Social Action Project

For My social action project I would like to teach others the concerns of e waste and its affect on the world. I will present information displaying how e waste affects us economically, physically and environmentally. I will begin by first displaying the corrosive materials that are used to make many of the electronics we have today. Second I will speak about how mining these materials harms our earth and our health. I will also explain what we do with these electronics when we are done with them. My partner and I will go in depth on the demanufacturing and dissembling of these products. We will speak about the big businesses that participate in the outsourcing of said waste and the conditions of the individuals it is sent to. I will briefly describe the crippling affects of the breakdown of these electronics and the work conditions of the people who are breaking it down.  we then hope to get the audience's view on the subject after the information has been displayed. I want to know what they think about this subject and see if they have any ideas on how we can help prevent e waste. We hope to get answers to big questions like is e waste ethical? and what are going to be the long term affects of just "throwing out" our electronics?
I have chosen to do a class teach-in at my high school. One of my favorite teachers actually is teaching a social justice class there currently. This will be a great tie in for his class. It will also be good for the students to see how social justice is affected from a technological standpoint. My partner and I will try to get in touch with as many faculty members as possible and hopefully will be able to do a couple teach ins so we get our points across on a broader scale. We will make a power point presentation displaying all the information explained above. We will present some videos showing the affects of e waste on individuals in the countries it is shipped to. This will help the students obtain a better understanding of how other countries deal with our waste. Many of these high school students will not have a clue what e waste is so I want to give them as much information on the topic as possible. However, I also want to see what they think about the subject and get a discussion going on the topic. My main focus of this social action project is to make others understand that if we simply do not take action then no one will. My goal is to get the students to leave my teach in with a different mind set on how simple things might not be so simple after all and how our actions can change the lives of those living all around us even if we aren't exposed to it.