The Love Bugs is a love story about soulmates and science. Two renowned, married, entomologists facing their twilight years seek to pass on their knowledge--with a little help from their 1.25 million insects. Over 60 years, Lois and Charlie O'Brien, two of the foremost entomologists and pioneers in their field, traveled to more than 65 countries and quietly amassed the world's most extensive private collection of insects. Their collection is a scientific game-changer with 1.25 million specimens and more than 1,000 undiscovered species. He was the Indiana Jones of entomology, and she was his Marion Ravenwood. However, in the past few years, the O'Briens have grappled with increasingly debilitating health conditions.

Though Charlie, 85, and Lois, 91, realize that a chapter of exploration and discovery is coming to an end in their lives, they live in a time when science needs them most. They turn to their insects to preserve their legacy and in support of science. This humorous and poignant documentary short explores the Nature of Love - and the love of Nature -and what it means to devote oneself entirely to both.

In this lesson, students will examine the careers of diverse scientists, and specifically learn about the nature of the work of entomologists. Following the film’s screening, students will imagine that they, themselves, are entomologists and study “insects” and their natural environments.

Objectives:
In this lesson, students will:

• Learn that the field of science is broad and that scientists come from diverse backgrounds and identities
• Be introduced to science of entomology
• Learn about the work of entomologists
• Engage in an activity modeling the work of entomologists
• Reflect and discuss the importance of nature, insects, and relationships to the land

Materials:
For this lesson, you will need:

• Objects to use as pretend “insects”
  • Suggestions: Dried pinto beans, black beans, and/or different types of pasta (rotini, spaghetti, elbow macaroni)
• Student Notebooks
• Drawing Materials
• Separate pieces of drawing paper for each student
• Non-breakable collection container such as a plastic (tip: you can recycle take-out containers, cottage cheese containers, etc)
• English Bug Kite Instructions
• High-speed internet connection for screening the film
• A way to screen The Love Bugs (screening time: 32 minutes)

Time Needed:

Two or Three 60-minute class period with homework and an option for students to share their writing.

"You can’t write about a world if you don’t study it, and the best way to study it is to live in it."

Leila Mottley

In a love letter to the Bay Area, two teenage artists spend a day in creative and community fellowship.

HELPFUL CONCEPTS:

gentrification – The socioeconomic process whereby people who are of a higher income level, education-level, and/or racial make-up move into lower-income neighborhoods and cause increased rents and prices, changes to community character and culture, and the departure of many long-term residents, many of whom are people of color

intersectionality – a term coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw that highlights the overlap between forms of oppression based on multiple identities (e.g., race and gender)

FILM PARTICIPANTS:

Leila Mottley and Ajai Kasim – two Oakland teenagers who share a love of writing and music and spend their time exploring their city and creating art together

NOTE TO TEACHERS:

This assignment invites students to explore their own identities and creative forms of expression. Writing in this way can be an intimate exercise in vulnerability, so it is important that you have established a safe, non-judgmental, and respectful learning environment. Remind students that writing and being creative is sometimes a risky task and that they should be encouraging and supportive of one another.

View the trailer hereand sign up to receive updates here.

After years of fighting injustice in Kenya, daring and audacious political activist Boniface “Softie” Mwangi decides to run for political office. But running a clean campaign against corrupt opponents with idealism as his only weapon proves challenging.

After years of fighting injustice in Kenya, daring and audacious political activist Boniface “Softie” Mwangi decides to run for political office. But running a clean campaign against corrupt opponents with idealism as his only weapon proves challenging. Special Jury Award, Sundance Film Festival. A POV co-production.

Non-Book Information

• Boniface Mwangi’s twitter
• Boniface Mswangi’s Website
• Getty Museum Boniface Mwangi Stock Pictures and Images
• New Yorker article: Kenya’s Most Famous Critic of Politicians Runs for Political Office by Tristan McConnell July 10, 2017
• Boniface Mwangi on TED | The Day I stood Up Alone (2015) and TED profile

“Kenyans do not get serviced by their government,” states Khadija Mohammed, political campaign manager to MP candidate and filmmaker, Boniface Mwangii. This lesson provides a framework for a critical analysis of elections in Kenya and how colonialism, tribalism, and voter suppression frame the political landscape of the African nation.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Vivett Dukes

As citizens, we rely on our government to protect and provide for us. The upkeep of this sovereign contract is what fuels our collective and individual sense of patriotism and nationalism; but, what happens when one or both parties violate that contract? What happens when that contract was unequal from the start? What recourse do citizens have when their government refuses to fulfill their part of the agreement? Through the viewing of Softie, we see how one man, Boniface “Softie” Mwangi of Kenya, attempts to disrupt the status quo that is marring the lives of Kenya’s impoverished, working class, and middle class citizens, by entering the political sphere. Considering the political times in which we are currently living, this is a crucial lesson plan to teach. Teaching is never a politically neutral practice, and neither is learning or sharing knowledge.

Subject Areas

• Government and Economics
• Global History/Global Studies
• Women’s Studies/Gender Studies
• Language Arts
• Marriage and Family (and other Sociology and Psychology-based electives)
• Humanities

Grade Levels: 9-12

Objectives:

• In this lesson, students will:
• Critically analyze the hallmarks of a democracy
• Assess and evaluate aspects of grassroots organizing and social movements
• Respond verbally and in writing to a variety of questions varying in complexity (e.g., recall, basic reasoning, analysis, synthesis, and interpretation)
• Exhibit and hone active listening skills by practicing question-based, class-wide dialogue

Materials

*include relevant technology options for remote-instruction.

• Softie documentary clips
• Computer/Laptop/Tablet
• K-W-L chart
• Notebook
• Writing Utensil

Time Needed

Two to four 45-minute class periods with optional homework in between.

A true story of young immigrants who get detained by U.S. Border Patrol—on purpose—and put in a shadowy for-profit detention center. Marco and Viri are members of a group of radical Dreamers on a mission to stop deportations, and they believe the best place to do that is in detention.

The Infiltrators,directed by Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera, is a true story about a rag-tag group of undocumented youth - Dreamers - deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.

Adult Nonfiction

Arce, Julissa.My (underground) American Dream: My True Story as an Undocumented Immigrant Who Became a Wall Street Executive.Center Street, 2016.
For an undocumented immigrant, what is the true cost of the American dream? Julissa Arce shares her story in a riveting memoir. When she was 11 years old Julissa Arce left Mexico, and came to the United States on a tourist visa to be reunited with her parents, who dreamed the journey would secure her a better life. When her visa expired at the age of 15, she became an undocumented immigrant. Thus, began her underground existence, a decades long game of cat and mouse, tremendous family sacrifice, and fear of exposure.

Bixler, Mark.The Lost Boys of the Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience.University of Georgia Press. 2006.
Jacob Magot, Peter Anyang, Daniel Khoch, and Marko Ayii were among 150 or so Lost Boys who were resettled in Atlanta. Like most of their fellow refugees, they had never before turned on a light switch, used a kitchen appliance, or ridden in a car or subway train-much less held a job or balanced a checkbook. We relive their early excitement and disorientation, their growing despondency over fruitless job searches, adjustments they faced upon finally entering the workforce, their experiences of post-9/11 xenophobia, and their undying dreams of acquiring an education.

Coan, Peter M.Toward a Better Life: America’s New Immigrants in Their Own Words: From Ellis Island to the Present.Prometheus Books, 2011.
This book offers a balanced, poignant, and often moving portrait of America's immigrants over more than a century. The author has organized the book by decades so that readers can easily find the time period most relevant to their experience or that of family members. The first part covers the Ellis Island era, the second part America's new immigrants-from the closing of Ellis Island in 1955 to the present.

Cornejo Villavicencio, Karla.The Undocumented Americans.One World, 2020.
Looking well beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMERS, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented as rarely seen in our daily headlines. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited in the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami we enter the hidden botanicas, which offer witchcraft and homeopathy to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we witness how many live in fear as the government issues raids at grocery stores and demands identification before offering life-saving clean water.

Motomura, Hiroshi.Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States.Oxford University Press, 2007.
In Americans in Waiting, Hiroshi Motomura looks to a forgotten part of our past to show how, for over 150 years, immigration was assumed to be a transition to citizenship, with immigrants essentially being treated as future citizens--Americans in waiting. Challenging current conceptions, the author deftly uncovers how this view, once so central to law and policy, has all but vanished.

Urrea, Luis Alberto.The Devil’s Highway: A True Story.Back Bay Books, 2004.
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the “Devil’s Highway.” Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a “book of the year” in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.

In Our Time Machine,filmmakers S. Leo Chiang and Yang Sun follow Chinese artist, Maleonn’s (Ma Liang), attempt to honor his father’s memory – not his life, his actual memory. Ma Ke, himself an accomplished artist as longtime Peking Opera director, has not yet died, but has Alzheimer’s disease. Using art (his comfort zone), Maelonn is trying to preserve their father-son memories.

He creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. The performance provides teachers and students an opportunity to consider the themes we relate to in autobiography, how it can help us to find and reflect on our own stories, and how we choose to tell our stories.

Students will use the stories that Maleonn chooses to tell as a springboard for telling their own autobiographical story, and in doing so, connecting their own life story to universal human themes.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Dr. Faith Rogow

Adolescents commonly experience feelings that no one understands what they are experiencing. For some, that can lead to feelings of disconnection, isolation, and even alienation. Finding the universal themes in their own life stories can help them understand that they are, indeed, unique, but also connected. At a time when many people are pulling away from those who are different (racially, religiously, ethnically), finding the themes that are common to humanity can provide common ground, helping people better understand those they define as “other.” As an added benefit, recognizing the universal themes in their own stories can help students identify (and perhaps even connect with) themes in the literature they are assigned to read.

Subject Areas

● English/Language Arts

● Art

● Media Literacy

● Creative Writing

Grade Levels:[10-12]

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

● Understand the potential benefits of reading autobiographies

● Explore what makes a literary theme “universal”

● Tell their own parent-child story

● Identify the universal theme(s) in their own personal stories (and through that, see
their stories as valuable)

● Consider various options we have for sharing our stories: writing, oral, film, stage
performance, etc.

● [optional] Investigate how do some people’s stories come to be part of the literary
canon that we study in schools, while other people’s stories are left out

Materials:

● Film Clips from Our Time Machine and a way to screen them

Time Needed:

One 45-minute class period with homework and an option for students to share their work.

When artist Maleonn realizes that his father is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.

When artist Maleonn realizes that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.

ADULT NONFICTION

Cheng, Nien. Life and Death in Shanghai.New York, NY: Grafton Books, 1986.
A first-hand account of China's Cultural Revolution. Nien Cheng, an anglophile and fluent English-speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 and subsequently jailed. All attempts to make her confess to the charges of being a British spy failed; all efforts to indoctrinate her were met by a steadfast and fearless refusal to accept the terms offered by her interrogators. When she was released from prison she was told that her daughter had committed suicide. In fact Meiping had been beaten to death by Maoist revolutionaries.

Harper, Lynn Casteel. On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What it Means to Disappear. New York, NY: Catapult, 2020.
In On Vanishing, Lynn Casteel Harper, a Baptist minister and nursing home chaplain, investigates the myths and metaphors surrounding dementia and aging, addressing not only the indignities caused by the condition but also by the rhetoric surrounding it. Harper asks essential questions about the nature of our outsized fear of dementia, the stigma this fear may create, and what it might mean for us all to try to "vanish well." Weaving together personal stories with theology, history, philosophy, literature, and science, Harper confronts our elemental fears of disappearance and death, drawing on her own experiences with people with dementia both in the American healthcare system and within her own family.

Ingram, Jay. The End of Memory: A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer’s. New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 2015.
It is a wicked disease that robs its victims of their memories, their ability to think clearly, and ultimately their lives. For centuries, those afflicted by Alzheimer's disease have suffered its debilitating effects while family members sit by, watching their loved ones disappear a little more each day until the person they used to know is gone forever. The disease was first described by German psychologist and neurologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906. One hundred years and a great deal of scientific effort later, much more is known about Alzheimer's, but it still affects millions around the world, and there is no cure in sight.

Jebelli, Joseph. In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’s. New York, NY: Little, Brown Spark, 2017.
Alzheimer's is the great global epidemic of our time, affecting millions worldwide - there are more than 5 million people diagnosed in the US alone. And as our population ages, scientists are working against the clock to find a cure.
Neuroscientist Joseph Jebelli is among them. His beloved grandfather had Alzheimer's and now he's written the book he needed then - a very human history of this frightening disease.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Theft of Memory: Losing my Father one Day at a Time. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 2015.
National Book Award-winning author, Jonathan Kozol, shares his father’s life story. Dr. Harry Kozol was a nationally recognized neurologist who treated prominent figures, such as the playwright Eugene O’Neill. When diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, his father was able to narrate his own descent into memory loss. Jonathan captures his connection with his father, even as Harry’s verbal and cognitive skills disappear.

Leavitt, Sarah. Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, my Mother, and Me. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012.
This graphic memoir written and illustrated by Sarah Leavitt shares how the Alzheimer’s disease affected her mother, Midge, as well as the whole family who came together to be caretakers and support for each other. The simple black and white drawings go through all of the stages of her family’s journey with Alzheimer’s and emphasizes the strong bond between mother and daughter.

McDermott, Simon. The Songaminute Man: A Tribute to the Unbreakable Bond between Father and Son. New York, NY: Park Row Books, 2018.
Ted McDermott enjoyed a long career as an entertainer before his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2013. As the disease took its toll on Ted's relationships, memory, and mood, his son Simon found a way for them to connect again: carpool karaoke.

Mitter, Rana. Modern China: A Very Short Introduction.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. China today is never out of the news: from international finance to human rights controversies, global coverage of its rising international presence, and the Chinese 'economic miracle'. It seems to be a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction offers the reader an entry to understanding the world's most populous nation, giving an integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics, and art.

Powell, Tia. Dementia Reimagined: Building a Life of Joy and Dignity from Beginning to End.New York, NY: Avery Publishing Group, 2019
Despite being a physician and a bioethicist, Tia Powell wasn't prepared to address the challenges she faced when her grandmother, and then her mother, were diagnosed with dementia - not to mention confronting the hard truth that her own odds aren't great. In the U.S., 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day; by the time a person reaches 85, their chances of having dementia approach 50 percent. Dr. Powell's goal is to move the conversation away from an exclusive focus on cure to a genuine appreciation of care--what we can do for those who have dementia, and how to keep life meaningful and even joyful.

VanderMeer, Jeff. The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature. New York, NY: Abrams Image, 2011. Steampunk, a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture, is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more. The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies such as Sherlock Holmes.

Zukerman, Eugenia. Like Falling Through a Cloud: A Lyrical Memoir.Glasgow, UK: East End Press, 2019.
What if the dreaded world of Alzheimer's was also a world of emotional discovery? Eugenia Zukerman's poetry and simple prose, both heartbreaking and ultimately inspirational, ushers the reader into her world as she unflinchingly examines familial loyalties, moments from her past and present, and the need to face an uncertain future due to the diagnosis of a condition that she truly hopes "will remain unnamed." Flutist, writer, artistic director of major music series, television journalist, educator and internet entrepreneur, Zukerman addresses her "lapses and losses" as she confronts and deals with a future under the shadow of her Alzheimer's diagnosis.

In My Blood It Runs is a film about Dujuan, a ten-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa child healer whose family advocates for him to have a culturally sustaining education that affirms his Arrernte identity, while he also navigates western schooling in Australia. Central to this film are the themes of cultural and linguistic revitalization, Aboriginal peoples sovereignty, Land relations, and settler colonialism and schooling.

In this lesson, educators, youth, and community members will be guided through practices of critically engaging with western schooling, settler colonialism, school curriculum and the overt and concealed prejudices towards Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples. This may involve engaging in the process of unlearning and relearning to think critically about the history of settler colonialism and learning from Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples while also centering their stories. Each lesson section is an opportunity for learners to engage in (re)storying conversations about traditional and ancestral homelands. Through creative and open-ended activities, learners are guided to learn about the Indigenous territory they are currently living on and the responsibilities they have as guests. The lesson can be modified to meet the needs of learners and linked to units of study related to history, geography, literature, environmental science, art, culture, language, and creative writing.

A Note from Curriculum Creators, Pablo Montes & Judith Landeros

We felt called to create this particular lesson plan because of our deep commitment to teach and engage in respectful and ethical ways when learning from and with Indigenous peoples, their knowledges and cosmologies, and Land relations. Our intention is to center the stories of Indigenous and Aboriginal peoples that too often are erased from the whitestream schooling system or when included, distorted and told from the perspective of the settlers. Therefore, much of what emerges from the lesson is guided by the learner, and varies by position, context, and place. We hope that Indigenous and Aborigional youth in Turtle Island can connect with Dujuan’s story and that it affirms their identity, culture, and ways of knowing and doing. This lesson can also serve as an initial introduction for non-Indigenous youth and educators to begin to think critically about the territory they currently live on and how they can be respectful guests by acknowledging the Indigenous peoples who are from those Lands. We purposefully did not use words such as “objectives”, “Standards”, and “expected outcomes” because these words are rooted in Western ways of thinking. In other words, we did not want this to become a lesson where teachers and students learn about Indigenous people but we want this lesson to guide you all in learning with and from Indigenous people to disrupt Western schooling. We invite teachers to also think about how Indigenous knowledges and ways of being can be forms of curricular resurgence, meaning that there are multiple ways to think about learning, knowledge, and education that encompasses the way Indigenous people have always viewed the world and continue to pass on their teachings. Therefore, this is not a lesson plan but a living curriculum that must be attended to constantly. Like the river suggests, there are different paths one can take, that learning is fluid, knowledge is shaped and co-created with other forces, and that there is no such thing as an “objective truth” but many truths that can co-exist.

Grade Levels: 9-12th

Materials:

• Film clips
• Collage making materials (i.e. old magazines)
• Glue
• Construction Paper
• Scissors
• Writing and drawing utensils
• Chart paper
• Computer/Internet access
• Post-its

Time Needed:

Five 60-minute class periods to watch the film and complete the activities.

POV acknowledges the unceded lands of the many First Nations people, upon which we live, work and tell stories.   We also acknowledge the unceded lands of the Arrernte and Garrwa people in Mparntwe and Borroloola, Australia, where this film was made. We pay our respects to all their elders past present and emerging.

FILM SUMMARY

Ten-year-old Arrernte Aboriginal boy Dujuan is a child-healer and a good hunter and speaks three languages. Yet Dujuan is failing in the Australian school system and facing increasing scrutiny from welfare authorities and the police. As he veers perilously close to incarceration, his family fights to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education. We walk with him as he grapples with these pressures and shares his truths.