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Alexander Blaustein's avatar

Alexander Blaustein

Valentia

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participant impact

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Alexander's actions

Health and Education

Become a certified Climate Ambassador!

The Climate Museum in NYC is working with local teens to form a Climate Volunteer Coalition! The first step is to educate yourself on the main talking points around climate change. Next, share your knowledge! To help you do this, the Climate Museum has produced a pocket-sized "Climate Ambassador" card. Read the instructions, print the card, cut/fold, and start talking to the people! If you don't have a printer--make your own! https://climatemuseum.org/ambassador **With parent permission** You can also sign up on the Climate Museum website for more info. You can even post a reflection that the Museum will publish on their website for all to see!

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Climate Change and Wildfires: How is climate change affecting you? Our hometown? And what can we do now?

First, the article about the CA wildfires and climate change. Climate Change In Your Hometown The featured article discusses the connection between climate change and California wildfires. Another Times article, from 2018, lets you track how the number of days when temperatures hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) or higher changes in your hometown over your lifetime. As you look at the graph created based on your hometown and the year you were born, what do you notice? (If you want, try entering the birth year of your parents or grandparents as well.) Then, scroll to see the climate predictions for your hometown when you are 80 years old. Continue to scroll to learn more about these predictions, and then see how your hometown compares to other parts of the country and the world using the interactive globe.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Sir David Attenborough: The Voice of Planet Earth Speaks on Climate Change

After you watch the video with your advisory, answer the reflection question below. For additional points, respond to a teammate's post!

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

Sustainable BUGS

The goal of this action to create a more sustainable school experience for our students and staff :)

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

Voting Rights

After you listen to the StoryCorp episode about voting rights, reflect on what it means to vote. Check in with the adults in your life-are they planning on voting? Why or why not?

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

For the love of nature

Post a photo of something from nature that you love and want to protect.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

Native Land and Practices Acknowledgement

Native Land Acknowledgement means to learn about, talk about, and show respect for the Native inhabitants of an area of land. We do this for many reasons: to correct history, protect and preserve the culture and identity of native peoples, acknowledge the role of European colonization in the loss of native lives and lands. For this activity, read about the Lenape. The tribe indigenous to Brooklyn, Queens , and Manhattan. Who are they, what was NYC like before colonization? How can we honor the Lenape today? (links below)

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ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Eliminating food waste during Thanksgiving (or other big meals!)

Watch the video and respond to the reflection questions below :).

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

Climate Change Action

Watch the film and respond to the reflection question :)

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Learning to Fly

Our surroundings, the environment--natural and manmade---have a huge impact on our life story. Watch the video together and then share a memory of your home, your neighborhood, or another special place that has helped you become who you are today.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Time's Kid of the Year: Water Quality Tester Engineer

Gitanjali Rao is the first “Time’s Kid of the Year”. She is being recognized for inventing a device that detects lead in drinking water.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Use the link below to calculate your own Carbon Footprint.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

BLM/BHM

The Black Lives Matter Movement drafted 13 Guiding Principles. These principles were created in order to heal and sustain our communities. Read through the Guiding Principles. Choose at least one to reflect upon.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

We are all connected: Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, she was not the first African woman to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize but racism, colonialism, and sexism have long played into this award. Read about Maathai, a biologist and activist, and reflect on what Americans can learn about her work and apply to our own hemisphere.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Jaysa Miller and Youth Voices for the Planet

Climate Change and pollution disproportionately affect Black Americans and communities of color. Young people like Jaysa Miller have had enough. Miller is working to unveil and hold developers, policymakers, and factory owners accountable for the risk they put communities in. Learn about her work by watching the video below!

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Why have the accomplishments of African Civilizations been obscured?

Harvard professor and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is interviewed by Audie Cornish about his series Africa’s Great Civilizations.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Health and Education

Research Barriers to Participation and Representation

Health and Education

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning more about the barriers to women's equal participation and representation around the world.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Health and Education

Women are at the front of Farmer's Protests in India

Read the article below and reflect on the event with your advisory and independently.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Health and Education Why have the accomplishments of African Civilizations been obscured?
    Why have the accomplishments of African Civilizations been obscured? How can we sustain these accomplishments and their impact?

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 5/12/2021 5:53 AM
    They have been obscured because of the interests of outside groups. From the 12 million slaves taken to the new world, to the Berlin Conference that carved up Africa. we can sustain these accomplishments by preserving artifacts from thiefs, empowering people to keep there culture, and empowering countries to preserve there history. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Health and Education Research Barriers to Participation and Representation
    What are some of the barriers that exist to women's equal participation and/or representation in your community?

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 3/10/2021 5:51 AM
    There is a large wage gap in the US between woman and men. Also, in some parts of the world, it used to be or still is unheard of for woman to do retail work, euntrapenurship, and other paths to economic prosperity. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Food, Agriculture, and Land Use We are all connected: Wangari Maathai
    What did you learn about Maathai's work? How is her work connected to contemporary African diaspora and climate change? What is one connection between events in Africa and decisions made across the world in American?

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 2/24/2021 5:55 AM
    I learned that she founded many environmental initatives in Africa to help teach people about planting trees, and to collaborate with different groups, specifically women's groups, to plant trees. She helped inspire people and break cultural glass ceilings by becoming the first woman in parts of Africa to ear a doctorates degree. She also introduced many people to the concept of sustainibility. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Electricity Carbon Footprint Calculator
    What can you do to either lower your carbon footprint OR "offset your carbon footprint. When you "offset" you basically pay it forward---you do something kind for the environment or another person to balance out your carbon use if you can't reduce it.

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 1/06/2021 6:03 AM
    I can try to get cleaner energy, and also offset my footprint by donating. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks For the love of nature
    Describe your photo and why you chose it!

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 12/16/2020 5:53 AM
    My photo is a picture of a pretty blue bird in a bush. I chose it because bird populations are going down and that I haven't seen as much of a variety of birds lately. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Industry Time's Kid of the Year: Water Quality Tester Engineer
    If you suddenly had the ability to invent a device that helps humanity, what would it do? (draw a pic and upload it you can!)

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 12/09/2020 5:53 AM
    I would genetically modify a food that is highly nutritious and easy to grow. Because of this, it could provide food to many of the worlds places that need it. Although its genetically modified, at this rate, humanity can't sustain itself with all organic food, unless there's so much less people. If not that, I would build a microchip that can store an insane amount of data, using quantum computing, and then install it into peoples brains, so they finally don't have to be so dumb, kind of like Neuralink. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community Native Land and Practices Acknowledgement
    Write a native land acknowledgement. I stand on ___________ land. The _________________ took care of the land by _______________. I promise to preserve the story and culture of the Lenape by ___________.

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 12/02/2020 5:58 AM
    I stand on Lenape land. The Lenape took care of the land by not overhunting, and making sure to stay connected to nature. I promise to preserve the story and culture of the Lenape by referencing it in any place I can. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Action Track: Healing & Renewal Climate Change Action
    What's one thing you can do in your daily life to slow down and appreciate our world--the people and the planet? How can you concentrate on doing more "good" instead of competing for "the best"? How has competing to be the best contributed to human impact on the environment?

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 12/02/2020 5:55 AM
    One thing  can do is go to Prospect Park, and wonder in the areas with nit many people. I can concentrate on doing good instead of being the bet by sometimes letting other people have a chance to do something, not just me. Competing to be the best has contributed to harming the environment because, when there is competition, say between 2 oil companies, they keep trying to outperform each other, forgetting less and less each time about conservation and the people they harm, taking. it for granted, when they can't. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Eliminating food waste during Thanksgiving (or other big meals!)
    What is one method of food waste reduction (or food saving!) Priya and Dominique talk about in the video What is one thing you can do this Thanksgiving weekend to cut down on food waste (and other types of waste!)

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 11/25/2020 6:02 AM
    They use the vermacompost to put any food scraps to good use. One thing i can do is save all the food scraps, and put them in the soil, or a vermacompost bin that i can make. 
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Land Sinks Learning to Fly
    Watch the video together and then share a memory of your home, your neighborhood, or another special place that has helped you become who you are today.

    Alexander Blaustein's avatar
    Alexander Blaustein 10/28/2020 5:54 AM
    One place that has helped me become who I am today is my grandparents house. There, I learned about my history, where my ancestors were from, and got me into reading the news, which eventually lead to activism.