Programs

Are you interested in using Disney film clips and gifs to engage students in thinking about the environment? Would you like to help students use entrepreneurial thinking to change harmful processes and practices? Then you will enjoy this workshop, where we will use clips from popular films and link them to decision-making and design thinking activities. This webinar is part of our grant from the Coca Cola Foundation, Sustainability Superheroes: Developing Global Citizens for a Sustainable Future.  The goal of Sustainability Superheroes is to help educators teach students about key sustainability development issues we face in the local and global economy. As such, the webinars will utilize an inquiry-based approach that infuses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and consider the connection between economic and ecological systems.  

In this session, we will provide activities for a variety of Disney favorites, which examine current sustainability issues. In the One and Only Ivan, what is the difference between animals on display and animal sanctuaries? How does trash in the ocean impact Nemo or Dory?  During the session, we will model how to engage students with rethink questions inspired by Toy Story, Frozen, Avatar and more! We will provide decision-making lessons and design challenges to help your students reimagine a more sustainable future. Whether you teach elementary or secondary, we will illustrate how to adapt activities to different grade levels.

Participants will have free access to resources, including Nearpod decision-making activities that engage critical inquiry.

Economics has always played a pivotal role in any society.  Production has always preceded consumption.  Scarcity has always meant people must give up something to get something better.  And governments and kings have always collected taxes in one form or another.  These and many other economic principles have played a pivotal role in the daily life of individuals and the history of peoples around the world. 

To understand the rise and fall of early civilizations then, it is important to analyze them from an economic perspective.  Such a perspective helps not only to “tell the story”, but also to “learn the lessons” that make history meaningful and relavant.   

This presentation will analyze the economics of civilizations in Mesopotamia, China, India, Greece, Africa, and the Americas.We will provide lesson materials aligned with Florida Standards suitable for middle school and high school Social Studies courses taught online as well as face to face.