Empathy Rocks in the USA: Environmentalism

Find the Lesson Here

Our planet, Earth, is the only planet we have. Human beings need a healthy Earth in order to survive, but actions we are taking are destroying natural resources at an unprecedented rate. Teaching youth about the environment, ways to make things better, and the consequences of our current actions, may be the difference between survival and extinction.

Each month we will provide our “Empathy Countdown,” with 5 Acts of Kindness, 4 suggested art lessons with instructions, 3 Reading Guides, 2 Activities, and 1 Empathy Inspiration. Each has a lesson about empathy that can be discussed either before or after the art project is completed. These are simply extras provided for you if you would like to supplement the lessons, and are not required. Most projects shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes and are easy and fun for students.

 

Supplemental Guides for January

 
 

ACTS OF KINDNESS

  1. Post inspirational sticky notes around your neighborhood, office, school, etc.

  2. Write a kind message on your mirror with a dry erase marker for yourself, a friend, or a family member.

  3. Set an alarm to go off at different times during the day. When it goes, do something kind for someone else.

  4. When you’re throwing something away, pick up any litter around you and put that in the trash too.

  5. Give five different people compliments on something other than their appearance.

Art Projects

 

The Lorax and Truffula Trees

3D Paper Tree

Mosaic Paper Plate Turtles

Bugs on a Leaf

 

Reading Guides

 

The Secret Garden

Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet

Miss Rumphius

 

Classroom activities

 

Balloon Game

Feelings Collage

 
 

 Empathy Inspiration

When Ana Humphrey was in the 7th grade, she got to be part of a life science class where she learned about environmental issues and helped restore a wetland as part of the final project. She wanted to find a way to keep that environmental activism alive among her classmates as they entered high school, and to make sure young students had the same type of experience.


She formed Watershed Warriors, a nonprofit club that helps high-schoolers develop and deliver fun STEM-related activities for 5th grade students in her Virginia hometown. Over the past three years, Ana's Warriors have worked with nearly 300 middle-schoolers, visiting them several times during the school year to work on environmentally themed projects and finishing out the year by helping to restore a local wetland, assess water quality, and pick up trash.