Our presentations aim to engage students as critical thinkers and conscientious consumers. Informing and empowering them to enact change in their daily routines can help them feel good about the decisions they make.
Every presentation will:
- Create a lively, non-judgmental, positive atmosphere
- Promote compassion
- Teach critical and creative thinking
- Provide current, well-sourced information
- Encourage positive, humane, personal choices
- Serve as an ethical model of behavior
- Provide support and resources to both students and teachers
All presentations are available through video conferencing.
Introductory Presentations
The Circle of Compassion
6th grade to adult
This presentation examines the growth of social justice movements. Students get a look at the parallels and differences between these past movements and the current efforts to increase protection for animals. By providing a unique opportunity for students to examine our culture’s assumptions about the nature and worth of various species, we consider how personal actions and attitudes can be a daily affirmation of compassion towards all. This lesson can complement your classroom’s social studies, history, humanities, ethics, sociology, language arts, family consumer science, or health units. Request a presentation today.
Beyond Violence
9th grade to adult
See what people like Albert Einstein, Gandhi and Mother Theresa have had to say about it: how we treat animals influences how we treat each other. Psychologists and the FBI are showing that people who are cruel to animals are more likely to be violent towards people. The opposite is also true. The more we flex our compassionate muscles the stronger they get. Explore how our relationship with animals can either create a more empathetic society or keep us mired in violence. Add this lesson to your social studies, language arts, history, sociology, humanities, or ethics class. Request a presentation today.
Ethics & Environment
9th grade to adult
This presentation introduces students to the ways in which animal agriculture impacts our environment. We balance the study of environmental problems with positive ideas for creating sustainable and restorative systems that benefit people, animals, and the earth. An exploration of how our attitudes and actions impact the natural world around us. Free food samples provided. This lesson fits well with food preparation, food safety, health, family consumer science, or sociology classes. Request a presentation today.
Issue-Specific Presentations
Pandemics on the Menu
9th grade to adult
Covid-19 has reshaped the world and changed the way we look at food production. For decades, nonprofit organizations, whistleblowers, and public health officials warned of the dangers associated with wildlife wet markets and the use of intensive confinement facilities to raise animals. With swine flu, bird flu, and others at our doorstep now is the time to know as much as we can. In this detailed presentation, students learn about the origins of emerging zoonotic diseases and more importantly, how to be a part of the solution. Request a presentation today.
Our Food, Our World
9th grade to adult
Delve into an important part of everyone’s daily lives – food! This is an opportunity to think critically and explore the differences between a factory farm and a family farm. With some classroom participation, students are put to the test to get more involved as we discover the impact our food choices have on our bodies, animals, and our planet. Plus, free food samples! This is a good addition to sociology, ethics, food preparation, family consumer science, and health classes as well as others. Request a presentation today.
Science, Ethics and Animal Experimentation
9th grade to adult
Enhance your science units with an eye-opening lesson on the ethical, scientific, and public health issues surrounding the use of animals in science. We’ll break it all down. Pound seizure is the release of dogs and cats from a shelter to an animal testing facility. How many states currently allow this practice? What other animals are used and where do they come from? The Animal Welfare Act is designed to protect animals in laboratories. Do you know which three species are excluded and why? What could I do about any of it? We’ll discover the answers to these questions and many more with this stark but bearable look at the use of animals in science. Request a presentation today.
Lions, Tigers, & Bears: A Program on Animals in Entertainment
6th grade to adult
How are performing animals acquired? How are they trained to perform on queue for every show? What are their lifestyles like when they are not in the spotlight? How does it compare to their natural environment and instincts? Learn the answers to these thought-provoking questions and many others pertaining to current public opinion and legislation around the world. An inside look at circuses, traveling acts, and rodeos. A great lesson for social studies, language arts or any classes discussing animals. Request a presentation today.
Chimps, Gorillas, and Orangutans: Great Apes in Our Midst
6th grade to adult
Our closest living relatives, the great apes, can use sign language, appreciate humor, create art, and mourn the dead. Students will see it for themselves with Koko, a Gorilla who communicates through sign language and understands spoken English. With lots of classroom participation we learn about the lives of apes through the recent discoveries of primate experts Jane Goodall, Roger and Deborah Fouts, and Francine Patterson, as well as the threats these magnificent animals still face. This lesson fits well with a geography, science, or language arts class. Request a presentation today.