How do our choices today affect the people of tomorrow?
This Earth Day you can help your students understand that we don't just live for ourselves, but as the Torah mentions, we are expected to care about those who will come after us with this free lesson from Our Place in the Universe.
After your students create a waste inventory, they will consider how they can make use of some of the things they would normally discard with this chart.
Download the PDF version here.
About Our Place in the Universe:
Our Place in the Universe Journal, by Marc Rosenstein, Tova Sacher, and Sigalit Ur of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education, helps 6th-8th grade students consider their own perspectives on contemporary environmental issues such as conservation, energy policy, and more. They will balance real world environmental dilemmas as they write their own advertisements for environmentally friendly products; compose a modern prayer about water; use a carbon footprint calculator to learn about their personal impact on the world; and even design a genetically engineered species. All along the way they will work through their own responses to some basic questions: Were we created to rule over the world, and use it for our needs? Do we have a special responsibility for taking care of it? In looking at environmental issues through a Jewish lens students will be able to explore connections between what they believe and how they live, and develop a deeper, sophisticated understanding of their own place in the universe.
Love the idea of the student journal? Behrman House just released the first student journal in the new Bible series, Jewish Values in Genesis: If I Could Ask Abraham. From Abraham and Sarah's faith and trust in journeying to a new land, to Rebecca's kindness at the well, to the jealousy and betrayal of Joseph by his brothers, we learn something new about ourselves and our relationships from the ups and downs of our biblical ancestors.
