Active banners: 2 Visible banners: 2
Banner ID: 4 Has content: true
Let's create continuous conversations about climate change education: Spreading the Sediment of Science!
Banner ID: 13 Has content: true
Hi, educators! Share your student reach in our short Impact Survey 📚 Survey Link
Can Native American Hopi Teach Us How to Survive Colorado River Drought?
Provided by: PBS
TransdisciplinaryVideos Grades
Synopsis
This informative video describes how the loss of water in the Colorado River Basin is due to flood irrigation (for feed crops and other agricultural practices), drought, and excessive evaporation from higher temperatures. It incorporates an Indigenous perspective to farming in arid climates from a native Hopi farmer and also includes suggested discussion questions, handouts, and a vocabulary list.
Share: This lesson plan is licensed under Creative Commons.
Subjects: SS, BIO, E&S
Authors: PBS
Region: California
Key Focus Areas
Core Component 1: Understanding the Interconnected Dynamics of Climate Change
This video and included materials show students the complex issues that arise from climate change, especially when thinking about the many ways water is used and how essential it is to life. The video allows students to have a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political, and environmental factors.
Core Component 2: Holistic Problem Solving Through Multidimensional Perspectives
The section of the video where a Hopi farmer shows students how he is able to farm without irrigation in the desert highlights the importance of intergenerational knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, saving seeds from the plants adapted to those hot and dry environments (not buying patented seeds), and living within the means of the environment.
Core Component 3: Encouraging Systems Thinking and Innovative Approaches
Students are encouraged to think about many of the externalities of feed crops and agricultural practices and about what happens to water once it has been used in the attached discussion questions in the teaching tips link. This will help them think about the entire system, watershed dynamics, and solutions to this issue.
This lesson also leans into the ideas of:
Details
- Students will love the simple solutions to using less water and wasting less water at home, including adding a brick to the tank of your toilet.
- Have students research the water used in the United States and globally for agriculture and then come up with a list of crops to plant instead of livestock feed crops.
- Advanced students can research the water laws in the desert SW to better understand why farmers might use up their water allotment (sometimes in a wasteful way) just to ensure they get the same amount in future years. Then they can come up with solutions to more equitably and efficiently distribute water to the Indigenous populations and farms located in the basin.
- These resources have been carefully selected and reviewed by ECCLPs. Please note that they have not undergone SubjectToClimate's independent review process.
Teaching Tips
Standards
All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.
