Part 2:  Select Lesson Plans for World Cultures
SCOTT BARTZ 

Each lesson will take between 30 and 40 minutes.

Anthropocentrism I
Grade 4

Objectives: After a lesson on anthropocentrism fourth grade students will be able to:

• Define the terms interdependence
• Identify various non-human entities on which humans must rely
  

Materials: large drawing paper for each student, colored pencils

1. Ask the student if there is any non-human thing that they are dependent on? Have students get into groups and take about 5 minutes to brainstorm a list.  Take responses and write them on the board (some possible responses might be water, land, air, animals, automobiles, hospitals, houses, clothes, and furnace).  Now ask the class to think about how these things might be dependent on humans (could water, land, air, wild animals be able to continue their existence without human beings?).  Automobiles, hospitals, clothes, and furnaces would depreciate if left unattended by humans, but these are creations of humans for humans. 

2. Hand out a large piece of drawing paper and colored pencils to the students.  Ask them to create a scene in which one of these important elements-water, land, air, plants and animals- is obviously missing.  Show how the participants in the scene are coping with the lack of that element (examples may include oxygen tanks in a place with no air, artificial trees in a clear-cut forest, wind-up toy dogs in a place with no animals).   

3. Write the word interdependence on the board.  Tell the students that interdependence refers to the mutually dependent relationship of everything in a community on to other things in that community.  Ask the students with whom are they interdependent?  In their families?  In their schools?  In their neighborhoods? (mothers and fathers work to provide, children clean the house and feed the pets, grandmother baby-sits when children come home from school before parents return home from work, students provide answers and insights in classroom discussions, students take part in classroom jobs, citizens work to make the neighborhood a safe and enjoyable place to live by keeping their yards clean, watching for and reporting crimes). 

4. Now, ask the students what would happen if one member of the community decided that he or she would not do their responsibilities.  What would happen to the family, school and neighborhood?  After the students respond, ask what would happen if there were no trees to provide us with oxygen and no rivers and lakes to provide us with water.  Assess how students are grasping the concepts by their engagement and the depth of their answers.

Anthropocentrism II

Objectives: After a lesson on anthropocentrism fourth grade students will be able to:

• Articulate various decisions humans have made to hurt the environment or other people
• Define and use the term anthropocentrism
• Define and use the term luxury
  

1. Have the students create a “T” chart.  One side should be headed “Human Luxury” the other side should be labeled “Environmental Footprint”.  Have the students work in groups to brainstorm ways in which humans have infringed upon the environment to satisfy their luxuries.  Explain to the students that a luxury (write word on board) is an item or service that is not needed for basic survival.  A necessity is required for basic survival.  An example of “Human Luxury” might be “juice carton” and its counterpart might be “loss of trees” or “landfill space”. 

2. Bring the students back together.  Solicit items to place under a “T” chart that is drawn on the board.  After this chart is filled with the students’ responses, give the students a chance to reflect on the ways humans affect the environment by asking them why these luxuries are so important to humans.  Ask if the items on the left side of necessities or if humans could find an alternative.

3. Instruct the students to make a new “T” graph.  On the left side copy down some of the luxuries that were written on the board and on the right side of the “T” graph, write an alternative for the luxury that wouldn’t be as invasive of the environment. 

4. Give the students an opportunity to share their alternatives.  Ask why do humans feel they should have the luxuries that we listed at the beginning of class on the first charts.  After students respond, explain to them that humans sometimes believe that the ecosystem entitles them anything they want.  Ask the students what word comes to mind when someone thinks they can have anything they want at anytime (greedy, selfishness).  Write the word anthropocentric on the board.  Tell the students that this big word when divided in two gives us a word that means “human” and a word that means “center.”  This “human-centered” viewpoint puts human in a place that is more important than the other participants in the community.  This means that they are “dominators”, not participants. Ask the students if they believe that humans are more important than animals, trees, lakes, etc. (take responses- some might included that humans need these things to survive) Remind students of the term interdependence from the previous lesson.  Ask what might happen to humans if they only cared about the survival of themselves rather than animals, trees, lakes, etc. and what effect it might have.   Allow time for student responses.

Anthropocentrism III 

Objectives: After a lesson on anthropocentrism fourth grade students will be able to:

• Create a plan for a healthy bio-community
• Evaluate the current relationship between humans and the bio-community
  

1. Tell the students today that they are going to pretend that they have inherited a large tract of pristine land, that is, land that has not been touched by development or pollution.  It is about the size of a large city with which they are familiar, but no person has built any modern building on it or farmed it with modern machinery. Ask them to imagine such a place.  What might live there?

2. Explain that the activity that they are participating in today is to create a mock charter for a new land and the way humans will agree to live on that land.  Explain that a charter is a document setting forth the aims and principles of a group. Identify the issues and concerns that will go into establishing a government on this land (IE: indigenous cultures, water supply, land care, animal habitats).  The students may work in groups of four.

3. After sufficient time assemble the class back together to discuss what the specifics are of their charters.  List them on the board.

4. Ask the students what the roles of the people were in this new charter.

5. Have the students compare and contrast their mock charter and the roles of the people with the roles of the people in this country today.

Assessment:  Ask the students to write a compare and contrast paragraph on their charter and the current state of the human role in the bio-community.