Challenge

(6-8 classes)

Objectives:
*Successfully complete 6 challenges
*Earn all of your group's Earthstones and make sentences that match
  Wild Treasures' sentences

During the Challenge phase of Wild Treasures, your class will work in small groups to try and solve a variety of surprising problems designed to introduce you to 5 big ideas about sustainability: waste, exponential growth, cycling, feedback loops and entropy. If your class solves all the problems, it can earn FREE UNLIMITED WT Support from a WT Teaching Assistant during the next phase of the program, the Research phase. These 5 ideas are the foundation on which all the other phases of Wild Treasures rests.

During your classroom-based Challenge Trail, you will sort stuff into different categories and mess around with the meaning of waste. You will race against each other in order to experience first-hand the meaning of exponential growth. You will examine stuff buried under different conditions, and predict which set of conditions best represents a capped landfill. You will act as miners, refiners, manufacturers, retailers and consumers of a non-renewable energy source, and in so doing learn about positive and negative feedback loops. You will interact with solar panels, as well as gas and hand-cranked generators to experience first-hand the meaning of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And you will paint a portrait of your fantasy lifestyle. And in so doing, begin to realize how  these 5 big ideas are connected to their personal lifestyle choices.

If you're local, consider utilizing a WT Teaching Assistant to teach  experiential, problem-solving based lessons on any of the big ideas introduced along the Challenge Trail and/or to help facilitate the Research phase.

Where does the waste and recycling go in your community? Many transfer stations allow tours. Consider adding a short field trip so your students can still experience a very active and provocative part of our waste stream.

Challenge Trail Stations

We recommended that you do the challenges in the order presented below since the concepts are intended to build on each other.

1. What is waste?
2. What’s so sneaky about exponential growth?
3. What’s the difference between landfills and nature?
4. What’s the difference between a good and bad feedback
     loop?
5. What’s the big deal about entropy?
6. Life styles: What's yours?

Earthstones: FOR TEACHERS' EYES ONLY

In return for solving each problem along your Challenge Trail, teams are awarded an Earthstone, a small rock (or piece of paper) with a word on it. Each team is trying to collect all of its Earthstones by the end of the Challenge Trail. Since each team is carrying half of their own Earthstones and half of the stones needed by another team, each group’s success is dependent on the success of another group. During the final part of the Challenge Trail, each group constructs a meaningful sentence from their six Earthstones. If their sentences match all of your sentences, they will have successfully completed the Challenge Trail.

Prepare the Earthstones before starting the Challenge Trail. Create the Earthstones either on paper or small rocks. Each set of four sentences should be composed of 6 Earthstones and marked in a way that distinguishes them as a set. Divide each set in half, mix them with another group and put in a bag with clear group identification markings.

Earthstone Sentences

1. Nature is the teacher of sustainability. Or, The teacher of sustainability is nature.

2. There’s no such thing as waste.

3. Finite Earth cannot sustain exponential growth.

4. A sustainable society safeguards future generations.

Nb. Each word goes on a separate Earthstone. Make each team’s Earthstones distinct from each other so they can easily be sorted and distributed.

Friendly reminder: By June you will have done something to significantly transform the way your school operates.

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