Using TED Talks In My Classroom




Freshmen biology students are engaged in learning about how biodiversity affects the health of an ecosystem and how humans interact with the environment. They are working on collaboratively creating a wiki page presenting their ideas about how society developed in our local region based on proximity to the Merrimack River, and how the development of that society impacted the river and surrounding environment. The students have done surveys of local species and considered land form changes over the years around the campus. Today I asked them to think about the current condition of the ecosystem, what people might be doing properly to protect it’s diversity, and what other actions they might consider taking to further protect human-nature interrelationships.

As part of this discussion and inquiry, the students were assigned “Easter Island’s End” by Jared Diamond (published in 1995 in Discover) to read as homework. A general discussion of the reading of the article (What did you notice? What did you find interesting? What did you find surprising?) was followed by a TED talks video of Jared Diamond discussing the collapse of society. I was worried that these freshmen students would not sit and listen to a fast-talking lecture but they did. Even though Diamond’s talk alluded to the ENRON scandal, a few years old, the students were able to apply the same ideas to today’s banking problems and the recession. Diamond reinforced some environmental information I had given the students previously, but with a new example, which was very nice. He also repeated a question that the students themselves had had during our discussion of the Easter Island’s End article, namely, what were they thinking as they cut down the last palm tree on the island?

It was after reading and discussing the article and then watching the video that the students were taken on another walk of the campus, this time with direction to look for current “relationships” between society and the environment and to consider whether this was the best we could do, or was there something else, something more, that could be done to prevent the collapse of any system within the system. Their next scheduled day for the computer lab to write about this is several days away… I am anxious to see their wiki reflections and comments.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Great piece. Are you aware of this resource in which teachers are sharing ideas on how to use TED ?

http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/

I'm sure they'd love your input there.

Unknown said...

Are you are of this resource
http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/
...in which teachers share ideas on how to use TED? It's cool, and I bet they'd love you to join.

Reflections of a Science Teacher said...

Thank you for the link. This lesson, like so many, "evolved" as a result of my thinking about how to engage students in authentic and real learning.

webmaster said...

http://iac-phycis2.blogspot.com/
Introductory Astronomy, Cosmology, Physics

http://iac-phycis1.blogspot.com/

http://iac-phycis.blogspot.com/
Visit this Blog te LeaRN More , cool info and very helpfull, I Realy Enjoyed Reading this Blog, I hope u Enjoj To
http://iac-phycis2.blogspot.com/

John Slattery said...

You're probably already aware of this, but just in case . . . .
Easter Island's End is a section of Mr. Diamond's latest book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"", which begins by examining the environment of Montana and goes on to analyze the failures of some past societies, a few past successes, and a number of modern societies before concluding with some practical lessons for today.
Also, I'd like to tout his previous book, Guns, Germs, and Steel:The Fates of Human Societies,"a remarkable book, as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1378709

scnemati said...

Just joined your blog! You seem like a very learned, innovative, and fun teacher. I'm in my first year teaching and I'm eager to read about your adventures in the classroom. :)

Schissel said...

To make searching the TED talks easier, consider using http://www.editTED.com, a wiki dedicated to summarizing and organizing the talks.