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Animation Guide for Educators

Activities
Prompt
Dig Deeper
Discuss
Think

Buddhism Series

Episode 2 :
Life of Long Bean

Recognizing that faith leaders have been a driving force behind some of the most important and successful environmental movements, WWF-Malaysia partnered with Soka Gakkai Malaysia to produce an animation series called When We’re Friends (WWF) with Nature. Inspired by the teachings of Buddhism, the faith based animation series carries the message of, ‘It starts with one’ and uses the ‘Learn, Reflect, Empower’ approach which is aligned to WWF-Malaysia’s Education for Sustainable Development’s objective.

Think & put your brain to work!

Dig Deeper

Prevention and Care

If humans can cause damages to the environment, they will also have the capability to solve these problems. However, prevention is always better than cure.

Live A Simple Life

We can live simple lives by leading sustainable lifestyles. Consuming local food can help us reduce our carbon footprints as it does not require long-distance travel. Hence, causing it to be fresher and contain more nutrients compared to imported food.

Air pollution - the Culprit of Global Warming

Air pollution is known as the excessive release of harmful chemicals, particulates or biological material into the atmosphere. It can cause discomfort, disease, damage to other living organisms and the natural environment, or in worst cases, even death. Inhaling polluted air also decreases the human lifespan by at least one or two years. Air pollution is also one of the primary causes of global warming due to the high amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

 

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is one of the gases that contributes to the greenhouse effect. It traps radiation at ground level, creating ground-level ozone. This ground-level ozone prevents the Earth from cooling at night, causing the warming of ocean waters. The high water temperatures lower down the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide in the air. Therefore, trapping the heat that is released back into the air when the Earth's surface cools down at night. Hence, raising the Earth's surface temperature.

 

External Link: Air Pollution

Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere directly or indirectly, as a result of human activities. It usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). For instance, the engine burns fuel and creates a certain amount of carbon dioxide when we drive a car, depending on its fuel consumption and its driving distance. The production of food and products that we consume also emits a certain amount of carbon dioxide.

 

We can calculate our carbon footprint by using a carbon footprint calculator. To cut down our contributions in the emissions of carbon dioxide, we should drive less or drive a low carbon vehicle, use renewable energy more often, eat locally-produced food or organic food, and try to reduce our consumption on beef and dairy products. If every one of us can reduce our carbon footprint even just for a bit, it will still help in mitigating global warming.

 

External Link: What Are Carbon Footprints

Sustainable Living

Sustainable living is the practice of reducing our demands on Earth’s natural resources in our daily lives. This practice aims to ensure our future generations to be able to meet their needs. It is a lifestyle where we choose to consume products that promote sustainability or changing the way we use natural resources in our daily lives. By altering our modes of transport, energy consumption, and diet, it helps in reducing carbon footprint or the negative impact on the environment too.

 

By applying sustainable living, we can utilize less natural resources and produce lesser waste. It is cost-saving and helps to preserve the environment at the same time. For example, we could save a lot of money by minimizing the use of air-conditioner, reducing water and electricity consumption, and also implementing smart lighting solutions. Sustainable living also encourages us to utilize renewable resources instead of non-renewable resources. We can dramatically reduce our carbon footprint and carbon emissions by harnessing energy from renewable resources too. Besides these, sustainable living can benefit our mental health as well. The chance of getting depression lowers when we live in a house that is illuminated by natural light instead of artificial light. There are many more ways to live sustainably. Let's have a sustainable lifestyle start from today!

 

External Links:

Prompt your audiences

Why?

  1. Why is it necessary for us to eat fresh vegetables?
    Why is imported food more pricey than locally produced food?
    Why is it better to eat locally produced food instead of imported food?

 

How?

  1. How can we reduce food wastage?

  2. How do the gases released from the vehicles affect our lives?

  3. How can we practice a sustainable lifestyle?

 

What?

  1. What is organic farming? 

  2. What is compost?  

  3. What are the negative impacts that are caused by the gases? 

Activities you may want to try

Discussion.PNG

Discussion 1

Title: 

Plant Your Vegetable

Objective: 

Learn to grow food at home.

Description: 

Request the participants to plant their vegetables at home. Suggest them to plant vegetables that can grow in a small pot, such as lady finger, chilies, herbs.

Materials Needed:

Seeds, pot, fertiliser/compost, watering pot

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will be able to grow their vegetables or herbs.

Discussion.PNG

Discussion 2

Title: 

How can we cut down our carbon footprint?

Objective: 

To raise awareness about the importance of reducing our carbon footprint and how can we do it in our daily lives.

Description: 

Divide 4-5 students in a group and discuss ways to reduce their carbon footprint, then draw a poster based on the outcome of their discussion.

Materials Needed:

Drawing blocks, drawing tools

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will know how to reduce their carbon footprint and apply in their daily lives.

Games.PNG

Games 1

Title: 

Exploring Food Miles

Objective: 

To increase knowledge of the students about food miles.

Description: 

"1) Divide 4-5 students in a team. Each team should have a room to move in an imaginary lane from one end of the rooms to the other. 
2) Place an empty bowl for each team at one end of the classroom and a bowl full of Cheerios for each team at the other end. 
3) Give each student a piece of spaghetti. 
4) Give each group a different meal card and introduce each meal. Talk about the ingredients and where they come from. 
5) Give the students a time limit for 5-10 minutes. Explain the goal of the game: to get as many Cheerios as possible from one bowl to the other, BUT they can only use the spaghetti (no fingers, hands or other body parts) and can only bring 1 Cheerio at a time. 
6) When the time's up, ask the students to count how many Cheerios they have successfully transported. The team that has enough Cheerios to make their meal wins."

Materials Needed:

Cheerios or hoop shaped cereal, spaghetti, bowls

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will be able to understand the concept of food miles.

External Link: Exploring Food Miles

Games.PNG

Games 2

Title: 

Food Mapping

Objective: 

To increase knowledge of the students about the origin of the food they consume every day.

Description: 

Distribute a map to each student, state one food and ask them to draw the food on its place of origin. The student who has the most accurate answers wins.

Materials Needed:

Maps, pencil

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will know more about the origin of the food they consume.

Working Group.PNG

Work Group 1

Title: 

The Story Teller

Objective: 

To encourage students to think about their daily consumption with a more global and sustainable perspective.

Description: 

Divide 4-5 students in a group and let them select a food item. Then, ask them to explore the three stages of the item's life (production, sale, and disposal) and explain it in the form of a story.

Materials Needed:

Mahjong paper, marker pen

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will learn more about the life history of the food they consume every day.

Working Group.PNG

Work Group 2

Title: 

Make Your Own Smoothies

Objective: 

To encourage students to consume local fruits and vegetables as local fruits have higher nutrient values than imported fruits.

Description: 

Divide the students into two groups. One group of students uses local fruits to make their smoothies while the other group uses imported fruits to make theirs. After they made their smoothies, the students can taste both of the smoothies and compare the differences. Ask them to make a conclusion and explain that the taste of both smoothies should be the same, but the local fruits have higher nutrient values compared to imported fruits due to the long travel distance.

Materials Needed:

Local fruits, imported fruits, blender, ice

Expected Outcomes: 

Students will understand the difference between local fruits and imported fruits.

Discuss

Please start your discussion related to the animation series at the comments below. Do share with us your ideas or suggestions to make the teaching experience even better & for all to try it!

Try our other episodes!

Episode 1:

Life of Rice

Episode 4:

Life of Water

Episode 3:

Life of Monkey

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