This video shows how environmental racism has produced higher rates of air pollution and respiratory diseases in the South Bronx.
The video focuses on Ilyna Hernandez, a teenager living in the South Bronx with asthma.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video connects high rates of respiratory diseases in the South Bronx with factors such as more bus depots, truck facilities, waste sites, and traffic patterns in that area.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the term environmental racism, which is defined in the video as "the intentional racial discrimination in infrastructural and environmental policy-making."
Differentiation
Civics and social studies classes could use this video to supplement lessons about local governance and the effects of zoning determinations and municipal infrastructure decisions.
Biology and health classes could discuss the pollutants found in vehicle exhaust, chemical applications, power plant pollution, and industrial facility pollution.
There is no contradiction in the resource. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.4.6-8 Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.
D2.Geo.5.6-8 Analyze the combinations of cultural and environmental characteristics that make places both similar to and different from other places.
D2.Geo.10.6-8 Analyze the ways in which cultural and environmental characteristics vary among various regions of the world.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
National Health Education Standards
Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
1.12.3 Analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated.
