8 - Webs



NOTE: This is a one-day workshop for teachers of any grade that could stand-alone or be conducted on the second/third day of a two/three day workshop if combined with the other attached workshop material. This is the most practical of the workshops and introduces ten key activities which seek to involve the whole school in exploring holistic ways to discover and find solutions to the environmental problems we face today using our classrooms, campus and homes as our places of learning.

Environmental Education for the Whole School

By Chris Summerville

( chris-summerville )

Introduction

( I hope that yesterday’s activities and discussions helped us to realize that . . . )

Every action and choice we make in our daily lives has an environmental impact and though most of us are aware to some extent of the environmental problems that are increasingly threatening our planet, we are still not well informed about how these problems are actually connected to us and what alternatives we have available to try and solve them.

These two points are actually what makes environmental education so engaging and

exciting for many students since more than any other subject what they are actually

studying is their daily lives, their school and immediate surroundings and being asked to utilize what they learn to find alternatives to solve problems that they now realize are directly affecting them and their families. I have found that students love being ‘eco-detectives’ since it constantly involves a sense of discovery about familiar things that most of their friends, parents and yes, even teachers, are not yet aware of!

As environmental educators we are lucky enough to have the chance to actually enter

into our students’ lives more than ever before because our teaching tools become the

music, movies, cosmetics and toiletries, food, advertisements, sports, clothes, shops and

hobbies that already surround and are meaningful to them. In this sense, the

environmental perspective of our subjects offers us a chance to truly share, exchange and

learn together with our students and even for them to be our teachers as once we have set

them off on their ‘eco-search’ they will make discoveries within their world which will

constantly surprise us! We are merely introducing and exposing them to a ‘new’ way of looking at their surroundings and the things they use and enjoy after we have shown them the shortcomings from an environmental sense of their present lifestyles. And believe me, this alternative world that is local, organic, fair/ethical, cruelty-free, and sustainable, which still lies hidden since it is founded on environmental principles in a world where profit comes first and all else is incidental, is a truly exciting and creative one with products and activities that come with a story of people, place and culture and are usually tastier, healthier, more comfortable, durable and beautiful. As an educator I feel that this is so wonderfully appropriate since surely in a very deep and profound way environmental education is truly to help make the future better for all young people and what could be more empowering than to start them off as the leaders of such changes that we all agree are necessary right now!

Let me just show you a brief advertisement made by the Centre for Science and Environment to illustrate what I am talking about

Show 90 sec. CSE Public Service Advertisement.

(Introduce) I am showing this brief advertisement on ‘Rainwater Harvesting’ not so much for the topic but as a metaphor for the simple ‘flip’ of consciousness I believe must take place for people to start thinking environmentally.

'Eco-Consciousness Flip'

(After)Would anyone like to share their thoughts about what you saw?

(My comment): Umbrellas are used to ‘protect’ us from rain. In the process, they shield us from our surroundings and create a barrier that cuts us off from the people around. When the umbrella flips and starts collecting water, people spontaneously lower their umbrellas and expose themselves to each other and nature. Others start using other methods to collect water using what they have at hand and in the process a whole community is brought together in a joyful and creative act that utilizes rather than wastes a natural resource.

To assist with this flip in consciousness, I have created a number of classroom activities connected with the students daily lives that you can find on my website. They are completely student-based and will engage most students of Grades 5-7 in any class you find room to include them for between 45 min. to an hour. Although they were specifically created for intermediate- level second language learners of any age group up to university, most of them can be easily adapted to be enjoyed as useful teaching tools for native English speakers in the grades I mentioned. You can also find a host of creative and contemporary environmental activities for young people on the websites of environmental NGOs and government environmental ministries and agencies such as the EPA in the United States.

2. Stepping forward…

What I would like to do for the rest of the day is briefly introduce ten activities that you as subject teachers could choose from to introduce to your students and/or school. It will take about three hours to introduce and discuss the first five ideas. I would then like to ask you to choose those that you feel would be most appropriate for your school and we will spend the hour before lunch working in small groups of different subject teachers brainstorming and planning ways to initiate and develop these activities You know your school best and what is possible considering all the controlling factors of time, funds, space, teacher interest and most important, the support and cooperation of the principal, administration and to some degree the parents. Notice I have not mentioned the students here because I am almost sure that if you introduce these activities properly planned with the positive attitude and passion that I am sure most of you have in your subject classroom the students will not only join in with great enthusiasm but they will soon be leading the show along! After lunch, I will introduce the five remaining activities and we will proceed as we did this morning.

*Please note that I have further support documentation for these activities on my website in the form of PDF files, Power Point presentations and videos based on my work at Sahyadri School as well as recommended websites, NGOs, books, magazines manuals and videos. What I will do is merely introduce an outline of most of the activities and see if we can come up with some valuable additions to the material that already exists!

Let me show you what these activities will be addressing:

1. Greening the Classroom.

2. a. Developing an environmental infrastructure at our school. b. Using this infrastructure as a learning/teaching tool for the whole school.

3. Campus Eco Audits (Water, Air, Land, Energy, Waste).

4. a. Green Maps around the world b. Creating a Campus Green Map.

5. Starting a Campus Organic Gardening Program. b. Using the garden as a learning/teaching tool for the whole school.

6. The Food I Eat: What? How? Where? When? Why?

7. Greening our Purchases: a. Eco-Advertising. b. How Green are my Cosmetics and Toiletries? c. School Eco-Stall.

8. Eco- Footprints: Measuring our personal environmental impact

9. Climate Change Challenge (Campus Treasure Hunt)/Personal Emissions Calculator

10. My holidays: Loving Nature to Death?

So, let’s begin!

1. Greening the Classroom.

All this talk about our subjects, daily lives and surroundings has reminded me where we

as teachers spend much of our time??? THE CLASSROOM!

It is all too easy and common to teach about all the environmental problems we are facing

and bring up all these lovely idealistic slogans about ‘We love the Earth’ and how we

must do something but then to ignore the very place we are sharing most of this

information. Then suddenly a 4th grader asks you ‘Sir, what happens to your pens after

you throw them away’? and a 5th grader comments about how your notebook doesn’t

look like his which is made from recycled paper or a group of eight graders gather around

to tell you that all the lights and fans were left on in the class that you just happened to

have finished teaching in…

I must add an important comment here. At such times I thank the students for helping me to be more aware and explain to them that such questions and reminders given in a non-confrontational way are an essential part of assisting others along the ‘green’ path. I constantly emphasize that we are all at various stages on this path and that it is not a competitive but a cooperative one where individuals become conscious of different actions they can take at different times with the help of their friends.

Even if we don’t bring environmental issues into our subjects so much, surely we can

green our classroom? HOW?

(Teachers brainstorm in groups and then share their ideas) Add those listed below if

they do not come up:

a. Scrap paper supply for taking notes. b. Garbage separation (including biodegradable). c. Promote use of fountain or refillable pens. d. Order unbleached, recycled or non-tree fibre notebooks. e. Air conditioners fans and lights off or on low with doors and windows open whenever possible f. Students keeping the interior and surroundings of their classroom clean (with teacher’s assistance). g. Install CFL bulbs. h. Maintain an Eco-Notice board. i. Plant and nurture potted plants, flowers and vegetables, if possible, in or around the classroom. j. Install a small vermi-compost bin for biodegradable waste to supply compost for plants. k. Keep a supply of environmental magazines and books in the cupboard. (OTHERS?)

b. STEP 2: There are of course further steps that we can take along with the school administration if we are involved with the design or refurbishment of our classrooms. These involve the placement of windows, the type of paints, finishers, varnishes and sealers used, the flooring or carpeting choices, the selection of desks, the chalk or markers we use and very importantly, the cleaners and polishes that are applied in the cleaning process. It is becoming increasingly possible to find products on the market that are made from non-toxic, chemical and lead-free, water and vegetable rather than oil-based, biodegradable materials that are sustainably sourced. This is our chance to become ‘eco-detectives’ and in the process contribute to the betterment of our student’s and the planet’s health!

c. Another important comment to add here. It is of course very important to decide exactly ‘How’ we are going to introduce this infrastructure into our class. All at once or gradually? By telling, suggesting, or asking the students? And how are we going to make sure it is maintained without it becoming a drag or forced?

(SHARE OPINIONS & IDEAS)

I would suggest that we ask the students to brainstorm just as we did on ways we could green our classrooms and to make sure that all the students understand the rationale for undertaking each of the actions. You could then have a vote (either by show of hands or paper) on whether the class agrees to follow each action as best they can and to help their peers to do so. Again, and this may go without saying, it is essential that we as teachers ‘Walk our Talk’ and involve ourselves on an equal footing with the students by participating in the activities. Let’s explore the next suggestion now:

d. Take a few minutes to brainstorm how all of these could be used in various ways as teaching tools in our subject classroom. What issues are they connected with and in what subjects do these issues come up? (Share together)

I have found that we often forget about the second step and that as a result various parts of the infrastructure that was set up with such eagerness at the start of the semester gradually become forgotten about in the business of the semester and eventually cease to function at all. By constantly using them as examples or for experiments and observation in our teaching we can help to keep the students’ attention focused on them as essential ingredients of our class’s learning and living experience.

d. The next step in this process is of course how to introduce what we are doing in our classroom in a non-threatening and creative way to teachers and students in other classes? (SHARE OPINIONS & IDEAS)

Suggestions: Assembly presentation or School Notice board display ‘Our Green Classroom’, inviting teachers and/or students to our class on an ‘open-class’ day, asking teachers in other classes if some members of our class could come and give a presentation on the topic. Creating a display of alternative ‘eco-products’ that can be used in the classroom highlighting their advantages and noting the negative environmental and health impacts of those being used at present.

2. a. Developing an environmental infrastructure at our school. b. Using this infrastructure as a learning/teaching tool for the whole school.

a. The next step is of course to begin to create a ‘green’ infrastructure as much as

possible around our school. All too often students may be doing something green in

the classroom but the existing infrastructure of the school does not support it or allow it to proceed to the next stage.

Could you share with me now some of the environmental structures and processes that already exist on your campus.

(Prompt (if necessary): Look at the list we made of ideas for greening the classroom and consider their next step after they leave the classroom where this is applicable. Consider the following key words: Transportation, Energy, Water, Air, Waste, Land, Food.

Now could you brainstorm on any environmental structures that are not presently in place but that would improve the environmental performance of your school considering your location, costs, practicality and assuming the cooperation of the school principal and administration.

Offer to give the participants a short break during which they can form

groups and tour their campus grounds making a list of possible structures.

(LIST) Add the following if they are not already in place or do not come up:

a. Garbage Separation b. Composting/Vermi-Composting c. Rainwater Collection

d. Greywater separation e. Solar heaters/panels f. Drip Irrigation g. Biogas, h. Rooftop Gardens i. Organic Gardening j. Farming, Tree, Plant, Hedge and vine planting k. (Bunds, if in a hilly rural area) l. Car pooling m. School bicycles n. Drop taps o. Dual flush system on toilets/Dry composting toilets.

b. O.K. Just to give you some confidence and an idea of what can be done with the cooperation of the principal and school administration, I would like to show you the environmental infrastructure we were able to start putting into place at the Sahyadri School Campus in Maharashtra over the course of a year AND just as importantly, the means I devised to expose the entire school body, including parents, to the working and overall purpose of this infrastructure and to hopefully start teachers thinking about how the various structures could be used as teaching tools in the subject classroom.

a. PDF Presentation of Student-Led Campus Eco-Tour.

Campus Eco-Tour (Edited)

Campus Eco-Tour (Complete)

b. View the ‘Teacher’s Questionnaire’ at the end.

Teacher Questionnaire

3. ‘How Green is my School’: Campus Eco-Audits (Water, Air, Land, Energy, Waste).

I would like to share with you now a wonderful resource developed by the ‘Centre for Science and Environment’ of New Delhi, India. It is their ‘Do-it-yourself’ Manual “designed as a tool to help school communities to audit their use of natural resources. It then provides the methodology to assess themselves as environmental managers. Finally, it suggests ways to ‘plug the gaps’ to help make the school more environmentally sustainable.” In India, it is part of a contest titled ‘Green Schools Programme’ in which hundreds of both rural and urban schools have been participating over the past few years. For more information about this programme and to join the network of participating schools around India, please go their website at:



Introduce the participants to some selected sections of the manual, emphasizing its

holistic approach, how it allows students to use many of the skills they have learnt in their subject classrooms, (especially Math) and the step-by-step documentation for collecting and analyzing data set out in the manual starting with suggestions on setting up an audit team and ending with how to complete the self-assessment score card for each of the five parameters. Inform participants of the regular two-day workshops offered by CSE to assist teachers in understanding and implementing this programme (which I attended in May, 2008) but emphasize that the manual is self-explanatory and that teachers have immediate access to CSE’s educational unit once their school is registered in the programme in case any assistance is needed in conducting the audit.

Follow with brief discussion about the participant’s response to this programme and if they feel it would be possible to introduce it into their school.

4. ‘THINK GLOBAL - MAP LOCAL

a. Green Maps around the world b. Creating a Campus Green Map

a. Another wonderful resource we have at our disposal is Green Maps. Does anyone want to guess which city in the world had the first Green Map? New York, often known as the Big Apple…the map, which was published in 1995, was called the Green Apple Map. How about the first Green Map in Asia? Pune, India made by a wonderful architect named Ananad Upalekar in 2000. There are now over 300 locally published Green Maps in over 50 countries around the world and the Green Map System is expanding by over 60 or more new projects each year.

So what are ‘Green Maps’ and what do they show? Is anybody already familiar with them or would anyone like to volunteer your ideas about what they may be?

(SHARE IDEAS)

O.K. Before we go on to discuss ways Green Maps can be utilized as teaching tools for the whole school both on our campus, in the community surrounding our school or home or even in this town or city, let’s watch a short slide show introducing the history of Green Maps and two short videos showing how Green Maps in Pune, India, Tororo, Uganda and Tokyo, Japan were made.

(SHOW)

i. Slide Show: Green Map Presentation: (2.35 min). ii. Video: Green Trailblazers: (10.20 min). iii. Tokyo Yamanote Green Map Project: (5.00 min).

Green Maps

ii. Discuss and share reactions, questions and ideas. Display Green Maps of Pune, San Francisco, New York and Kyoto and poster of 125 globally recognized Green Map icons along with print outs of locally created icons.

As you can see the Green Map concept is a wonderful and creative way in bringing together people of all ages in an activity that helps them to learn about and rediscover their surroundings from a historical, cultural and environmental perspective.

What skills do you think it would help students develop and which subjects would these skills be relative to? (Share)

And the beauty of Green Maps is that they help the people who use them to quickly discover those often hidden away small organic or Fair Trade Shops, local markets, traditional businesses, NGO’s, bicycle rental places, pedestrian zones, vegetarian cafes, the list is endless, which usually are difficult to find and many people, both residents and visitors, often don’t even know exist.

Finally, if you decided to make a Green Map of the local area around the school, it would be a great activity for helping to develop and/or strengthen community relations by drawing the school and people of all ages together!

You can find lots of information about Green Map Projects around the world at:

i. ii. iii.

b. Creating a Campus Green Map.

Do you have already have a map of your campus at the entrance to the school? How about making it a ‘Green’ one if you do merely by adding some of the environmental locations and structures onto it? And if you don’t, wouldn’t it be a great project to create one?

This would also be a very useful tool for mapping the results of the activities we discussed in 2. and 3., don’t you think? Or if you don’t want to be so ambitious, maybe you could get some students involved in creating this as a joint Geography/ History/ Art/ English/ Math and EE project.

Let me show you the Campus Green Map power-point presentation that two students in Grade 9 at Sahyadri School made.

Show Reeti and Niksha’s PPP. (Discuss).

Sahyadri School Green Map

5. a Campus Organic Gardening Program. b. Using the garden as a learning/teaching tool for the whole school.

The last topic I would like to cover this morning is an appropriate one: getting students and teachers involved in organic gardening and using the location and related activities as a teaching tool in different subject classes.

Discuss: Location? (No space? How about Rooftop, verandahs, nearby rented allotment.) Subjects (infusion)? Interest? Time?

Let me show you what I tried to do at Sahyadri School with the Grade 7 Life Skills Program. The presentation covers both the actual program and the tour that we created so that the rest of the school could learn about what we had done and hopefully become inspired to create their own organic plots either on campus or at home. The complete documentation on my website will also offer some ideas about tools and preparation.

Show edited version of ‘Organic Gardening as a Teaching Tool’ PDF

Organic Gardening Programme (Edited)

Organic Gardening Programme (Complete)

Better still, the material produced by ‘The Edible Schoolyard’, based in Berkeley, California, covers a whole ranges of important information about linking garden and kitchen activities with classroom lessons using ecological principles. You can enjoy plowing their site at:

Could we now decide which of the five activities I have introduced this morning you would like to discuss and explore further?

BREAK UP INTO GROUPS OF DIFFERENT SUBJECT TEACHERS, LOOK THROUGH THE SUPPORT MATERIAL AND DISCUSS HOW THESE ACTIVITIES COULD BE BEST IMPLEMENTED AND INFUSED INTO THE DIFFERENT SUBJECTS AT THE VARIOUS GRADE LEVELS.

AFTERNOON SESSION

6. The Food I Eat: What? How? Where? When? Why?

Did everyone have lunch? Did you enjoy it? What did you have? (List and ask some questions connecting the food items to various subject related topics)

Are any of you using the food your students eat as a teaching tool? (Share)

Shoved in, dreamt of, makes sleepy, tasty, complained about, not enough, too much… talked about and consumed at mealtime and free-time but how often do we use this wonderful multi-disciplinary delight in our classrooms? In what subjects could you use rice or potatoes, for example as a teaching tool? (Geography? History? Social Science? Nutrition/ Biology/Chemistry? English?)

Let me share some of the simple ways I suggest we can use food in our classrooms or as projects to re-connect ourselves with the one activity ‘Eating’ that we enjoy so much but know so little about even though our food demands and choices have more environmental impact on our planet than anything else we do in our lives.

Before we begin, let’s just brainstorm on how just the consumption of animal products is linked to environmental problems (List and make sure they include: groundwater pollution, soil depletion, desertification, deforestation, climatic changes, greenhouse effect, disease, species extinction, water shortages, hunger, high energy consumption (factory farms), over-fishing and destruction of marine habitats.

A.

i. Show one segment of the animation ‘The Meatrix’ to participants (2+ min.)

Meatrix Part 1

(After) As you can see, this is a wonderful tool for introducing in a ‘soft’ way the truth behind our factory farmed meat consumption. Others in the series look at the dairy industry and meat processing. This series can be downloaded at:

ii. On the Meatrix site you will find a link to their partner site ‘Sustainable Table’ which is an excellent site for introducing the concept of local, sustainable and healthy eating. In particular, their ‘Teachers Resources’ page contains countless ideas and activities conducted by teachers of all subjects around food. This can be found at:

iii. Tell participants about the short documentary (22 min) made by the Vegetarian Society ‘Devour the Earth’ narrated by Paul McCartney. This film is an excellent introduction to the environmental and health effects of our meat and fish consumption.

Devour the Earth

It can be also be viewed at:

And what other environmental issues might food be linked to? (List and make sure they include: biofuel debate, virtual water, packaging and waste, additives/ preservatives/ flavourings/ colourings, pesticide residue, GM foods, food miles, animal cruelty.)

Quite a list! But how many of us actually know how and where much of the food we are consuming is produced and processed and how it gets to us?

So the first step I think is to assign some simple activities to re-connect the students with this basic knowledge that was so inherent in peoples’ consciousness for our entire history up until the last 50 years or so! Of course we have already discussed the most useful tool, an active organic gardening programme on campus combined with the students preparing the food they grow for school lunch or dinner, but what else can we do?

B. i. Ask students to choose their favourite vegetables and find out: a. Where these vegetables are grown: locally, in their country or abroad (where?). b. When these vegetables are planted, the length of their growing season and when they are harvested.

c. If these vegetables grow above or below ground. d. What farming techniques are used to grow them: fertilizers, pesticides, greenhouses etc. The information they gather could be displayed on maps and charts and displayed on school notice boards.

ii. Ask students to create a menu of their favourite meal (or a fruit salad) and prepare a presentation using a world map that would include geographical, historical, scientific and environmental information about this meal.

iii. Challenge students to create a one-day menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner using products that have been grown, raised or produced within (30/20/10/5) km. of the school or where they live.

* Note: All of these activities will start students actively reading the labels on the food they buy as well as hopefully asking questions to the shopkeeper and food manufacturer about the source and contents of the food they eat.

C.

i. The ‘Center for Ecoliteracy’ also based in Berkeley, California, has produced a wealth of practical ideas, advice, information and activities based around food as part of their ‘Rethinking School Lunch’ Program. These can be downloaded at:



ii. The Center has also published a visual guide titled ‘Food, Culture, Health and the Environment’ which presents an integrated school lunch curriculum. This can be downloaded at:

iii. Show and tell participants about ‘Earth Dinner Creativity Cards. This wonderful set of cards offers hours of laughter, stories and inspiration by initiating and stimulating meaningful discussion based around mealtimes. (Hand out a selection of the cards).

As you can see, there are four categories: Fun Fact, Storytelling, Inspiration and Imagination. Some of my favourites are: (Read).

You can find out more about obtaining these cards and many ways to use them at the following site which is divided into ‘At Home’, ‘For Organizations’, ‘On Campus’ and ‘For Kids’ with each section suggesting a variety of fun and informative activities connected with food:

iv. The British-based environmental NGO ‘Friends of the Earth’ has published a creative and useful five-unit holistic pack for teachers working with young people aged 12-16 years titled ‘The food we eat’ dealing with GM food, intensive livestock farming, agrochemicals, food sources and sustainable development. You can find out more about this pack, which has been carefully linked to the British National Curriculum at:



Of course these tools I have shared with you are just a beginning! There is so many other ways you can use the food we eat as a teaching tool in your classrooms. Does anyone have any ideas they would like to share at this time?

7. Greening our Purchases: a. Eco-Advertising. b. How Green are my Cosmetics and Toiletries? c. School Eco-Stall.

We are all consumers and clearly it is our consumption habits that are directly creating

the numerous environmental problems we face today. In general, however, most people

will select the products they use in their daily lives based on a list of criteria which rarely

includes their environmental impact. What are these criteria? (List)

Physical appearance and attractiveness is clearly a key concern of everybody, and with

our culture’s emphasis on ‘youth’ the shampoo, soap, hand wash, body wash, rinse, hair

gel, lipstick, eye shadow deodorant and nail polish, for example, that young people

choose is almost a badge of their identity due to one simple vehicle that shapes, almost

insidiously, everything we buy. Advertising!

Advertising is so much a part of our daily life and yet like many things that is true of

we seem to utilize it very little as a teaching tool in our classrooms.

At Sahyadri School I decided to create a series of activities that started with exposing

students to eco-advertisements and then used what we learnt from these ads to examine

the toiletries and cosmetics students choose using a set of environmental criteria we had

developed. The intent of this was to guide them toward becoming media literate, to become familiar with ‘greenwashing’ and to start them actually thinking about the ingredients of what they are consuming, by reading the labels, rather than just the picture, price or smell. This resulted in students creating a school ‘Eco-Product-stall’ and in a long-range plan to completely overhaul the products available in the school shop based on the same set of eco-criteria.

-- Would anyone like to suggest what some of these eco-criteria points were? (Share) Make sure list includes: 1. Organic 2. Contains no animal ingredients 3. Not animal-tested 4. Fair Trade 5. No GM Ingredients 6. No artificial Ingredients (flavours/ colourings/ preservatives, additives, sweeteners) 7. Chemical-free (non-toxic) 8. Minimal packaging, avoiding plastic and using recycled and unbleached cardboard/paper 9. Packaging printed with soy or other vegetable-based inks 10. Biodegradable

-- Show PDF Presentation of Eco-Ads and Green Products Activities

Eco-Ads/Products Activity (Edited)

Eco-Ads/Products Activity (Complete)

Note some sources of environmental advertising: For your own information and to share with your students, here are some sources for finding out about environmental products available from British and U.S. based companies. I am sure you can find more but these will start you off:

i. (in their magazine, UK)

ii. foe.co.uk (in their magazine ‘Earth Matters’ UK)

iii. (in their magazine, USA)

iv. (and associated sites, USA)

v.

vi. (for cruelty-free, non-animal tested products, USA).

8. Eco- Footprints: Measuring our personal environmental impact

The Ecological Footprint Quiz is an excellent online tool that allows us to estimate

the area of land and ocean required to support our consumption of food, goods, services,

housing, and energy and assimilate our wastes. Your ecological footprint is expressed in

"global hectares". Your footprint is broken down into four consumption categories:

carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services.

Your footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem types or biomes: cropland,

pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries. Based on our responses to about 27

multiple-choice questions, it also lets us know how many ‘Earths’ would be needed to

sustain our present lifestyle and presents numerous suggestions on how we can lighten

our individual footprint. The data is country-specific as the first step in the quiz is to

locate your country on a world map.

I have used this as a teaching tool in both my ESL and EE classes for many years and like any quiz students love it! It is a clear and enjoyable way of introducing a holistic means to the students to begin actually considering that the simple things they rarely think about around their house do actually have an impact on our environment as well as offering them a sense of empowerment as they discover the creative and simple actions they can take to ‘make a difference’.

(* Note: From many years teaching about the environment, I can say this is one of the great gifts you can offer to young people! So many of them feel that there is nothing they can do that will make any difference since they are ‘kids’ and all the big decisions and issues are in the hands of adults!)

Let me read you some example questions from the quiz so you can get a sense of what information the students will need to insert. (Give examples)

There are obviously a number of ways this quiz can be utilized but let me share some interactive ways I have used it.

i. Download the entire quiz, put students together in pairs, give them two sets of the printed quiz and have them ask each other the questions while ticking their partner’s response. Students can then insert their partner’s response online for homework and tell each other their results in the following class. They can then discuss the ways they can soften their footprint using their own ideas along with those suggested on the site.

ii. Select a group of volunteers from each grade to conduct a classroom survey by asking the questions to the entire class and to then decide on a means to share the results on the school notice boards or at an assembly.

The quiz can be found at:

There is also a simpler, pictorial form of the quiz available for younger students (Grade 4-6) along with a selection of lesson plans that compliment it:

i. ii.

National Geographic also has their own ‘Greendex Calculator’ that may be more appropriate for students in Grade 6-8 than the ‘Eco-Footprint’ Quiz which is more suited to Grades 9 and up. You can review it at the following site: .

This site also includes some invaluable material for learning about the environment including an online ‘Environmental Knowledge Quiz’.

9. Climate Change Challenge (Campus Treasure Hunt)

Climate Change is the main environmental issue of our time. As teachers we have a clear responsibility to inform our students as much as possible through our subject about the causes and effects of Climate Change along with actions we can all take to address it.

As a issue, Climate Change brings together many of the environmental and social problems we are facing today and as such lends itself to infusion into the curriculum through various topics we are already addressing in our subject classrooms.

Discuss/Share some of the issues connected to Climate Change and how they can be indirectly or directly addressed in our classes.

How many of you actually feel adequately informed and knowledgeable enough about

Climate Change to introduce and teach about it in your classes?

If participants wish, and time permits, show 30 min. PP Presentation on Climate

Change.

Climate Change Introduction

There is also an excellent 4 min. introduction to Global Warming narrated by

Leonardo DiCaprio at:

Global-warning

Encourage participants to watch and arrange a school showing of ‘An Inconvenient

Truth’. In India, also suggest a screening of the 22 min. documentary ‘Global

Warning’ available from ‘The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) at:



Some other invaluable material for informing ourselves and our students about

Climate Change can be found:

On the ‘Changing Climate’ site of the National Geographic Magazine:



On the ‘Climate Connections’ site of National Public Radio (NPR, USA):



On the ‘Planet Under Pressure’ site of the BBC:



Let me now briefly introduce you to a fun activity for the whole school that I created at

Sahyadri School which will bring the issue of Climate Change straight onto your campus!

I conducted this ‘Climate Change Challenge’ Treasure Hunt in tandem with a four-day morning assembly program about Climate Change as it does require that students have a working knowledge of the key causes and effects of global warming.

Show ‘Climate Challenge-Treasure Hunt’ PP Presentation (Discuss)

Climate Change Treasure Hunt

Another online tool you can use that is similar to the ‘Eco-Footprint Quiz’ is a ‘Personal

Emissions Calculator’ developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This

calculator provides an estimate of household greenhouse gas emissions resulting from

household energy use and waste disposal, and it gives you information you can use to

identify ways to reduce your personal greenhouse gases. The What You Can Do section

of the climate change site identifies over 25 action steps that individuals can take to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase the nation's energy independence, and save money. Again, this calculator requires students to spend about 15 min. entering data and can be utilized in the same ways I suggested for the ‘Eco-Footprint Quiz’ or any others that you come up with.

The Calculator can be found at:



The EPA also has a Climate Change Kids Site and an ‘At School’ site with information

for students, teachers and administrators:





Finally, the Centre for Science and Environment, who developed the ‘Green Schools

Programme’ Eco-Audits we talked about this morning, are in the process of

developing a similar audit for home or school use which will be published in late

2008 so please keep checking their site periodically.

10. My holidays: Loving Nature to Death?

This is the last topic I want to share with you today and also the one that I am still

developing so it won’t take long to cover! However, I wanted to at least bring it up for it

is a topic that is very close to my heart as I have been a traveler as opposed to a tourist

since I was 21 and traveled overland from Britain to India for a year on a budget of about

$1,000. In the early 90’s I used to give talks titled ‘Are You a Tourist or a Traveller’ and Chapter 9 in my textbook series Looking Back, Moving Forward: An Environmental Course for the Next Generation published by Macmillan Language House in Japan has a number of dialogues, interviews, essays and activities based around this topic.

As you know, the only period of time that students and teachers love more than school

time are the holidays and it is also the one that most of us just want to let down our hair

and have a good time without being reminded of all the things we should and shouldn’t

do and about the terrible state of the environment.

However, it is also the time when many of us have a huge impact on both the social and

natural environment of our chosen holiday destination and thus, with awareness, can be a time when we help to contribute to rather than destroy the surroundings.

I would like to do this following the same process as I do in class or at school assemblies.

(If time. If not, just show the above points on screen and go over)

i. Let me start by asking you to name the two main ‘ecosystems’ that many people

choose for their holiday destinations. (Share: Beaches (Coastal) and Mountains

which often includes Forests)

It is a sad irony that these are the two most fragile ecosystems in the world and the ones where in many parts of the world the inhabitants are living a marginalized existence due to their total dependence on their surroundings. (Provide facts)

ii. Next, could we list the means of transportation that people generally use to reach and get around in their chosen holiday destination.

iii. Could you now list some of the components of the infrastructure that is necessary to support these chosen forms of transportation.

iv. What forms of accommodation do tourists generally stay at while on holiday?

v. What facilities do most tourists expect their chosen form of accommodation to provide?

v. What food choices do most tourists expect to be available while they are on holiday?

vi. What are some of the main leisure activities that tourists may spend their time pursuing while on holiday?

One way to conduct this process in class is to divide students into mountain and beach holiday groups and have them respond to these questions in a way that is pertinent to their location. To help students, you could ask them just to create an imaginary holiday to a specific mountain or beach location right from the moment they leave home.

vii. The next step is of course to consider the possible environmental and, if you feel adequately informed, social impact of ii. through vi. on the local surroundings and inhabitants from both a positive and negative viewpoint.

viii. The final step at this stage is to go through the list of negative impacts and consider the alternatives. (Discuss and/or share some key points).

I have developed a short information gap activity for group work in class to help students start knowing and thinking about ‘eco-tourism’ based on actual eco-tours. (Show)

Eco-Holiday Activity

I also have a simple follow-up sheet that asks students to create a three-day ‘eco-holiday’ in their area. (Show)

District/State Eco-Tour Activity

There are also countless ‘eco-tour’ sites online, though you must be careful of ‘greenwashing’! Some of the most informative and reliable sites are:

i. Sustainable Travel International:

ii. The International Ecotourism Society:

iii. Global Journal of Practical Ecotourism:

iv. EcoTours:

v. Willing Workers on Organic Farms:

Could we now decide which of the five activities I have introduced this afternoon you would like to discuss and explore further?

BREAK UP INTO GROUPS OF DIFFERENT SUBJECT TEACHERS, LOOK THROUGH THE SUPPORT MATERIAL AND DISCUSS HOW THESE ACTIVITIES COULD BE BEST IMPLEMENTED AND INFUSED INTO THE DIFFERENT SUBJECTS AT THE VARIOUS GRADE LEVELS.

Thank you all very much for your participation today. I do hope that some of the tools I have shared with you today will be useful in starting or continuing your school on its environmental journey. It is surely a journey filled with excitement and surprise and one that we cannot delay any longer for the sake of our children and for the future of our planet.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download