This video describes how drastically things have changed on Earth over the last 100 years, the complicated problems we currently face, and what the term Anthropocene means.
It discusses a variety of topics including fossil fuel use, agriculture, technology, and human population growth.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This helps explain the complex and multifaceted solutions required to address the many global issues we face today.
It discusses computing power, increasing complexity, the dark side of innovation, and atomic fission.
Additional Prerequisites
It may be beneficial to pause the video to emphasize certain points or to check for understanding between topics.
Differentiation
This is a great video to incorporate into science classes, social studies classes, or history classes because it discusses the environmental, social, and historical aspects of the global problems we currently face.
Advanced students could discuss topics such as ecological carrying capacity, quality of life metrics, ethics regarding species extinctions, and "hoping" for a technological innovation to save us.
The video illustrates the Anthropocene, the increased complexity and interconnectedness of human, evolution, energy transition, population growth, and technological advancement. This resource is insightful and recommended for teaching.
Standards
English Language Arts
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, perspective, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
Science
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
8.ESS3.4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
7.LS2.1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
Social Sciences
Historical Thinking (K-12)
6.23 Explain and analyze the historical context of key people, cultures, products, events, and ideas over time including the examination of different perspectives from Indigenous people, ethnic and religious groups, and other traditionally marginalized groups throughout the Western Hemisphere.
