WHY NOT SAVE THE WORLD?

“I touch the future, I teach.”
Christa McAuliffe, first teacher-astronaut

Our personal future and indeed the future of the entire planet lie in the hearts and minds of our children. This is why we teach.

In our exuberance for life, unintentionally, our generation has caused global environmental damage. This has led to the rapid extinction of species across the globe. Ecosystems are now in trouble and many species are on the brink of extinction. The world is crying out to be saved.

There is no greater task before us than to save our planet and there is no better time than now.

Our failure is not an option for numberless species. We are beginning to reap the consequences of greater than a century of fossil fuel consumption. Katrina and other extreme weather events are but the tip of an iceberg. Even if we stopped today, the trends will continue for decades.

So what shall we teach our students? How can we save their lives? How can we help to save our planet?

As you know, adolescence is an intense early experience of self-discovery. At the heart of this period is finding one’s purpose in life. A child of this age asks, who am I? What am I good at? How do I fit in?

The answers lie in the context of what the child will become as an adult. The child will find the answer when they find what (s)he can uniquely contribute to society and the world. When one finds his/her contribution to the greater whole, one finds her/his place in a larger world. They make the transition from adolescent self-obsession to a larger sense of adult responsibility.

Our goal is to help our students come to appreciate and honor their gifts, develop self-confidence and a vision of life that will sustain and guide them into the future. Once one knows one’s purpose, it is easy to make conscious decisions about careers, career paths and the other major issues of life.

In this blog, I will be describing my efforts to lead a team of teachers to create a curriculum that challenges my biotechnology students to work on a solution to two global problems: 1) The war in the Middle East and 2) Global warming.

Our curriculum will focus on biofuels. Students will examine the underlying societal issues that are driving biofuels development including America’s dependence on foreign oil. They will then work in the laboratory to grow bacteria and produce a biofuel. The biofuel produced will be purified and the energy density measured. As a culminating activity student teams will write a business plan for a hypothetical NC farmer interested in biofuels entrepreneurship.

This biofuels curriculum is designed to create an authentic hands-on learning environment that simulates the real world. This is real education for the real world.

Gregory Louie
Efland, NC