Essential to any significant understanding of environmental issues is an awareness of how the natural forces on Earth operate to support life. Only after awareness is developed in this area can it be understood how these systems are being threatened and what can be done about it. That is, only then can we seriously begin working on “environmental issues”.
This section is planned, to provide: (1) factual data concerning the natural environment, and (2) time to spend in a natural environment. The basic factual data for this part is presented in the discussion-card form as mentioned above. These are followed by a list of activities that provide various ways to obtain more information and to plan for time in the woods or other natural environment that might be available.
In Part I there are five major topics considered on the discussion cards and eleven activities listed after that. Each topic or activity, except the Knot game, could take one or more sessions. The time allowed for this part, however, is only six or seven sessions. Using an arbitrary guide of two sessions outside and four or five classroom sessions, I’ll determine the final nature of the sessions on other factors like student interest and skill, resources at hand and time available to prepare.