In terms of social action, the goal for this unit and curriculum project is to encourage students to take individual responsibility for their ecological footprint and to spread awareness with regards to environmental sustainability. This means creating an ecological handprint instead. Our personal goal as a professional learning community is to encourage teachers to execute the lesson plans in an environmentally friendly fashion, to “lead by example”. The ideas expressed through each lesson will be mirrored by the teachers and the lessons themselves. Each lesson is intended to act as an artifact in which a teacher could implement as a complete unit, or as individual lessons. The themes of each lesson are therefore finite yet cohesive. Each lesson addresses its own essential question, as a component of the whole: What is the economic impact of trading Canadian natural resources? How does my behaviour effect the global distributions of water, and what can I do to make a positive impact? How can we reduce the environmental impact in our households? How much energy am I actually saving by turning off that light? What makes a speech powerful and how can we use it to invoke environmental sustainability in our society?

Electronic reproduction. External link.

Table of Contents: Section Page: Introduction -- Lesson 1: Canadian Natural Resources Research Introduction -- Exhibit 1 -- Exhibit 2 -- Exhibit 3 -- Exhibit 4 -- Exhibit 5 -- Exhibit 6 -- Exhibit 7 -- Lesson 2: Wild Water Works -- Exhibit 1 --Exhibit 2 -- Exhibit 3 -- Lesson 3: How Can We Reduce Heating, Lighting, and Water Usage in Our Classroom/Home? -- Exhibit 1 -- Exhibit 2 -- Exhibit 3 -- Exhibit 4 -- Exhibit 5 -- Exhibit 6 -- Exhibit 7 -- Lesson 4: Working Energy -- Exhibit 1 -- Exhibit 2 -- Exhibit 3 -- Exhibit 4 -- Exhibit 5 -- Lesson 5: Speaking About Environmental Sustainability -- Exhibit 1 -- Exhibit 2 -- References.