Curriculum Project - Japan's Economy and the Environmental Impact

[Madelyn Masterson]

1. Rationale: This unit will fit into the Human Impact unit at the end of the Fall semester. Students would have spent the entire semester learning about Ecology including concepts such as organism interactions, biodiversity, and matter cycling. This unit will lead students to their final where they will tackle the ability to form a solution of human impacts on our world’s biodiversity. 

2. Objectives:

   1. Students will articulate the extent of the industrial pollution crisis which Japan faced in the 1960s and 1970s.

   2.  Students will understand how a profound and widespread belief in a uniquely Japanese appreciation for nature coexists with an equally profound and widespread proclivity to exploit and degrade the natural environment.

   3. Students will explain the issues and solutions of a specific human impact that negatively affects our world’s biodiversity.

3. Standards: ​​HSESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity. HSESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.

4. Detailed Lesson Plan: 

• Day 1: 

  •  Warm up questions: What is the government's role in protecting the environment?  What role do ordinary citizens play? 

  • Watch the video introducing Japan’s technological and industrial growth along with the growing pollution problem: https://youtu.be/VIIzHw3wkPg 

  • Use pictures to introduce both Japan’s appreciation of nature within the architecture and the development of high rise buildings. Explain the influence of western architecture and the influence of a post war, overpopulation Japan era.  Resources:https://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/4b.%20The%20Western%20Genome%20in%20Japanese%20Architecture_0.pdf 

  • Assign groups for Human impact project 

  • Research assignment: Tell group members they will conduct independent research on Japan's efforts within environmental impact. Guiding questions: How was the environment affected by human impact? What does this variety of cases tell us about attitudes toward the environment?   What does this variety of cases tell us about popular participation in political discourse? What do you think the government and ordinary citizens can do to improve the environment? Resources: https://www.env.go.jp/en/chemi/hs/minamata2002/ch2.html and https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu35ie/uu35ie00.htm 

• Day 2:  

  • Present findings to groups and discuss guiding questions as a class

  • Collect Research assignment as an assessment 

  • Introduce Human Impact project: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JKnKiiPUAwGE23jx1p1Ar1tgxXp4ftsYle0mBhTScYY/edit?usp=sharing 

• Day 3-5:

  • Pick project topic and work on project: Create a poster explaining the issues and solutions of a specific human impact that negatively affects our world’s biodiversity..  

• Day 6-7: Present project 

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