Connections Are Everywhere

Try this sometime when you have an hour to spare: go to the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) Resource Center weblinks . Pick 10 websites to visit at random and spend 5 minutes or so at each, jotting down notes about what each site is attempting to achieve or solve. As you go through them, begin writing down the connections you discover. For example, you may find an environmental organization’s site that includes sections about reversing global warming trends though policy changes, an animal protection site that that includes information about animal agriculture as a huge source of greenhouse gases, a green store that sells products that enable people to move toward solar energy and greater energy efficiency, and a human rights site that attempts to help environmental refugees.

When you’ve gone through the 10 sites, write down your ideas for ways to solve the underlying problem(s) that you noticed connected them all. What systems need to change? What skills and interests do you have that might help change these systems? What new ideas do you have that you haven’t seen in the sites? If you’re an educator, how can you use this new knowledge and approach with your students? (Teachers: if you design a lesson, activity, or course around this concept, and you’re willing to share it, we can post it with our Humane Education Activities.)

~ Zoe