Story of Stuff

I will use this picture in the my environment class when we do a unit on the power of consumerism. My instructions to the students might go something like this:

• Look at the picture and what immediately comes to mind.
• Look at the items, are they similar?
• What the deal with the shopping cart and the trash can?
• Can you think of items you bought that are now in the trash?
• Is this type of behavior sustainable?
• What are the impacts? - Depleting resources, more waste, consumer society, etc
• Are you are part of the problem or solution?
• What can you do to move towards the side of 'solution'?
  

I would follow up by showing the whole movie (taster below). I also have a follow up activity that tracks how much they consume/use in a day and how far it travels.