The purpose of this unit is to put personal health and nutrition on the forefront of the minds of the children. Steps will be taken that can be repeated and shared by the students long after this unit is completed. It is hoped that the children will, by word and example, educate their families and community, by letting them know that they control the causes that affect their environment. This is the result I expect.
The areas on or near the surface of the planet, where plants and animals and humans can survive is the biosphere. In the country where we live, the United States, that area is under attack. A major environmental issue in the 21st century will be the pollution and contaminants that affect our land, air, water and food.
A call for stricter standards and reducing pesticide use and other contaminants is a must. We must move toward cleaner food. Effective testing of pesticides/food combinations is quite difficult. Just which pesticides have been used on which crops is hard to know. Until the laws get stiffer on the labeling and restricting of all pesticides used on or around the food we eat, the water we drink, and areas where our children frequent, we should move closer towards growing our own produce. We can also control what chemicals we put on our lawns or least research the chemicals used on the lawns where our children play if we are not the home owner.
Man has always sought to make like easier for himself with apparent little concern for how other living things would be affected. Children should learn ecology and the environment so that they can live in harmony with the rest of the world. The standard of living should be better.
“Ecosystem” is the term for all living and non-living things in a given area and the relationship among them. In any ecosystem the most important relationships involve the movement of food and energy, starting with the sun and involving the other main parts of the ecosystem. Many ecosystems may appear to be stable because the day-by-day changes are subtle. This apparent stability among plants and animals has been referred to as the balance of nature. In reality material, energy, and nutrients are in
constant flux.
My fourth grade class will begin this study by looking at connections. In almost everything that they do, see, or experience my students think of them as isolated incidents. The water could run in the sink while they brush their teeth for five to eight minutes. They aren’t concerned. They don’t pay the rent as it goes up or the water bill for homeowners. The entire paper and plastic contents that are left from a bag lunch could end up on the school yard or a person’s backyard. The child is not concerned. They don’t pay the extra tax dollars for public works to send extra men to clean it. They don’t realize they have less respect for where they live because it is unattractive, marred by the trash they and others have decorated the lawns and sidewalks with. The school 100 yard dash champion could decide to set a new track record on his or her way to the main office and trip over the broom of an unsuspecting custodian entering the hall. Never mind startling the custodian half out of his or her mind, the child has now suffered a broken ankle and can’t compete for the rest -of the season. They often fail to see the cause and effect and most important, that they can to a measurable degree, control the cause.
Contaminants move through ecosystems. They affect our air, our water, our land and most seriously, our food. Sometimes the damage may not be immediately apparent, as it accumulates over long periods of time. One example of this is the exposure to UV radiation from the sun. Nevertheless, it is damage and we experience a lower standard of living because of it.
