Tampa, Fla. – Over 60 K-12 educators from school districts across the state attended a Sustainability Superheroes webinar focused on incorporating responsible decision making and social emotional learning to help students use critical thinking and solve global sustainable issues.

The webinar was hosted by Deborah Kozdras and Angel Danger of the USF Stavros Center, who have both worked diligently to construct this online workshop and continue to plan much more for the future. The theme for this webinar was saving endangered species. Teachers learned how to use various educational books and videos to form lesson plans through some of the latest technology that makes distance learning a breeze for both teachers and students.

The Great Kapok Tree, by Lynne Cherry, is a wonderful children's book that can be used to teach about decision-making and sustainability. It is also a book that makes us think about the human impact on the environment. In the text, a lumberjack is sent to cut down the Great Kapok Tree. After he works for a while, he gets tired and takes a nap below the tree. While he is sleeping, the different animals whisper in his ear about how the tree satisfies their needs and wants.

At the end of the tale, an anteater whispers, "What happens tomorrow depends upon what you do today." This is a perfect phrase to discuss sustainable economic development. If the forest is destroyed, what do we lose? What goods are provided by the Amazon and other forests? How do the animals, plants, and other living things cooperate in an ecosystem of producers and consumers? How can we better preserve these natural resources so we can continue to enjoy the many gifts they provide?

Check out the interactive Nearpod activity we created. Go to Nearpod.com   and download the lesson into your Nearpod library with this editable link.   

Now learn more about endangered species in the links below. Choose one animal to research and write a persuasive text about the importance of preserving the species. 

Join us in the #SSRethinkTank for an entrepreneurial thinking activity that begins with an image. This activity has three steps: 1) See (ask descriptive questions), 2) Think (ask analytic and evaluative questions to define what is broken), and 3) Rethink (use design thinking to consider solutions to the problem). With these activities, we can help students to identify, critique, and provide solutions to some of the sustainability problems that exist in the world. 

These activities can be used as bell ringers or they could inspire deeper analysis and evaluation by using the resources in Part 2. 

Part 1

1) What do you see? In this step, show the image and tell students to provide you with evidence they see. This step isn't about inferences or opinions. That comes in the next step. You can also guide students through some descriptive questions (what, who, where, and when). 

• What kind of image is this?
• What do you see in the image?
• Who might have created the image?
• Where is it taken?

2) What do you think? In this step, students make inferences and analyze the photo. Ultimately, this is a step where students think critically to identify a problem. The first level this step is to inspire students to use what they see and ask analytical questions that are inspired by the question: What do you think? Encourage the students to think deeper by asking how and why questions. 

• Why do you think the person took this photo?
• How did the monkey get the plastic bottle?
• How can this cause a problem?

3) Rethink! After the analysis phase, we work on an evaluation by asking: What is broken? After defining the problem, engage students in a rethink activity, where they use entrepreneurial thinking to create change. Tell students: "After you define what is broken, get in the Rethink Tank and design a solution. What would you do differently?"
​Here are some questions you can use to help guide their rethinking:

• Reduce: How can we reduce our use of plastic bottles?
• Reuse: What can we reuse?
• Recycle: How can we recycle?
• Repurpose: How can we repurpose plastic waste?
• Redesign: How can we redesign the system so we don't have plastic trash in the forest?
• Reimagine: How can you reimagine a world full of people who care about endangered species?

Part 2
Here are some resources you can use to learn more about endangered species.  After reading through the information, make a personal pledge or design a sustainable solution to some of the problems faced by endangered species. Share your ideas with us on social media: @usfstavros (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Join us in the #SSRethinkTank for an entrepreneurial thinking activity that begins with an image. This activity has three steps: 1) See (ask descriptive questions), 2) Think (ask analytic and evaluative questions to define what is broken), and 3) Rethink (use design thinking to consider solutions to the problem). With these activities, we can help students to identify, critique, and provide solutions to some of the sustainability problems that exist in the world. 

These activities can be used as bell ringers by using Part 1, or they could inspire deeper analysis and evaluation by using the resources in Part 2. 

Part 1

1) What do you see? In this step, show the image and tell students to provide you with evidence they see. This step isn't about inferences or opinions. That comes in the next step. You can also guide students through some descriptive questions (what, who, where, and when). 

• What kind of image is this?
• What do you see in the image?
• Who might have created the image?
• Where is it taken?

2) What do you think? In this step, students make inferences and analyze the photo. Ultimately, this is a step where students think critically to identify a problem. The first level this step is to inspire students to use what they see and ask analytical questions that are inspired by the question: What do you think? Encourage the students to think deeper by asking how and why questions. 

• Why do you think the person took this photo?
• Why is this a problem?
• How did the trash get on the shore?

3) Rethink! After the analysis phase, we work on an evaluation by Recognizing the problem and asking: What is broken? After defining the problem, engage students in a rethink activity, where they use entrepreneurial thinking to create change. Tell students: "After you define what is broken, get in the Rethink Tank and design a solution. What would you do differently?"
​Here are some questions you can use to help guide their rethinking:

• Reduce: How can we reduce our use of disposables?
• Reuse: How can we reuse this material?
• Recycle: How can we recycle?
• Repurpose: How can we repurpose garbage?
• Reimagine: How can we reimagine the ways in which we dispose of our trash? 
• Re-educate: How can we help to change the behavior of people who litter?
• Redesign: How can we redesign the system so we don't have trash on the shore?
• Rewrite: How can we rewrite some of the regulations and laws around litter and garbage?

Part 2
Here are some resources you can use to learn more about garbage. Learn about the garbage barge that inspired the beginnings of recycling. Some people make a living by recycling trash! Did you know that people can make energy out of trash? After reading through the information, make a personal pledge or design a sustainable solution. Share your ideas with us on social media: @usfstavros (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)

Welcome to our new series of elementary interactive decision-making lessons. This lesson involves making decisions about choosing wildflowers and reading the children's book: Please Please the Bees by Gerald Kelly. 
Before Reading: Ask students to look at the image and make a prediction about how a bear, bees, honey, and wildflowers might go together in a story. Encourage students to ask questions about the relationships in the image. 

During Reading:
Here are some Read Aloud Think Aloud questions to use with the story. Possible stopping points are listed to use with the embedded video below.

1. Stop at :40 and ask: What were Benedict Bear's wants? What goods did he like?
2. Stop at 1:17 and ask:  What was the problem?  Why do you think the bees went on strike?
3. Stop at 2:24 and say: Flowers are a natural resource that bees use to make honey. What flowers should Benedict Bear plant? 
4. Stop at 2:37 and ask: What work did the bees do before they went on strike?
5. Stop at 3:10 and ask: What tools and equipment did Benedict Bear need to do his work?
6. Stop at 3:56 and ask: How did Benedict and the bees trade goods and services? What goods did Benedict like? What services did the bees provide? 

After Reading:
​1) What was real in this story? What was not real? Now read the Once Upon a Bee-conomy to explore and learn more about the connections with Benedict Bear, the bees, honey, and wildflowers!

2) Next, we have created two interactive decision-making lessons in Nearpod.
Here is the editable link ​​ for the first lesson, which is appropriate for K-2. If you start your own free Nearpod account, you can edit the lesson to serve your needs. ​Otherwise, you can use the embedded lessons below as activities, as if you were showing a PowerPoint. 

Picking Wildflowers
The Picking Wildflowers activity is appropriate for grades upper elementary and middle school students. Here is the editable link ​.

More Resources:
Here is a collection of more resources to use with this topic. Enjoy exploring and creating some exciting investigations with your students!

Join us in the #SSRethinkTank for an entrepreneurial thinking activity that begins with an image. This activity has three steps: 1) See (ask descriptive questions), 2) Think (ask analytic and evaluative questions to define what is broken), and 3) Rethink (use design thinking to consider solutions to the problem). With these activities, we can help students to identify, critique, and provide solutions to some of the sustainability problems that exist in the world. 

These activities can be used as bell ringers or they could inspire deeper analysis and evaluation by using the resources in Part 2. 

Part 1

1) What do you see? In this step, show the image and tell students to provide you with evidence they see. This step isn't about inferences or opinions. That comes in the next step. You can also guide students through some descriptive questions (what, who, where, and when). 

• What kind of image is this?
• What do you see in the image?
• Who might have created the image?
• Where is it taken?

2) What do you think? In this step, students make inferences and analyze the photo. Ultimately, this is a step where students think critically to identify a problem. The first level this step is to inspire students to use what they see and ask analytical questions that are inspired by the question: What do you think? Encourage the students to think deeper by asking how and why questions. 

• Why do you think the person took this photo?
• How did the bottle get into the water?

3) Rethink! After the analysis phase, we work on an evaluation by asking: What is broken?
After defining the problem, engage students in a rethink activity, where they use entrepreneurial thinking to create change. Tell students: "After you define what is broken, get in the Rethink Tank and design a solution. What would you do differently?"
​Here are some questions you can use to help guide their rethinking:

• Reduce: How can we reduce our use of plastic bottles?
• Reuse: What can we reuse?
• Recycle: How can we recycle?
• Repurpose: How can we repurpose plastic waste?
• Redesign: How can we redesign the system so we don't have plastic in the ocean?

Part 2
Here are some resources that you can use to help students learn more about the problems as they create solutions by rethinking!

Today is Arbor Day! Use the image above from ArborDay.org,  to initiate conversation about Arbor Day. Ask: What do you see? What do you think the people are doing? What do you wonder?

Once students have some wonder questions, they can conduct online research to learn more about Arbor Day and the importance of trees in our world. 

Learn about different types of trees with the Arbor Day Tree Identification Tool. 

Check out Carly's Kids Corner for some activities to help children connect with nature and learn more about trees. 

Enjoy the story of Curious George, as he discovers the importance of trees. Before you read, ask students to predict what the story will be about, based on the cover. During reading, ask students to draw or record things they learned about trees. After reading, have students create a poster, song, or story about what they learned about trees. 

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by tuning into the virtual 24 hour live event that EarthDay.org is holding. 

What will you do?
Watch the Lorax and imagine you are given the seed. What would you do differently? 

Then, watch How to Help the Earth by the Lorax. What will you do to help the earth?

With one day until the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we wanted to remind you to tune in to the virtual 24 hour live event that EarthDay.org is holding. This is just one of many things you can do to engage students at home with an appreciation of the beauty of nature!​

While at home, there are also many live and recorded webcams that you can view to have students appreciate the unique creatures that we have on this planet. For example, check out the live Jelly Cam and visit the website at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. What else did you learn about jellyfish? 

Now, check out the Audubon Puffin Burrow webcam below. Audubon has been helping to reintroduce these birds to the islands off Maine since the 1970's. Learn more about puffins at the Explore.org Live Cams. 

Then conduct some research on puffins. Why did the Audubon society need to reintroduce these birds? What happened to them in the first place? What can we do to better protect species? Put on your entrepreneurial thinking cap. Use some of the resources on EarthDay.org to learn more about conservation of our many endangered species on earth. 

Now, enjoy the bears at Katmai National Park, Alaska and check out more links to webcams at  SierraClub.org.  

Yesterday, we shared five incredible sustainable art pieces from living sculptures that float to real pieces of ice from the largest glacier in Iceland. If you missed those, check them out here. Sustainable art is a way for artists to use their talent to spread awareness. This form of creativity isn't a typical way to address the planet's environmental problems, which makes it a perfect lesson for you and your students to learn about entrepreneurial and design thinking! Here are five more breathtaking sustainable art pieces. 

​Jeff Koons created a white terrier covered in flowers. The structure stands at 40-feet tall and is located at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Flowers may be small, but they're important for feeding insects, birds, and even us! In addition, they make the world a beautiful place!

Everyone knows how harmful plastic bottles are to the environment. According to seasidescavenge.org, 20,000 water bottles are purchased every second, and this pattern continues to increase each year. The United Nations created this large fish sculpture out of plastic water bottles as a protest to the massive plastic problem that is taking over our oceans.

Dutch artist, ​Florentijn Hofman, created these beautiful slug sculptures made out of 40,000 plastic bags that were knitted together. They stand at 18 x 7.5 x 5 meters tall and was placed in Angers, France for the Accroche-Cœurs festival. This piece addresses the problem of plastic bags, which actually take about 10-20 years to decompose. Learn more about the making of this piece here.

Shavings from old construction plywood is usually thrown away, but Henrique Oliveira saw this as a chance to create art. He used brushes to create this three-dimensional sculpture made of plywood shavings. His work resembles large, twisted roots that make a massive statement in the room. It's stunning and mesmerizing and definitely a beautiful way to reuse old construction materials.

Nirit Levav ​is an artist and fashion designer from Israel. She collects junk (often made of metal) and turns them into beautiful, life-sized dog sculptures. Many of them are made of old bicycle chains, like the one pictured here, which she collects from motor garages and bike shops. She proves that you can create art out of anything!