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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

Designing action plans with intentional collaboration

A Locust’s Story

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Objectives

  • Explain the global impact of a locust swarm and identify the people directly affected
  • Analyze the priorities and concerns of a specific stakeholder
  • Design a plan of action based on a specific stakeholder’s primary needs
  • Collaborate with multiple perspectives and adapt their plan of action to meet the needs of everyone

Students will be able to…..

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Douglas Lawton

  • PhD Student in the Environmental Life Science program, SOLS
  • North Carolina, (university of north carolina at greensboro, BS in biology)
  • Landscape ecologist
    • how vegetation and climate patterns and land degradation impact locust abundance, migration, and swarming.

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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The Amazing Grasshopper World!

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Schistocerca gregaria

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The Continuum

  • Avoid each other
  • Less active
  • Less abundant
  • Attracted to each other
  • More active
  • More abundant

gregarious

solitarious

(Pener, 1983)

(1) they form at some (rather irregular) periods dense groups, comprising huge numbers, bands of hoppers and/or swarms of winged adults which migrate

(2) they are polymorphic in the sense that individuals living separately differ in many characteristics from those living in groups

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What Makes Them Turn Gregarious?

Visual

Tactile

Olfactory

Nutritional

.

Simpson et al. 2001; Cease et al. 2012; Desplan and simpson, 2000; Collett et al. 1998; Veran et al, 2015

Grass/food distribution

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Where are locusts?

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The American Locust: Rocky Mountain Locust

12,000,000,000,000 individuals!

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The American Locust: Rocky Mountain Locust

12,000,000,000,000 individuals!

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The American Locust: Rocky Mountain Locust

12,000,000,000,000 individuals!

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The Mongolian Locust

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Locust Activity

  • 4 groups (~4 people per group)

  • Within your group, read the Fact Sheet

    • What is your group’s priorities and concerns?

    • Choose a spokesperson for your group to present their reality

    • Determine two policies your group will propose to policy makers

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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1-Minute Presentations

  • Each spokesperson will have 1 minute to discuss their reality (not proposed policies)

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Collaboration Time

  • Break into collaboration groups so that one person from each role is in each group.

  • Present your groups’ policy goals

  • Can you determine a compromise that will meet the needs of everyone in the group?

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Making a Decision

  • Move back into your expert role groups and discuss

  • Policy makers – any questions for the constituents before meeting to make a decision?

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Policy Makers Make a Decision

  • Policy makers step outside and make decisions

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Groups – Can you Make a Decision

  • While the policy makers are outside, can you come to a consensus on two policies to implement?

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Groups – Can you Make a Decision

  • While the policy makers are outside, can you come to a consensus on two policies to implement?

  • What will you do if they come back with a different decision?

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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What’s the Decision?

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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So, back to reality!

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Joleen Hadrich,

Livestock Economics

Kevin Berry

bioeconomics

Brian Robinson

livelihoods

Arianne Cease

Ecophysiologist

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National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy

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Australia

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Where are the international locust organizations?

Global Locust Initiative

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Discussion Questions

  • Why should you teach about global food security in a place with no locust swarms?

  • How does this relate to the decisions you as a sustainability project leader have to make?

National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy