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COEJL PROGRAM BANK
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A Discussion on Interdependence and Diversity
COEJL
info@coejl.org
Source: To Till and To Tend
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A Discussion on Interdependence and Diversity At-a-Glance
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This activity encourages participants to pay more attention to the diverse components of their world and how these interact with one another.
Any of these sections can be done as a separate exercise.
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| Audience:
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Ages 8-10
Ages 11-13
Ages 14-17 (High School)
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| Facility:
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Outdoors (Camp)
Outdoors (Urban/Suburban)
Religious/Day School
Synagogue
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| Program Type:
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Educational Program
Prayer and Liturgy
Reading/Presentation/Discussion
Social Activity
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| Issues:
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Baal Tashchit/Waste/Recycling
Environmental Health and Justice
Spiritual Awareness
Sustainability
Tikkun Olam/Stewardship/Values and Ethics
Tzaar Baalei Chayim/Biodiversity/Endangered Species
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| Holiday:
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Rosh Hashanah
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Description
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1) Introduction---15 minutes
Read the second verse of the Torah (Genesis 1:2). (You may have to explain the meaning of the word "chaos." An example you might offer is an incredibly messy room where you can?t find anything, or paint spilled all over a piece of paper instead of spread on carefully with a brush.) Ask the children to draw their impressions of what this verse means on one side of the sheet of paper. Reading through the rest of the chapter, have them draw, on the other side of the paper, each element of Creation as it is mentioned in the text.
When you are finished, discuss the difference between the two sides of the sheet of paper between chaos and order?
2) Discussion on Interdependence --- 20 minutes
a. Open up the back of an old radio or t.v. or some other fairly complex mechanical device. Discuss how each part of the machine, no matter how small, has an important role to play in making the whole work smoothly. Try to show how, if a battery is pulled out, a wire breaks, or a spring becomes loose, the machine will not work as it's supposed to, or may not work at all. This is also true in nature. Each part of nature has a special role to play. Just as someone who has never looked closely at the inside of the radio has no idea how it works, the same is true of most people and their relationship with nature. We often see plants and animals in isolation, as separate from their surroundings. It takes close observation to understand how a food chain works, how animals, plants, and insects all interact with one another. Give one example of this interdependence, such as how bees and flowers need each other - bees get their food from flowers, and flowers are fertilized (pollinated) by the bees. Can they think of other such examples? (Woodpeckers that use trees for their homes and find their food in trees, and who in return help keep trees healthy; worms that feed on soil and make it richer; etc.)
b. Talk about different ways we relate to nature-we walk in the woods or by a stream to see the beauty around us, we make medicine that can save lives from trees and plants; we till the land to plant crops. Everything we do, even walking in the woods, leaves a human mark, a footprint, on our surroundings. No matter how hard we try we can not help but change our environment in some way. Have them think through all the interconnected consequences of seemingly small actions. For example, ask them what goes into making a piece of toast - not only the wheat that is grown, but also the gasoline for the tractor and harvester, the energy to transport and grind the wheat, the factory to make the bread, the oil that went into making the plastic cover for the bread, the steel that goes into the shopping cart and the car to go to the grocery store, the coal that makes the electricity to run the toaster!
If there is time, have the students think of another example and try to come up with all the interconnections.
3) Discussion on Diversity --- 15 minutes
Discuss how in the diversity of nature, everything has its place. Animals, plants, and people have all developed according to their own environment and are always finding new and unique ways to do things. Not everybody can squeeze into the same little niche. Ask the children to talk about all the different types of people they know - the different personalities and backgrounds of their family members and friends. What would life be like if every person they knew were exactly the same? What would it be like if they had to eat the same meal every single day, if there was only one type of food, no Italian or Chinese or Mexican recipes? How about if there were only one kind of musical instrument and only one type of music? Then have the students consider diversity in nature. Ask the children to imagine what the world would be like if there were only one type of animal, one type of flower, or only one color.
To connect this discussion with the one on interdependence, examine how, despite our differences, we still all have certain things in common - we all need clean air and water, a healthy environment. We all share the same planet and, if we change one part of nature, we can greatly influence another part, and other groups of people, in ways we do not usually consider.
4) Closing --- 5 minutes
To end the program, read one of the following passages:
a. Once, Honi the circle-maker was walking on the road and saw an old man planting a carob tree. Honi said to him:"You know that a carob tree takes 70 years to bear its fruit. Are you sure that you will live long enough to eat fromit?" The old man replied, "I found this world provided with carob trees, and so ' just as my forebears planted them for me, I will plant for my descendants." Honi then sat down to eat and fell asleep. As he slept, a cave formed around him and he was hidden, so that he slept for 70 years. When he awoke and came out from the cave, he saw an old man gathering carobs and eating them. Honi asked him, "Did you plant this tree and live to eat from it?" "No, my grandfather planted it for me. Now I plant for my grandchildren." Honi said to himself, "Only by sleeping 70 years could I understand this." (Based on Ta?anit 23a)
b. One glorious chain of love, of giving and receiving, unites all living creatures. None is by or for itself, but all things exist in continual reciprocal activities - the one for the all and the all for the one. None has power or means for itself; each receives only in order to give and gives in order to receive and finds therein the purpose of existence. (Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Nineteen Letters)
How are these passages about interdependence? What is the purpose of living described in each of them? From whom do we receive? To whom do we give? How is planting a form of giving?
Ask the children to think about how people they meet over the next few days interact with one another. Ask them to take a closer look at their surroundings to try to see how different things influence each other.
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Materials Needed
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Paper, markers, paints or crayons. It is helpful if you have a machine such as an old radio or t.v. that you can open up.
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Benchmarks
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Understanding of biodiversity, and greater appreciation of differences.
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Resources
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Preparation Time
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After acquiring the materials - none.
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Activity Time
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Attached Files
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Comments
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This program added on 2002-09-24.
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Programs placed on the Jewish Environmental Educator's Program Bank are
solely the property of the program submitter. COEJL has no right or
interest in the posted programs and is making no representations or
warranties concerning same. All inquiries concerning programs should be
forwarded directly to the program submitter.
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