Students in Pennsylvania teacher Sarah Warner’s Advanced Placement Environmental Science course pose with their Ecological Footprint Calculator results. Pictured left to right: Coulson Bittner, Channing Bratton, Nathan Ferguson, Brooke Stern, Bailey Yerger, Jakob Logan, and Zack Mentzer (below).
We are thrilled to announce Sarah Warner, a high school science teacher in the United States, as the winner of our Earth Overshoot Day pledge photo contest. More than 1700 pledges were made to #movethedate of Overshoot Day this summer. Warner and her class went a step further, entering our contest by posting their pledge and the photo above to our #movethedate map.
We were inspired by Warner’s use of our Footprint Calculator in her Advanced Placement Environmental Science course. She prepares students for the calculator by asking them to think about related sustainability concepts such as the Earth’s carrying capacity and the global tragedy of the commons. After students complete the calculator, they discuss their results, which usually fall between two to six Earths, and see what they can change in the calculator to bring the results to one planet. They tackle several thought-provoking questions, such as how does the average American’s Footprint compare to other countries? And what is our role as citizens of the planet to compensate/educate/motivate others to live more sustainably?
“They love the activity. What makes it most useful for us is being able to compare our own data to others—like the average American—to make it relevant,” Warner says.
It is our hope that Warner and her students continue to use the GoPro camera prize to showcase their #movethedate and other sustainability efforts!