Selfie culture influences the kinds of images youth create. What would happen if for one day, students across Canada shift the lens of their camera to focus on our beautiful planet? Posting their images online in an exhibit/social media campaign, can children change thinking by challenging viewers to "See the Earth First"? Students will share ideas and discoveries through the process of creating visual art (image making) as well as through critique and dialogue about existing photos (meaning making). Teachers will facilitate photography walks encouraging students to focus on the compositional elements of colour, line and point of view. The practice will be grounded in “slow looking” to take in details in the natural world around them. The work of master photographers including Edward Burtynsky as well as contemporary works will be examined through a collective thinking process. Dialogue will be prompted by questions designed to recognize the value of diverse points of view. Learning outcomes for transformative education include:
-Use of personal experience and knowledge to connect with images and develop understanding of self, community, and world
-Thoughts, voices, expressions and selves to been seen, acknowledged and valued
-Relationships with place
-Provide a space for people to bravely challenge systems and enact change
-Sense of belonging and responsibility to global community
-Technical skills and elements and principles of design
-Knowledge and appreciation of art and artists
SDGs addressed through this project: