TeachRock

Materials Required:

• Students should individually have a device with access to the internet (Chromebooks, etc.)

Motivational Activity:

1. Play Clip 1, Navicula, “Kembali ke Akar”. Explain that Navicula is a popular band in Indonesia. Encourage students to try to discern what the song is about based on the visuals of the music video alone. Then ask students:
   • Which imagery in the video stuck out to you?
   • What did you notice about the setting of the video?
   • What did you notice about the costumes?
   • Considering everything you saw in the video, what might you guess the song is about?
2. Display Image 1, “Kembali ke Akar” Lyrics. Instruct students to read the lyrics translated from Indonesian to English. Then ask students:
   • Based on the lyrics, what might this song be about? Which lyrics specifically give you a clue to the meaning of the song?
   • What might the title “Kembali ke Akar” mean? (Hint: examine the final line of the lyrics.)
   • Do you feel the lyrics of the song support the visuals of the video? Why or why not?
3. Show Image 2, Map of Indonesia. Inform students that Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia made up of over 17,000 islands. Explain to students that Navicula is a band from the island of Bali, and they often focus on environmental issues in their music.
4. Explain that one of the many environmental issues in Indonesia is the growth of palm oil plantations. Harvested from palm trees, palm oil has a long shelf life, is high in nutrition, and relatively inexpensive. For that reason, it is one of the most popular vegetable oils used in a variety of products, and there is a huge global demand for it.
5. Display Show Image 3, Common Products with Palm Oil. Ask students:
   • Based on this image, have you used a product with palm oil today? This week?
   • What product did you use?
6. Inform students that while palm oil is useful, harvesting it can be hazardous to the environment. Explain that in class they will be investigating the environmental impact of palm oil plantations and the ways palm oil might be more sustainably harvested.

Procedure

1. Distribute Handout – “NASA pinpoints cause of Earth’s recent record carbon dioxide spike,” NASA Earth Observatory (Teacher’s Guide available here). Read the handout individually, or together as a class, then ask students to answer the questions on the handout individually or in groups. Review the answers as a class.
2. Play Clip 2, Introducing Emmanuela Shinta. Ask students:
   • Where does this clip take place?
   • Who is the narrator of this clip?  What is her background? (Inform students that the narrator of the video is Emmanuela Shinta, an activist who is part of the Dayak indigenous group in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo.)
3. Display on the board the Global Soil Organic Carbon Map website, created by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Zoom in on Kalimantan by typeing “Kalimantan” in the search bar on the upper left corner, and inform students that this is the region that will be discussed in class.
4. Explain that the dark dots all over the island represent the density of organic carbon in the soil. Play Clip 3, “Soil Organic Carbon – The Treasure Beneath Our Feet,” Part 1. Then ask students:
   • According to the clip, what is “soil organic matter?” (It is the organic elements and molecules contained within soil.)
   •  Why is soil organic matter helpful? (It provides nutrients to plants and increases soil porosity, which allows the soil to hold more water.)
   • What is “soil organic carbon”? (It is the carbon that is captured and held within the soil.)
   • How does carbon enter into the soil? (Plants capture C02 in the atmosphere through photosynthesis. When leaves or other organic matter from plants fall to the ground, the carbon is absorbed by the soil.)
   • What happens to the carbon once it is in the soil? (Some stays in the soil, some is released back into the atmosphere, and some moves into the ocean.)
5. Distribute Handout – Soil Organic Carbon Comparison Worksheet. Instruct students to go to the Global Soil Organic Carbon Map on their personal devices. As a class, go over the handout, and allow time for students to create their individual bar graphs.
6. Ask students to share their findings from the handout with the class. Then ask:
   • Based on what was shared in class, how does the soil organic carbon density in Kalimantan compare with the rest of the world? Would you say in general that Kalimantan has more, less, or an average amount of soil organic carbon density?
7. Explain to students that Kalimantan has high soil organic carbon density because the island has a large percentage of peatlands.  Show Clip 4, Peatlands Definition. Then ask students:
   • How would you describe the soil of peatlands? (It is full of organic material that didn’t decompose.)
   • Why do peatlands have such a high density of organic carbon? (Because the organic matter doesn’t decompose and it holds a lot of carbon.)
   • According to the clip, what happens to peatlands when the water is used to irrigate plantations? (The the soil becomes dry because the water is siphoned off.)
   • What is the threat of dry peatlands? (They catch on fire more easily.)
   • What are the global ramifications of peatlands being on fire? (C02 is released into the atmosphere.)
   • What are some of the effects of peatlands burning for local indigenous people? (Pollution, the destruction of local plants and animals.)
8. Play Clip 5, Indigenous Resistance to Palm Oil Plantations. Then ask students:
   • What are some of the ways people in Kalimantan are fighting for a better environment?
   • In the clip, who might Emmanuela Shinta be speaking to? Do you think she was spreading the message in Indonesia, or somewhere else? (She was speaking to a class in City College in New York City). Why might such presentations be important to her work?
   • What were the young people’s demands in the clip?
   • Who were they making demands of?
   • How did they fight for their demands?
   • What was the result of their activism?

Summary Activity:

1. Show Clip 6, “Soil Organic Carbon – The Treasure Beneath Our Feet,” Part 2.  Then ask students:
   • According to this video, is it possible to continue to cultivate food while keeping carbon in the soil? What are some ways this can be done?
2. Distribute Handout – Excerpt from the IUCN Report, “Oil palm and biodiversity” to all students. Then split students into group. Ask groups to follow the directions on the handout. Then, reconvene as a class and discuss each group’s summary of the article. Then ask the class:
   • According to this report, is it possible to cultivate palm oil while minimizing environmental damage? What are some methods of doing this?
   • Recall what the activists in the previous video were demanding. Were any of the demands similar to what is being proposed in this scientific report? If so, which demands?
3. Display Image 1, “Kembali ke Akar” Lyrics again. Ask students:
   • How might Navicula’s lyrics align with efforts to harvest palm oil more sustainably?

Extension Activities:

1. Request a classroom viewing of the full documentary In the Land of Palm Oil here.
2. Research one of the following organizations. Write a short summary of the organization which includes it’s history, general goals, and what it is doing to approach the issue of palm oil.
   • Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
   • Conservation International
   • Tropical Conservation Fund
   • Orangutan Foundation International
   • Forest People’s Programme
   • Audubon Nature Institute

Handout – “NASA pinpoints cause of Earth’s recent record carbon dioxide spike,” NASA Earth Observatory Handout – “NASA pinpoints cause of Earth’s recent record carbon dioxide spike,” NASA Earth Observatory (Teacher’s Guide) Handout – Excerpt from the IUCN Report, “Oil palm and biodiversity” Handout – Soil Organic Carbon Comparison Worksheet

Next Generation Science Standards

MS.Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

• MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

MS.Weather and Climate

• MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

MS.Human Impacts

• MS-ESS3-2. Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Common Core State Standards

College and Career Readiness Reading Literature for Grades 6-8

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.7 Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.7 Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

College and Career Readiness Reading Informational Text for Grades 6-8

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.2 Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.9 Compare and contrast one author’s presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2 Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.9 Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-8

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.4 Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.2 Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.4 Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.2 Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.4 Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

College and Career Readiness Standards for Language for Grades 6-8

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.