This short documentary features an interview with an individual from Pittsburgh that works to add more green spaces in urban areas and helps communities take action.
The video discusses the benefits of green spaces to the community and as carbon sinks.
Discussion questions, resources for further research, and recommendations on ways to take action to strengthen communities and combat climate change are also included.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video provides a hopeful perspective on taking action to improve communities and combat climate change.
The discussion questions listed under the video are an excellent way to start a rich classroom dialogue or could serve as writing prompts.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the concept of a carbon sink.
Autotranslated subtitles for the video are available in a number of languages.
Differentiation
Consider having students research organizations in their area focused on environmental justice or conservation stewardship after the video to extend the lesson.
Discuss with students why having communities lead the way in determining how to restore vacant lots can be an effective way to approach land restoration.
Science classes can connect this resource to lessons about materials, heat, urban heat-island effects, and the health effects of no green spaces in urban areas.
The possibility of land reclamation as a successful, sustainable land management technique is explored in this film. It explains in great detail how unused land might be exploited as a carbon sink. The video contains no false assumptions about science. As a result, this resource is suggested for classroom use.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.2.6-8 Explain specific roles played by citizens (such as voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed forces, petitioners, protesters, and office-holders).
D2.Civ.10.6-8 Explain the relevance of personal interests and perspectives, civic virtues, and democratic principles when people address issues and problems in government and civil society.
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.9-12 Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
