From Laptops to Water: Overconsumption
Emma Drongowski and Stephanie Shyken
NFTY Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Institute; Zionsville, In
Goals
- Participants will become aware of global and local social action causes that they can become involved with.
- Participants will better understand the ladder of their own giving.
- Participants will feel motivated to act on global and local causes.
Objectives
- Participants will perform tasks that expand their knowledge about various social action projects.
- Participants will create physical objects to reflect upon the knowledge gained from this program.
Materials:
o White board
o Expo dry erase marker
o M&Ms (10 per person) 1 gallon bag?
o About 50 pieces of black embroidery floss (5-10 little spools)
o Purple, Blue, Green, Red and Black beads- one of each color for each participant.
o White address labels to make warning labels out of (1inch by?)
o Markers (5 packs)
o 1 laptop
o 50 pencils
o 4 Poster boards
o 1 roll of Scotch Tape
People Needed:
o 5 group leaders (one for each station)
o 5 GUCI staff to help group lead
o 2 Regional SAVPs- MV and OV
o Advisors
Space Needed:
Beit am
Tarbut
Time Table:
00:00-00:5- Introduction
00:05-00:07-PPs Move to First Station
00:07-00:16-First Station
00:16-00:18-PPs Move to Second Station
00:18-00:27-Second Station
00:27-00:29-Move to Third Station
00:29-00:38-Third Station
00:38-00:40-Move to Fourth Station
00:40-00:49-Fourth Station
00:49-00:51-Move to Fifth Station
00:51-01:00-Fifth Station
01:00-01:10-Final Discussion
01:10-01:15- Wrap up
Detailed Procedure:
00:00-00:5- Introduction
The MV and/or OV SAVP will explain how the rotations will work. They will give an intro to the program saying “On the Fifth day of creation, God said, ‘Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth.’ So God created great whales and everything that moves in the water, and winged animals—all these producing after their kinds; and God saw that it was good. And He blessed them, saying, ’Be fruitful, and multiply.’ And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Keep in mind as you are moving through the stations, of the particular order that God created the creatures. He created the animals of the air and sea before he created the animals that walk on earth. As there is an order of creation, there is an order of giving. Each station is a problem going on in the world that we as Americans, Jews, and Humans should care about and/or help to fix. You will learn about each cause and receive a bead to represent that cause. ”
When walking into the Tarbut, PPs will receive a number on their hand, numbered 1-5. That number corresponds with the station that they will be attending first. 1 goes to Station A, 2 goes to Station B, 3 goes to Station C, 4 goes to Station D, 5 goes to Station E. When rotating, PPs will go to the next alphabetical letter, and will move from E back to A.
00:05-00:07-PPs Move to First Station
PPs move to their first assigned station.
00:07-00:16-First Station
See appendix A, B, C, D and E.
00:16-00:18-PPs Move to Second Station
00:18-00:27-Second Station
See appendix A, B, C, D and E.
00:27-00:29-Move to Third Station
00:29-00:38-Third Station
See appendix A, B, C, D and E.
00:38-00:40-Move to Fourth Station
00:40-00:49-Fourth Station
See appendix A, B, C, D and E.
00:49-00:51-Move to Fifth Station
00:51-01:00-Fifth Station
See appendix A, B, C, D and E.
01:00-01:10-Final Discussion
PPs will remain in the groups and locations from their last rotation. The GLs will stay with the group that was at their station during the last rotation. GLs will then ask the PPs
· How many of these causes have you heard of before? From where?
· What new things did you learn about these causes? What surprised you?
· What will you take away from these stations?
GLs will now tell PPs:
“I now want you to take all your beads and put them in order of greatest to least importance. You can either choose which you personally feel are most important, or which you think should be addressed first. Please take as much time as you need. Remember, the purple bead is for hunger, green is for green living, blue is for water, red is for homelessness, and black is conflict minerals.”
GLs give PPs up to 2 minutes to order their beads. Then ask if any of the PPs want to share the way that they ordered them.
GLs will ask the following questions:
· What criteria did you use to order the beads?
· What makes some causes more important than others?
· Similarly to the creation story, what criteria did God use to determine the order of creation?
· Why do you think that God placed certain creatures above others?
· Do you think that was fair or ethical of God?
01:10-01:15- Wrap up
All PPs will gather in the middle of the Tarbut to listen to PL. The PL will ask a few (about 3) of the PPs why they put their beads where they did.
Appendix A/Station A- Hunger
Purple Bead
The GL will place 4 large posters up on the wall. Each poster will say the name of a country on one side, and a picture and description on the other. The picture and description show what a typical family in a country eats for one week. The GL should place the poster so the PPs can only see the name of the country. The countries will be: The United States, Chad, China, and Ecuador.
The GLs will pass out pieces of paper with the descriptions of what the families eat. The PPs, as a team, will then try to figure out what description goes with each family. If they think that a description goes with a country, they will tape the piece of paper onto the poster board. There are multiple parts to each description, so there will be multiple pieces of paper taped to the poster board.
Once all of the pieces are taped to the board, the GLs will turn and read the posters so that PPs can see the country name, the picture, and the description of each family.
Descriptions to Match:
Family: Grandmother, son, father, and mother
No dairy available
$77.75 spent on beverages
$71.61 spent on Fast food
Typically eats: Sorghum, lentils, dried tomatoes
11 pounds of rice
$91.01 spent on multi-vitamins
Amount spent on food for one week: $500.07
Amount spent on food for one week: $1.23
Amount spent on food for one week: $341.98
Amount spent on food for one week: $155.06
Typically eats: Lots of dried/dehydrated vegetables and spices
$66.78 spent on processed foods
$54.92 on meat, fish and eggs
The father works in a corporate office, and the mother is a stay at home mom. The two sons attend high school, and do not work.
Family: Father, Mother, seven children
Occasionally a slaughtered animal eaten after a religious ceremony
They have recently switched from shopping at the smaller, local markets, to buy at the larger international markets. This involves shipping foods from large warehouses and more processed foods.
The mother used to cook every night, but with the failing economy, she has increased her hours, and they are now eating whatever is around the house. They also have resorted to restaurants, frozen foods, and fast food.
Full Family Descriptions (For GLs Only, but will also be printed on the BACK of the poster):
Chad:
The Abdallah Family.
Family: Father, Mother, seven children
Situation: They lived on and worked their own farm for nearly a decade before they were driven out by a rebel group. They now live in a refugee camp where their rations are monitored by the United Nations.
Amount spent on food for one week: $1.23
Typical Foods: dried meat, dried fish, sorghum, lentils, dried tomatoes, no dairy available, and limes occasionally a slaughtered animal after a religious ceremony, $00.51 spent on fruits and vegetables.
The United States:
The Revis Family
Family: Mother, Father, and two sons
Situation: The father works in a corporate office, and the mother is a stay at home mom. The two sons attend high school, and do not work.
Amount spent on food for one week: $341.98
Typical foods: $77.75 spent on beverages, $71.61 spent on Fast food, $24.27 spent on frozen, prepared food, $21.27 spent on snacks and desserts, $54.92 on meat, fish and eggs.
China:
The Dong Family
Family: Grandmother, son, father, and mother
Situation: They live in a small apartment in a very large city. They have recently switched from shopping at the smaller, local markets, to buy at the larger international markets. This involves shipping foods from large warehouses and more processed foods.
Amount spent on food for one week: $155.06
Typical Foods: 11 pounds of rice, $17.26 spent of condiments and sauces, $17.70 spent of desserts and snacks, $9.17 spent on fast food, lots of dried/dehydrated vegetables and spices.
Germany:
Melander Family
Family: Mother, Father, two children
Situation: The mother used to cook for the family every night, however with the failing economy, she has had to increase her hours, and the family has started having whatever is around the house. They also have resorted to restaurants, frozen foods, and fast food.
Amount spent on food for one week: $500.07
Typical Foods: $78.01 spent on vegetables, $70.17 spent on beverages, $91.01 spent on multi-vitamins, $66.78 spent on processed foods, $64.33 spent on dairy,
Discussion Questions:
· Was it easy to identify which description went with each country? Why or why not?
· What surprised you about each country’s typical week? What was predictable?
· What outside factors affect the family’s meals? The economy? Politics? Geography? How so?
· What does this teach us about our own diet?
· How could we help the families that are in need?
Appendix B/Station B- Clean Water
Blue Bead
Each PP is handed a How Much Do You Know About Water Quiz and have about 3-4 minutes to fill it out. Then the GL will go over the answers, and discuss.
How Much Do You Know About Water Quiz
1. True/False: 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies.
2. True/False: An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
3. True/False: Lack of sanitation is the third world’s biggest cause of infection.
4. True/False: Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
5. True/False: More people have access to a toilet than a cell phone.
6. True/False: Less than 10% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.07% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
7. True/False: The ancient Romans had better quality water than half of the people alive today.
8. True/False: 50% of the world’s fresh water supply is used for agriculture
9. True/False: In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.
10. True/False: Constructing a sanitary toilet only costs $50 USD
11. True/False: Russia is the #1 water recycler in the world
How Much Do You Know About Water Quiz ANSWERS (FOR GL ONLY)
- True: 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies. This is about 1 in every 8 people.
- True: An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. We need to take shorter showers since we take 10-20 minute showers on average.
- False: Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection.
- True: Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
- False: More people have access to a cell phone than a toilet.
- False: Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
- True: The ancient Romans had better quality water than half of the people alive today.
- False: 70% of the world’s fresh water supply is used for agriculture
- True: This lost productivity is greater than the combined number of hours worked in a week by employees at Wal*Mart, United Parcel Service, McDonald’s, IBM, Target, and Kroger.
- False: Constructing a sanitary toilet only cost $30 USD
- False: Israel is the #1 water recyclers in the world, recycling almost 70% of all water used.
Discussion Questions:
· What surprised you about these facts?
· What other problems do you see being affected by or related to the water conflict?
· What do you think can be done locally about this problem? Internationally?
· What can we do to decrease the amount of water used in the US daily?
· How can we provide clean, safe water to countries in need?
All facts provided by: http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/
Appendix C/Station C- Let’s go GREEN!
Green Bead
The group is divided into two groups. The groups will compete against each other. Each group has to guess what their group member is drawing on the white board.
Each GL will take one team and only give the drawer the next word once they have completed the word before it. The lists are different, so that PPs cannot cheat off of the other team. PPs have 7 minutes to get as many as they can.
Then GLs will ask discussion questions and write down ideas taken from PPs.
Group 1 list
o Recycling
o Carpooling
o Vegetarian
o Save
o Reuse
o Care
o Life
o Earth
o Water
o Energy
o Electricity- wind power vs coal
o Heat
o Global
o Ozone
o Help
o Oil
o Sun
o Heat
o Trash
o Pollution
Group 2 List
o Pollution
o Trash
o Heat
o Sun
o Oil
o Help
o Ozone
o Global
o Heat
o Energy
o Electricity- wind power vs coal