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There
is a common misconception that the activities of one person
(or a small group) can have little impact upon the environment.
Upper elementary students are not unique in holding this idea.
You need merely to look at the litter along a roadside to
realize how common the notion is that protection of the environment
is someone else's responsibility.(1)
SCENARIO:
Robert
and Patrick had a baseball game to play in. They asked their
dad to drive them to the game. He was happy to do it except
he had to fill the car up with gas first. They put everything
for the game in the car and drove to the gas station. Their
dad pulled up to the gas pump and got out of the car. Robert
saw his dad scratch his head and shake it. What could be the
matter he thought? Then his dad opened the car door and said,
"Sorry guys, I can't take you to the game. Gas is too
expensive and I only have enough money to put gas in the car
to drive to work and back home."
Why
was the cost of gas so expensive? What would the cost of gas
mean to the lifestyle of Robert and Patrick? Would things
ever be the same? Is the world running out of gas? These were
the questions that the fifth grade students at Bethune Academy
began to ask themselves. They wanted to know what impact would
their lifestyle right now have on the world oil supply? Was
there anything they and their classmates could do to make
any difference?
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