In this 360° video, acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton takes us on a journey to the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington State to experience silence, escape the noise pollution of modern life, and connect with the land.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students have the opportunity to disconnect from everything, get calm, and explore the value of silence and the effects of noise pollution on humans.
Through this interactive video, students will understand that nature speaks to them. This experience will connect them with themselves and to the natural world.
This video encourages students to take action on the problem that silence is on the verge of extinction.
Additional Prerequisites
A 60-minute lesson plan is available for 9th-12th grade. It can be downloaded in English or Spanish. It includes conversation cards organized around four themes: connection to place, effects of modernization, human connection to the environment, and listening.
If you click and drag on the embedded YouTube video you are able to see a 360° view.
The teacher could ask students to sit on the floor in a meditation position, relax, and put on their headphones to watch the video and enjoy the experience.
Differentiation
This video could be used for a lesson on noise pollution and mental health.
High school students could engage in a discussion where they share how they feel after watching the video.
In science class, this resource could be used to encourage students to investigate solutions to noise pollution and silence extinction.
The extension group students could discuss the effects of noise pollution on the human body after conducting an investigation about it.
This is no specific science in this resource to verify, but it is a compelling resource. Noise pollution is very common and there are few, if any, places on Earth to escape total noise pollution. This interactive video examines this in depth. This resource is recommended for teaching. I highly recommend the use of headphones if they are available.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
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.10.3-5 Explain why environmental characteristics vary among different world regions.
D2.Geo.4.9-12 Analyze relationships and interactions within and between human and physical systems to explain reciprocal influences that occur among them.
