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Lois Lowry

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Changes

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2pac - Changes (Official Video) Hope you enjoyed! Dont forget to Rate, Comment and Subscribe!

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Heal the World

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Michael Jackson - Heal The World (Official Video)

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MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - SAME LOVE (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

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Pakistani educator Ziauddin Yousafzai reminds the world of a simple truth that many don't want to hear: Women and men deserve equal opportunities for education, autonomy, an independent identity. He tells stories from his own life and the life of his daughter, Malala, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 simply for daring to go to school.

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"Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World"

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"Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World"

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Most Chinese political activists are grizzled lawyers, scholars and artists, one-time insiders that have been cast loose. Zhan Haite doesn't fit the mould.

Last winter, Zhan, an ambitious 15-year-old middle-school student in Shanghai, became an unlikely crusader against the country's draconian residence registration system, the hukou, a bureaucratic knot tying hundreds of millions of migrant workers to their rural hometowns.

Although Zhan attended primary and middle school in Shanghai - she moved there with her family in 2002 - she lacked a local hukou, precluding her from taking the city's high school entrance examination. Zhan was told she had two options: attend a vocational school, or return to her ancestral village, where opportunities are scarce.

Instead, Zhan decided to speak out. She organised a protest in front of Shanghai's education bureau, and posted a flurry of dissenting messages online. At first, the backlash was severe. Her family was briefly evicted. Local authorities threw her father in jail.

Yet Zhan's message was well-timed - hukou reform had recently risen to the top of the national agenda - and state-run media outlets began to take notice. Zhan was allowed to pen an op-ed in the China Daily newspaper, which ran under the headline Teen Girl Makes Case for Change.

In an interview in December, Zhan listed her heroes as Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi and Hu Shi, a prominent Chinese essayist who died in 1962. "Hu Shi once said that fighting for your rights is fighting for the nation's rights, and fighting for your freedom is fighting for the nation's freedom," she said. "A free and democratic country cannot be made up of slaves."

College freshman RaSia Khepra had always wanted to address the rampant violence plaguing his home city of Chicago - where more than 500 people were killed by guns in 2012 - but the death of his close friend is what motivated him to act.

Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was killed at random by a gunman on Chicago's South Side, a week after she performed at Barack Obama's inauguration celebration in January. Khepra was familiar with the sounds of gunfire in his neighbourhood and knew several people who had been shot, but Pendleton's death inspired him to act.

"I don't think having somebody that close to you can ever leave your mind if they've been taken in such a way," Khepra told the Huffington Post. "I do, definitely, think about her every day because I'm used to seeing her every day."

Khepra and other Chicago teenagers created the anti-violence awareness campaign Project Orange Tree, which helps co-ordinate community activities to stimulate a conversation about the causes of gun violence and is supported by the rapper Lupe Fiasco. Khepra said gun violence was often written off as a gang problem, but the issue also affected members of the community not affiliated with gangs. "I don't think a lot of the violence that's being labelled gang-related violence is as prevalent as it's being hyped up to be," he said.

Kelvin Doe was born to a single mother when Sierra Leone was being torn apart by civil war. "Her resilience and self-belief made it possible for me to be alive today," he once said. Kelvin was six when the diamond-funded conflict, notorious for the systematic amputation of victims' limbs, finally drew to a close.

Turning 17 this month, he is a personification of how the west African country is trying to rebuild and look forward. A short film about him has been viewed more than 5m times on YouTube.

Doe is a self-taught engineer of astonishing precocity. At the age of 11, he rummaged in dustbins for scrap electronics parts that could fix local problems. At 13 he made his own battery by throwing together acid, soda and metal in a tin cup, waiting for the mixture to dry and wrapping tape around it. This proved a big financial saving on batteries.

Frustrated by lack of a reliable electricity supply in his neighbourhood, Doe built a generator using parts that were home made or rescued from the rubbish. The generator also powered a community radio station that he built from recycled materials. He plays music under the name DJ Focus and employs his friends as journalists and station managers.

"They call me DJ Focus because I believe if you focus, you can do an invention perfectly," Doe said in the video on the Thnkr YouTube channel that proved a worldwide hit.

He had never been more than 10 miles from his home in Freetown until he won a national schools innovation competition and was picked last year for a trip to America, where he spoke at the Meet the Young Makers panel at the World Maker Faire in New York.

Doe became the youngest ever "visiting practitioner" with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) International Development Initiative. He presented his inventions to MIT students, took part in research and lectured to engineering students at Harvard College. He has been featured on CNN and NBC News and was a speaker at TEDxTeen.

His mentor David Sengeh, a PhD student at the MIT media lab, said: "The inspirational effects of the original Thinkr YouTube video have been remarkable. It has had a tremendous impact on Kelvin's life, on my life and on millions of people all over the world everywhere. In Sierra Leone, other young people suddenly feel they can be like Kelvin."

While most Brazilian teenagers are interested in computer games, homework, football or baile funk, Rene Silva has dedicated himself to fighting negative stereotypes about his favela community.

He set up his first newspaper at the age of 11, live-tweeted a police raid on his neighbourhood at 17 and has just completed his first book at the age of 19.

The shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro were long seen as violent no-go zones run by armed drug gangs, But Silva has used social media to show a more sympathetic, complex and hopeful side.

"The important thing about being young and doing what I do in the favelas is to create new points of reference," he said. "In the past, it was drug trafficking. Today, there is more recognition of the people who are trying to do good and change the reality of the place where they live."

Conscious of the shortcoming of the mainstream media, one of his teachers asked him to set up a community newspaper in 2005. At first, his family were doubtful about what he could achieve. His mother would scold him for getting home late from school because he had spent so long reporting and writing for Voz das Comunidades (Voice of the Community).

But he became the focus of every media organisation in the country five years later when he live-tweeted a huge military and police operation to "pacify" the Alemão favela where he lived. Silva's microblog corrected mistakes made by TV reporters and raised warnings about a young boy who was caught in the crossfire between the police and gangsters. HIs followers jumped from a few hundred to tens of thousands and his newspaper - now largely online - secured sponsorship.

Still not 20, Silva published a book this August, A Voz do Alemão, about the residents of his favela, which he hopes will further change perceptions of Rio's shantytown communities and expose the problems they continue to face after pacification.

Jack Andraka, 16, is the most recent grand prize winner of the Intel international science and engineering fair - where he unveiled an inexpensive way to detect pancreatic cancer.

At the age of 14 the Maryland boy investigated the disease after it had killed a close family friend, and found that it spreads rapidly and is rarely detected in its early stages. It is estimated to be the 13th most common cancer in the world and the eighth most deadly.

To try to fill the void of low-cost, quick, early-screening methods, Andraka emailed professors at nearby research institutions with a proposal and budget for research. Andraka said he contacted 200 researchers and one accepted the offer - Dr Anirban Maitra, professor of pathology and oncology at Johns Hopkins University.

With Maitra, Andraka conducted research and devised his prize-winning, inexpensive diagnostic method that can efficiently detect a protein for the cancer with 90% accuracy.

"This was a big accomplishment for me. It fulfilled my biggest and wildest dreams," Andraka told the Baltimore Sun. "But also, it means that I can actually get the word out about this deadly disease and this new test that I use to detect it."

Zea Tongeman, a 14-year-old from south London, was not a self proclaimed tech geek. "I used to think technology was just fixing computers and saying thing like: "have you tried turning it on and off again?" like in The IT Crowd," she says. But when she realised, after a Little Miss Geek workshop in her school, St Saviour's and St Olave's in Elephant and Castle, that tech could be fun and a force for good, she changed her mind. With a friend, Jordan Stirbu, she designed an app called Jazzy Recycling that aims to get people recycling by turning the sometimes tiresome task into a game.

"As Mary Poppins says: 'You find the fun and it becomes a game,' and that is exactly what our app does," she says.

Jazzy Recycling helps users find places to recycle, tells them what they can recycle and then enables them to scan, share and get rewards for their efforts.

Tapping into the teen mania for sharing even the most mundane titbits of daily life on social media, the game is then shared among friends.

Now Zea has some celebrity backing. Raj Dhonota, business consultant and an angel investor, who appeared on the Apprentice, is helping the pair build the app and they hope to launch in 2014.

She says: "To have people actually using our app and to know we have made a difference would be incredible, so fingers crossed it all goes to plan."

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Beyond Malala: six teenagers changing the world

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Malala Yousafzai, who met the Queen on Friday, has received plenty of plaudits for her campaigning, but the Pakistani schoolgirl is not the only teenager trying to make the world a better place. Guardian staff have come up with a list of six others but who have we left out?

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Frederick J.B. Moore II

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changing the world
is never an easy task

because the minds of man never want to change
but if you are crazy enough to try
then others will be crazy eough to follow

to change the world
you dont have to be perfect
all you need is an idea
worth sharing and worth following

to change the world
your heart has to be into it
you can`t half step what you do
or everything will fall apart

change, my friends
is a great weapon
one that everyman fears
and some seek to avoid
so beware that not everyone
will change with you
they are the lost ones

to change the world
you must be wise enough
to hold your tongue
and bear your arms

to change the world
you must be wise enough
to speak of peace
and surrender for your cause

if you change the world in anyway
you will be persecuted
because man always fears
anything he cant understand

to change the world
you need a foundation behind you
that will encourage you to keep pushing the world
when your broken and exausted

to change the world
your first step has to be yourself
because you are the greatest catalyst for change
and the greatest challenge to tradtion

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Changing The World Poem by Frederick J.B. Moore II - Poem Hunter

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Changing The World by Frederick J.B. Moore II. .changing the world is never an easy task because the minds of man never want to change but if you are crazy enough to try then others will be crazy . Page

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Rationale/Lesson Ideas/Writing Connection: The narrative essay is the final writing project students will undertake during this unit.  Students will be asked to take their explanatory proposal and act on it.  Students will be then asked to write a reflective narrative essay about one of the following: a time that they felt they made a difference in their community, a time they wished they had made a difference in their community, or about someone they know personally who has made a difference in their community.  They will be asked to identify the problem, the solution, as well as how they went about fixing the problem.  Students will be asked to reflect on this process of change.  Where there any backlash to the efforts? What was the result of the change? Was your community better or worse for this change?  How did the change effect you (the student)?

Aspect of Craft: Organization, Writing process, note-taking, brainstorming, application of theme

Objectives:

1.      Students will write a narrative about their experience trying to change their community.

2.      Students will be able to successfully brainstorm, draft, edit/revise, and write a final copy.

Standards:

CC.1.4.8.E: Write with an awareness of the stylistic aspects of composition. • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. • Use sentences of varying lengths and complexities • Create tone and voice though precise language. • Establish and maintain a formal style.

CC.1.4.8.M: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

CC.1.4.8.O: Use narrative techniques such as dialogue, description, reflection, and pacing, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters; use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events

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Rationale and Lesson Ideas: The purpose of this lesson is understand that change is not always easily or well accepted.  Students will return to an earlier text, “Changing the World”, and reexamine the author’s message.  Students will then watch the movie Invictus taking notes on the problem and its solution.  Students will also note the backlash the main character, Nelson Mandela, receives for trying to change the racial tensions in his home country.

Aspect of Craft: Note-taking, theme analysis, film analysis, discussion

Writing Connection: Students will analyze the common theme of change in each the poem, “Changing the World” and the film, Invictus.  Students after reading both texts will write a brief response explaining their thoughts on the difficulty of change.  Students will also attempt to pull in another figure who experienced backlash for the efforts.  Finally, students will argue whether or not the results of the change were worth the backlashes that the characters/figures faced.

Objectives:

1.      Students will analyze a poem

2.      Students will analyze a film

3.      Students will discuss the consequences of choices.

Standards:

CC.1.5.8.A: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, on grade level topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CC.1.5.8.D: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume and clear pronunciation.

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Rationale and Lesson Ideas: The Giver will be used as the fulcrum text for this unit.  Although the reading level is below grade-level, Lois Lowry writes a strong message of change.   Through the eyes of her protagonist, the reader understands that although the sacrifices made by the community has established a world of peace, the loss of human nature does not make it worthwhile.  Lowry’s main character, Jonas, after learning about the time back and back, desires to bring back the elements of humanity that were lost.  He acknowledged this problem and with the help of a mentor found a solution to help his community as a whole.  Students, as they read The Giver, will be responsible for answering questions in regards to plot as well as a double entry journal notating the problems in Jonas’ community, Jonas’ solution, and discuss whether or not the loss of humanity is worth world peace and stability.

Aspect of Craft: Note-taking, discussion, theme study, textual support

Writing Connection: Students will be completing double entry journal focusing on the theme of change.  Students will begin by identify world issues (violence, starvation, abandonment) that caused for the elders of the society to find the solution (sameness).  Students will then continue to observe Jonas’ community to determine the problems created by sameness.  They will then notate Jonas’ solution.  Using the information from their double-entry journals, students will then write a brief argument on whether or not the loss of humanity is worth world peace and stability.

Objectives:

1.      Students will support claims with textual evidence

2.      Students will be able to argue their perspective on the loss of humanity

Standards:

CC.1.3.8.A: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

CC.1.3.8.B: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

CC.1.4.8.G: Write arguments to support claims.

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Rationale/Lesson Ideas/Writing Connection: The purpose for lesson is for students to learn about explanatory writing.  In order for it to fit within the unit’s theme, students will be identifying an issue or problem that they have noticed within their community.  They will be expected to identify one problem and compose a brief proposal on how that problem can be changed.  Students will be asked to reflect on their previous lessons in regards to “Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World,” “My daughter, Malala” as well as the songs in our song study.  The class will begin by brainstorming as a whole a list of issues within the community.  Students will then pick one matter from the board, or another of their choosing, that they want to help from a solution for.  Students will then begin brainstorming potential ideas and then completing a think-pair-share or a small group discussion.  Students will be allowed to choose the same topic and may team up in regards to determining a solution.

Aspect of Craft: Discussion, Problem-solving, collaboration, research, writing process

Objectives:

1.      Students will be able to identify a problem within the community

2.      Students will be able to brainstorm possible solutions to problem within the community

3.      Students will compose a brief proposal on how they would solve the problem within the community

Standards:

CC.1.4.8.A: Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information clearly.

CC.1.4.8.B: Identify and introduce the topic clearly, including a preview of what is to follow.

CC.1.4.8.E: Write with an awareness of the stylistic aspects of composition. • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. • Use sentences of varying lengths and complexities • Create tone and voice though precise language. • Establish and maintain a formal style.

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Songs: Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same
Love,” Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World,” and Tupac’s “Changes.”

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Songs: Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same
Love,” Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World,” and Tupac’s “Changes.”

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Rationale and Lesson Ideas: Students will use three songs as a texture text to discuss how different artist identify areas in need of change in their world/community/society.  Students will listen to three different songs dealing with three different areas in need of change.  Students will be given lyric sheets in order to identify what change the author felt was necessary to make, why that change is necessary, and possible solutions if given.  Students will discuss whether or not these songs were conducive for creating change.  They will determine if the author’s message/theme was clear, what type of audience were they trying to reach, and whether or not the students felt that the songs impacted their listeners.  This lesson will also be used, in conjunction, with the nonfiction article and Ted Talk to have students think about problems that are in their community that are in need of change.

Aspect of Craft: Discussion, Annotation, Persuasive/Explanatory Elements

Writing Connection: Students will use both songs for this lesson and the nonfiction article/Ted talk to begin brainstorming areas in need of change within their own world/community/society.  Students will begin by brainstorming areas that they feel need addressed as well as possible solutions.  Students will then use remaining class time to discuss with their peers that problems that they have noticed and brainstorm further solutions.

Objectives:

1.      Students will identify areas in need of change as proposed by different artists

2.      Students will argue as to whether or not the artists’ messages were effective

3.      Students will begin identity and brainstorming areas in need of change in their own world/community/society

Standards:

CC.1.5.8.B: Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

CC.1.5.8.C: Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media formats (e.g. visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g. social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.

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Nonfiction
Article “Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World” and Ted Talk “My
daughter, Malala”

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Nonfiction
Article “Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World” and Ted Talk “My
daughter, Malala”

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Rationale and Lesson Ideas: These two texts will be used as context texts.  During this lesson, students will examine real life, modern teenagers who have been working towards making positive changes in their world.  Each piece discusses the problem the figure had noticed and what they did or are doing to address this issue in the world/society/community.  The rationale behind including these pieces is to provide inspiration for students next writing project that focuses on identify a problem in their world/community/society and how they would propose to fix it.

Aspect of Craft: Brainstorming, Note-taking, Reading for Context

Writing Connection: Students will complete a free write responding to the contributions and changes made by students their own age.  They will discuss how and if it inspired them to make changes of their own.

Objectives:

1.      Students will read/listen to nonfiction

2.      Students will participate in open or pair-share discussions

Standards:

CC.1.2.8.L: Read and comprehend literary non-fiction and informational text on grade level, reading independently and proficiently.

CC.1.5.8.A: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, on grade level topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly

CC.1.5.8.C: Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media formats (e.g. visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g. social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.

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Rationale and Lesson Ideas: This poem by Frederick J.B. Moore II will be used as a texture text twice during this unit.  Its purpose is to get students thinking about changing their world/community/society.  This poem also discusses the struggles an individual or individuals may encounter when attempting to make a change.  This poem will be used as a discussion catalyst.  Students will be asked to think about modern figure whose attempts at changing the world have been met with some type of backlash (e.g. Barack Obama, Donald Trump, etc.).  Students, towards the end of the unit, will refer back to this poem after watching the film Invictus.

Aspect of Craft: Conflict

Writing Connection: Students will use this poem to inspire their writing twice.  They will first discuss, at the beginning of the unit, what type of backlash are they will to endure when trying to make a change in their community.  Students will then use this same piece to examine and connect to how Mandela dealt with backlashes in his attempts to create racial peace and equality in South Africa.

Objectives:

1.      Students will analyze a poem for theme and conflict

2.      Students will think critically about the consequences of creating change

3.      Students will make use the poem as a base to discuss the film Invictus

Standards:

CC.1.2.8.A: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

CC.1.2.8.C: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events.

CC.1.2.8.F: Analyze the influence of the words and phrases in a text including figurative and connotative, and technical meanings; and how they shape meaning and tone.

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Rationale/ Lesson Ideas/Writing Craft: As part of the eighth grade curriculum students are required to read nonfiction articles in order to complete research.  Students will begin this unit by brainstorming, as a class, figures in history whom they believe have caused a change in the world.  Students will be informed that their figures do not necessarily need to have caused a positive change in the world.  Students, during the course of this research, will be asked to identify their figure, what problem the figure intended to change, how they went about causing change, and what was the impact of this change on the figure world/community/society.  Students will have access to the library as well as the internet.  Students will be expected to follow the standard writing process of brainstorming, drafting, editing/revision, and completing a final copy.  Students will also be asked to give a brief presentation explaining their findings.

Aspect of Craft: Persuasive techniques, cause and effect

Objectives:

1.      Students will be able to identify figures of change

2.      Students will write an argumentative/persuasive essay persuading listeners/readers why their figure caused change

3.      Students will use their research skills to successful support their argument.

Standards:

CC.1.2: Reading Informational Text: Students read, understand, and respond to informational text – with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on textual evidence.

CC.1.2.8.B: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

CC.1.2.8.L: Read and comprehend literary non-fiction and informational text on grade level, reading independently and proficiently.

CC.1.4.8.C: Develop and analyze the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples; include graphics and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

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1.      Argumentative/Persuasive essay: Identify a figure who you feel has greatly contributed to changing the world.  This figure does not have to enact a positive change.  Using your research skills, you will support your argument by identify the problems of the society prior to your figure enacting change, how your figure enacted change, and finally what was the impact of this change.

2.      Poem: “Changing the World” by Fredrick J.B. Moore II (used as a texture text to begin thinking about change)

3.      Nonfiction Article: “Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World” (used as a context text to begin identify how children and teenagers are capable of changing the world around them)

4.      Ted Talk: “My daughter, Malala” (used as a context text in conjunction with “Beyond Malala” to further discuss the idea children and teenagers changing the world)

5.      Songs: Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love,” Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World,” and Tupac’s “Changes.” (used as texture text to support how artists identity issues/problems in their world and use their craft to suggest change.  This texture text is in preparation for the explanatory essay).

6.      Explanatory Proposal: Identify one area in your community/school that needs to be addressed.  Write a brief proposal in order to explain how you would make that change.

7.      The Giver (Fulcrum Text)

8.      Film: Invictus (used as a context text-this film will show that trying to make changes to the status quo may initially cause turmoil and upheaval but will eventually lend itself to the greater good.)

9.      Narrative: Students will tell a story about how they made a change to their community, wish that they had made a change, or witness someone who has made a change in their community.

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Prior to Reading: Through the course of the year students have been set the test to look introspectively at themselves and at the world.  They have diligently worked to answer the questions: “What does it mean to come of age?”, “How do I persevere during times of war and civil upheaval?, and “What does it mean to be a leader?”  In order to answer these questions, students have been working diligently to learn how not only to analyze a piece of text critically, but how to respond to said text.  For the eighth grades final unit, students will study the fulcrum text The Giver as a means to try and answer the question, “How do I enact change?” Students will also use their prior knowledge of earlier texts to identify how main characters have deliberately or inadvertently caused change.

Thinking Goal: This unit is reserved for the end of year because it culminates the entirety of our year.  Students have contemplated what it means to come of age, and how someone comes of age is not always in the way we expect.  Students also have examined how changes in the world can be made through war and civil upheaval.  They also have worked to understand what it means to be a leader.  All of these ideas discussed are necessary to understand how a student can be a force for change, no matter what their age is.

Writing Goal: This unit will strive to tie in all three genres of writing that have been studied throughout the year.  Students will write three pieces.  The first writing piece will have students make connections from text to world.  Individuals will write an argumentative/persuasive essay discussing a figure they feel has contributed to changing the world.  Second, they will then write a piece that is closer to text to self.  My classes will brainstorm about a problem within their community, or school, that they wish to change.  They will then be set to the task of writing a proposal on how they would enact this change.  For their final piece of writing, each student will be asked to write a narrative about change.

Theme and Craft: This text complexity circle demonstrates how Lois Lowry has examined the idea of not only the beauty of the human experience but also the idea that a child is capable of creating change.  This piece of text can be used to study a variety of elements within the author’s craft.  Students will study descriptive writing, tone and mood, the use of conflict, as well as character and characterization.

Theme and Readers: By using the fulcrum, context, and texture texts, students will come to understand that changing the world for the better does not always need to be left in the hands of adults.  They will see a variety of fictional and nonfictional characters, many who are around their age, enacting change in their society.  Studying this theme will not only hopefully inspire them to make changes they feel are necessary in their world/community/society, but will also lead to discussions and contemplation on the consequences, whether good or bad, of our choices.