Videos

Grade 5 - Who we are

Central Idea:
Humans make choices about the way they consume natural resources and these choices affect the environment.

An Inquiry Into:
- How do people consume natural resources?
- What does sustainable use mean?
- What responsibility do we have to use resources in a sustainable way?
- How do people create change?

Hosted by Tom Selleck, this outstanding program strongly supports Ecology and Biology units on environmental awareness issues and provides potent messages for technology and society, citizenship, geography and physical science units on environmental topics. In the form of a test similar to our National Driving Test, celebrities such as Candice Bergen, Morgan Freeman, Richard Chamberlain and Steve Guttenberg ask questions and provide answers about a variety of environmental issues, including recycling, air pollution, water conservation and personal responsibility for keeping our planet clean.

How can conservation of habitat and natural resources be balanced with people’s desire to consume the resources? That’s the million-dollar question. The video presents a few ways that it can be done. By recycling some of the billions of plastic bottles Americans use every year, would-be landfill waste becomes fleece clothing. “Living” wastewater treatment plants, like the one cartoonist Jim Davis uses at his office, clean water naturally without polluting chemicals or waste. Naturally colored cotton needs no pesticides to grow and produces a colored fiber that doesn’t fade. And reclaimed and sustainable materials make excellent building materials that last, don’t harm the environment, and even cost less to maintain. These examples prove that conservation and consumerism can coexist and even flourish.

Solid waste is almost anything a person throws away, including trash and garbage. This program will focus on the problems created by solid waste and offer ways to help alleviate these problems. Students will be made aware of the fact that natural resources are often the base for products that become solid waste and that many such resources are non-renewable, such as the aluminum in a soda can. Even renewable resources, such as trees that are cut down to make paper, are being depleted at a faster rate than we can renew them. Pollution problems like toxic substances get into the surrounding soil when garbage is disposed of in dumps. Landfill sites are filling up and new sites are difficult to find. Improper disposal of waste affects our land, water and air. It is past time to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Students in this video will demonstrate the "Three Rs" approach and we will see that we are, indeed, responsible for our environment and for the future of our planet.

Holiday Facts and Fun: Earth Day (2nd Edition) (14:05) This video tells the story behind Earth Day, and illustrates the importance of establishing a healthful environment on the land, in the air, and in the waters of our planet. More importantly, the video shows youngsters what they can do today, and in the future, to help protect planet Earth.

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