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High School Curriculum, “Buy, Use, Toss?”

Made in collaboration with Facing the Future, Buy, Use, Toss? is an interdisciplinary unit that includes ten fully-planned lessons.This unit is correlated with national science and social studies standards and will lead your students through an exploration of the system of producing and consuming goods that is called the materials economy. Students will learn about the five major steps of the materials economy; Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal. They will also be asked to analyze the sustainability of these steps, determining how consumption can benefit people, economies, and environments.

 

 

posted by Christina M. Samala
April 22, 2010
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  • Anon

    It is a pity this material was drafted with such a heavy slant on Christianity. Why not rather draft this wonderful course in a neutral sense and let teachers add their own slant to it e.g. if they want to add prayers and Psalms or leave it as it is. I think this material could be used elsewhere not only churches and Sunday School groups but well done on another publication. The work you do it excellent and reaches many people who would otherwise not have acess to important on the important issues you raise.

  • Anon

    Correct: The work you do it excellent and reaches many people who would otherwise not have access to important information on the important issues you raise

  • Adam Groves

    I can relate to what Anon says in their first comment but as a church youth leader with a growing green conscience (in no small part due to the Story of Stuff) all I can say is – thank you for this wonderful resource! God bless, Adam

  • Dr. James Singmaster

    The stuff that is looming to engulf of us is the organic wastes including plastics and sewage that are seeping out drugs, germs and toxics in the way we presently handle them. And they are ever-growing with greater restrictions on where they can be disposed.
    In the UK two govt. agencies are working on waste strategies, but our federal govt. has no such agency. I urge readers here to send a message to Obama’s Whitehouse website calling for establishment of a federal agency to develop strategies to handle our expanding messes of organic wastes, of sewage and of plastics. These messes instead of engulfing us can become resources in controlling climate change and water pollution and even get us some renewable energy if
    handled properly. Dr. J. Singmaster

  • Jon

    I hate to say this, but the “Story of Stuff” is a very shallow-minded overview of the problems we face. It’s exactly what we hear all the time: “Corporations are running the world, government is too big.” Do you understand how many people corporations employ around the world and how they’ve raised the standard of living for people of all walks of life? If it wasn’t for the corporation and billions spent in R&D these green initiatives you speak of wouldn’t be possible. Suffice to say, it seems that you imply that world inequality is on the rise; however, the truth it the exact opposite- incomes and equality are rising among nations, mostly due to the outsourcing of work from the core to the periphery. Re: government. The government’s job was to spread consumerism? Why do you assume people are so stupid and swayed so easily by the government, as to somehow accept this “consumerist lifestyle” you speak about?

  • http://seabrookumc.org Charlotte Cherry

    Too often, Christians misinterpret the bible to instruct us that we have ‘dominion’ over the earth, i.e., to rule, dominate, take for our pleasure. In fact, we are to be stewards of God’s gifts and to protect them, even as we use them. Some comments here complain that there is a “Christian” slant. As a youth director and an environmentalist, I greatly appreciate this 6-week series to help my youth to understand their responsibities as a christian in the web of life.

  • http://blog.abhayamedia.com Manjunath

    For most, what matters is what is the end goal. While it is not most important to debate about the path chosen to reach the greening project. An excellent work indeed.

    Everyone, irrespective of religion, nationality, should participate and contribute positively. Perhaps, one can start this at home.

    http://blog.abhayamedia.com/why-clearing-useless-junk-at-home-is-win-win-solution/

  • Chris

    Let’s get serious. The whole intention of this program is to bring churches in line with certain political parties. Once you get the churches, you get the congregation. Apparently, that was wrong under George W. Bush, but in the name of saving the planet, that’s somehow okay now. The rednecks were stupid when their churches told them to vote for Bush, but now that they convinced a lot of people to vote for Obama, there’s somehow a difference. I’m sorry to bust everyone’s bubble, but I stand for principles, not politics or parties. The planet matters to me, but you’re not going to solve problems by getting the same politicians elected or by forcing people to choose between a climate initiative and their jobs.

    The only way you’re going to make this a better planet is by changing people’s hearts. As long as there are people who you’ve alienated into tossing their garbage on the street, you might as well quit right now. You solve climate problems by getting people involved and you do that by finding common ground, not by writing a manifesto and calling everyone who disagrees with it a eco-terrorist.

  • Dr. Samuel B. Payne

    I encourage you to read between the lines of this material before passing it along. Serving God is not the same as serving the earth.

  • J

    The Story of Stuff together with and its curricular parts are an insult to hundreds of years of science.

    The Story of Stuff:
    1) claims that we used up all the water and trashed the place. Where does the water come from? The ocean. How does water get to dry land? – evaporation and then rain. Can you use it all up? No. It keeps coming back. If you use none of the water from the rivers where does water go? To the Ocean! Can you use the water faster than it is generated in a particular area (eg farming)? Yes. What happens then? You can’t do as much farming there. What happens to the water that is used in farming? it goes into the plants or evaporates into the air. When the plants die or are eaten the water goes back into the system and is recycled.

    2)claims that we have a tiny fraction of our original forests left. What does that even mean? The oldest tree on the planet is apprx. 10k years old. It lives in Norway on top of a mountain where its growth rate is almost zero. It trunk is relly only a couple of hundred years old. Most trees only live a couple of hundred years before they die from disease, wind fall, lightning strike, or insect damage. When you cut a tree down another will grow in its place. In fact, unless you constantly slash, burn, cut and poison plants they will overgrow your yard, creep into you house and tear it to pieces. In a hundred years you wouldn’t be able to find it. Original forests? You mean when the dinosaurs walked the earth? Those forests have been gone for hundreds of million years!

    Should we be good stewards of the earth? Yes. Should we lie about how the Earth works to forward the agenda of a particular group. NO! Unintended consequences result from a path chosen based on a false premise.