This video highlights the environmental impacts of leaf blowing as Green Ninja intervenes to mitigate the issues caused by a homeowner's leaf blower.
Students will take a deeper look at some of the problems associated with gas-powered leaf blowers, alternatives to leaf blowing, and see how quiet and non-polluting raking can be.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource includes a teacher's guide with student questions, additional learning experiences, resources, and notes.
The video is humorous and somewhat exaggerated, which makes it very entertaining, but it also makes a powerful point.
Additional Prerequisites
Some students may need additional background information on the use of leaf blowers.
The EPA link in the description below is broken.
The teacher's guide provides 17 questions that can be used before, during, and after reading, so be sure to plan ahead for strategic use of these questions.
Differentiation
The "Frame" questions could be used in whole class discussions, turn-and-talk format, or for small group dialogue prior to watching the video to activate prior knowledge.
Consider watching the video twice, providing students with the "Focus" questions before the second viewing and having them write answers to these questions in order to measure student comprehension of the content.
The "Follow-up Questions" could either be used as an assessment or as an introduction to a class project or design of a campaign to reduce leaf blower use.
Extension activities might include using the "Additional Notes and Resources" section to further learning, such as the newspaper article provided or the results of the scientific study about particulate matter released by leaf blowers.
Consider a deeper look at the decomposition of organic and inorganic waste through this composting experiment.
Scientist Notes
This resource provides teachers with a guide to teach students about the carbon footprints of leaf blowers. 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 and the use of leaf blowers. Focus questions along with follow-up questions and optional extension question(s) 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 that people and common yard tools have on the climate crisis and what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.13.3-5 Explain how policies are developed to address public problems.
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.6.6-8 Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.
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.6.3 Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.3 Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
