They initiate conversations around who has a voice, who has agency, and who can and cannot use their voices for change. In some cases, students found that some textile companies had already been penalized for recent or past environmental contamination in that area. Students use their background knowledge from class discussions about water cycles and historical maps researched online to locate water tables in the areas. Google satellite mode affords students the ability to use topography to identify water runoff routes. They also use Google maps (satellite mode) to hypothesize the various pathways improperly used or stored contaminants could take from the factories to nearby areas where people and other organisms can be affected. Using Google Maps, set to satellite mode, my students very quickly notice factory location to major water systems and nearby neighborhoods, which tend to have predominantly Black and Latinx populations. We collectively begin the year by investigating local textile factories and their possible waste contamination and the areas where they are located. One major application of solving “real-world” problems is examining a social/racial phenomena in ecology called environmental racism.
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