Nancy M. Esposito
In my unit this year, I would like to help my students develop an understanding of their relationship with their environment, and a respect for how the everyday things they do affect that environment. I am a middle school special education teacher in the Hill area of New Haven, and as such I am constantly being challenged to find new ways to motivate my students in learning about the various aspects of science while still being considerate of students’ limitations. These students always are most attentive to, and thus learn the most from, hands-on learning situations. Whereas they often have limited reading and mathematical ability and will rarely experience the excitement of sitting and reading to themselves a book on topics of interest to them, there is vast potential for developing a unit on ecosystems where students can experience nature first-hand while learning about it.
This unit is created to be taught in parts, with each section taught during the corresponding season so that students will have the best opportunity of relating what they are learning directly to what is happening in their neighborhood. One of the very important things which I feel that I can foster in my students is respect and concern for their environment. I hope to encourage them to think about the fact that each of us plays an active role in what is happening in our environment, good or bad, and that not making conscious choices is in itself a choice. Students in my classes are often caught up in a daily struggle to hold their own personal lives together, and they tend not to think about issues such as environmental impact. However, I think that it would be healthy and productive for them to be exposed to environmental education and I believe that it will have some impact on them, with the amount varying from student to student.
Many people today seem to have lost hope in the future, feeling helpless and paralyzed to do anything to affect it. I believe that, in part, this comes from viewing nature and ecology at a distance, and feeling that the “important issues” are global, too distant and overwhelming for the common person to do anything about. Others I have spoken with seem to feel that the earth is so powerful and magnificent that it can take in stride anything that mere men could do to it and still manage to right itself. I am hopeful that by involving students in a study of our earth on a personal level, they will begin to realize that each person can have an impact on changing the future, for better or worse.
