Social Justice and Sustainability!

Social Justice and Sustainability in Grade 8:

These two key ideas link extremely well to one another. Sustainability involves using things such as renewable resources, and alternative means for being "green" and eco-friendly to our Earth. Social Justice can be integrated within this unit in Grade 8 because we can encourage and equip students with the knowledge to become eco-friendly citizens. This can be done by ensuring small, simple things are being done properly to encourage and see tidbits of sustainability within the classroom such as: recycling, minimizing the usage of lights (where possible), and turning off computer monitors. The above things could be demonstrated and executed in the junior grades. Whereas with the intermediate grades, students can be able to think more globally and how their footprint impacts the community, province, country, and nationally. This is an opportunity to move away from the smaller areas that students can aid our Earth, and to begin to look at things through a more national/global lens. The result is to encourage students to think globally and how we can live harmoniously with the Earth, by making good use of our renewable resources.



There are three resources that I have found to be important:


http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/intro.aspx?lang=En



The above resource explores all aspects of Canada from a geographical standpoint, as well as elicits information about specific cities, their resources, and such. This resource can be useful to students because it allows them to search and draw their own conclusions about resources, the communities that surround them, and how these resources contribute to either an eco-friendly/sustainable country, or a wasteful/polluted country.




https://www.brainpop.com/science/ourfragileenvironment/

Brainpop is a fun and interactive resource where students can have more fun, and be educated through useful videos, and various informative information. This puts a creative, interactive, and fun spin on learning and allows students to explore using the interactive tools that this website has to offer!





http://www.sustainabilitystore.com/sustainable.html

The last resource I would encourage students to use and seek for information is the above resource which discusses global issues involving all forms of sustainability, and even includes concepts such as fair trade, organics, etc. This source also links relevant forms of media such as blogs and news articles relating and pertaining to both sustainability and an eco-friendly Earth.





Social justice can easily be incorporated into all forms of geography, history, and social studies in the primary/junior grades. It is important to link these two areas because this allows students to see the “bigger picture” and become a well rounded global citizen. As students move through the grades, the focus/emphasis on sustainability and social justice becomes less of a personal and small community aspect, and grows into a provincial, national and global aspect, where students can examine various provinces and their initiatives, globally what are various countries doing to become eco-friendly, and to decrease their ecological footprint. Overall, social justice combined with social studies, history, and geography allows students to take on many different lenses and perspectives from various standpoints within the community, provincially, nationally, and globally. The end result is creating informed, educated, global citizens!