Today in public school my 2nd grader brought home a T-chart of natural resources and man-made resources. Under "Man-Made Resources" the worksheet had listed video games and soda. "How are video games and soda a resource?" I ask myself. Perhaps they meant the plastic these things were made from. But no, as I look again, there under the clip art were the words "soda" and "video games". When I asked his teacher how these two things were, her response was, "I don't now. Perhaps you're over thinking it."
As part of this study of natural resources in his Science class, he also completed a booklet called "Tree to Paper" which he colored brown and cut out the log-shaped worksheet pages. Thinking of the great educational links and footage they have on-line now, I inquired if they had watched any footage of paper mills and how the trees are chipped and soaked in water. I asked if his class was going to make recycled paper so they might better understand the process. His response was, "Nah... We just colored the log and cut it out."
