Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas, fights to remain carbon neutral and do its part to prevent the devastating effects of climate change. Students will watch a video clip from the documentary series The Age of Nature while simultaneously completing an organizer that has them identify the Who, What, Where, When, Why of the video. Students will then work on a critical thinking response and share their six-word summaries.

China’s Loess Plateau suffered from ecological collapse for decades, eroding its landscape, causing floods, and taking over seven million lives. How were its people an answer, and a solution? Students will watch the clip from the documentary The Age of Nature about the Loess Plateau in China and fill out a graphic organizer that accompanies the video. Students will then work on a critical thinking response. Students will close with a Jamboard or Padlet discussion question. A choice board has been provided as an extension activity.

About the Author: 

Chances are that you’ll hear Dana Farr before you see her. On a typical school day, her voice radiates down the 8th grade hallway of East Hall Middle School, where she’s taught Georgia Studies for the past seventeen years. In her classroom, you’ll find her singing (most likely a song she’s made up), on the floor helping students, or holding a virtual reality (VR) headset to take her students on an interactive journey. Dana works to mold her learners into creators, thinkers, and designers. For Dana, technology is a gateway to the past and allows her to make social studies relevant to students. Through her work with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), Dana serves as a member of their Educator Advisory Board, assists with Tech Tip Tuesday Webinars, and helps GPB with VR tours, including a presentation last fall for the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Dana oversees her school’s VR lab, one of the first in the state of Georgia, is a co-sponsor of her school’s broadcast club, and serves in various leadership roles throughout her school. Dana’s dream is for the volume of her voice to amplify the need she sees for all students to learn, to innovate, and to feel loved.