately
one minute.
After each presentation, invite the class
to
critique their
peers’ work and identify which of the 3 appeals
were used in the commercial, pointing out specific
evidence to support their conclusions.
Closure
Ask the class about the importance of the
environmental health issues raised and if
they already practice any of the suggestions
made in the commercials. Homework
None for
today. |
Embedded
Assessment
Student
commercials can be evaluated and judged with a variety
of parameters, but most importantly ensure that the students
can identify and use the 3 appeals in their final product. |
