Environmental+Awareness

We will be discussing the importance of the raising environmental awareness in school aged children. Think in global terms of preservation, natural resources, ecology, natural disasters, animals, etc. In addition, group members will brainstorm on ideas for incorporating environmental studies into the curriculum of multiple subject areas.

Each member should cite at least one rational for the incorporation of environmental studies into the educational environment. In addition, each member should indicate a way or ways in which awareness of environmental issues can be integrated into the curriculum of their subject area.

As an English teacher, I can see multiple ways that I can incorporate environmental awareness into my curriculum. One way that immediately come to mind is through the teaching of Thoreau's //Walden//. While reading Thoreau's account of living harmoniously in nature, I could have my students keep journals of their own that document actions they take on a daily basis to improve their environment, such as picking up trash in the hall, putting drink cans in the recycling bin instead of the regular trash, driving more efficiently, etc. We would then make a multimedia project that incorporated their actions with ideas and suggestions for the entire student body (all correlated to //Walden//). (A. Robertson)

As a librarian and hostess of the "hub of the school," I sponsor many things including the environmental club. We distribute recycling bags to our teachers as well as pickup full bags on a weekly basis. The city picks up our total recycling efforts as well as delivers new bags. Our club has a booth at the county fair each year to publicize the benefits of recycling and announce how much material our school alone recycles. We utilize technology, math, science, and English objectives in completing this project and its presentation. (C. Spurlin)

I am a special educator for students with IQs 55 and below, and for the life of me cannot think of ideas for incorporation enviornmental studies into this curriculum. However, I do recognize the importance of recycling and I do notice the tremendous amount of paper that teachers throw away on a daily basis. Every school should have a paper recycling dumpster and every classroom teacher should have a paper recycling box in their classroom that is emptied on a weekly/daily basis. This includes the school office and the teacher's lounge. (S. Ryals)

Well, honestly, I have never thought about teaching environmental awareness in elementary students. I think that we would study what some terms are, such as: conservation, preservation, recycling, etc. Then we could brainstorm ways that we could perform each of these things. We would make a list and then a miniature checklist to take home with them. As they do these acts, they could check them off. We could also include an expository paper on the subject, or just a daily journal entry of what they did to help the earth this week. (M. Watson)

I am an eighth grade SPE/Strategy teacher. Incorporated environmental awareness will be difficulty for me because we spend all our time completing class assignments, completing homework, and preparing for and taking test. Our school does have recycle bins located in certain areas of the school. Whenever I need to recycle paper, I could have my students take the papers to the recycle bins. We could also discuss certain issues as they arise within the school. (T. Watson)

Typically, I teach College Writing, which means I also teach argumentation and critical thinking. I think environmentalism is certainly one of those areas that I could bring in various sides and issues and allow students to see which ones are genuine and which are "out there," but using critical thinking skills to allow them to break down and analyze the sides (all the while, learning the facts as well as opposing viewpoints). This would put them in the "power position" to not only decide which issues hit home for them but what they, as college students, could do to help the cause. (S. Weston)

I teach sixth grade science so there are many ways this topic is incorporated into our lessons. We recycle our paper and plastic in my classroom. We also discuss many ways to help keep our town cleaner. The past year I have sold Earth Foundation t-shirts in order to help buy land in many different places in order to practice conservation. The students and I love being able to help save part of the planet. Our school als has a club that is sponsored by our librarian. This club is made up of many students that work on Saturdays to clean our campus, plant flowers, and clean other areas of our school's community. My students live in Bayou La Batre and I think the fact that many of their parents rely on the seafood industry for survival has helped them realize how important it is to keep our community clean. (S.Smith)