This short animated video introduces students to the concept of a carbon footprint and shows them how individual choices made at home can really add up.
Students learn how to reduce their footprint by switching to LED bulbs, turning off lights, shutting off electronics when not in use, not wasting energy, and switching from bottled water to a water filter.
Discussion questions and extensions are provided below the video.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students are challenged to draw conclusions by observing the actions they can take rather than being told directly.
This provides students with actions they can take every day to feel empowered.
Additional Prerequisites
The video ends at 3:15.
Answers to the questions provided can be accessed by contacting the Green Ninja team. The email is found at the bottom of the landing page.
Students should be familiar with terms like carbon dioxide and emissions.
Differentiation
Since the personal actions a person can take are only communicated visually, it may be best to identify them as a class following the video. This can also be done in the form of an assessment.
This video can also be used in math classes during lessons about simple calculations and making equations.
As an action-oriented extension activity, have students share what they learned about personal action with their friends and families.
As a follow-up activity, older students can collect information about their carbon footprint and calculate it using this carbon footprint calculator. Younger students can engage in a similar activity, coloring in their carbon footprint.
Scientist Notes
This resource provides teachers with a guide to teach students about carbon footprints. The resources provided includes framing questions to gauge students' understanding of carbon footprints prior to watching a video ~ 3.5 minutes long. The video centers around the Green Ninja, a climate action superhero. Focus questions along with follow-up questions and an optional extension question and an activity is provided. This video, along with the supporting material, is well sourced and would make a great addition to a classroom discussing the effects people have on the climate crisis and what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.6-8 Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.
D4.7.3-5 Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems, and predict possible results of their actions.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
