Kenneth P. Rogers
The length of the curriculum itself should be ten weeks and can be used as part of the science curriculum. Three days a week should be a valuable time allotment. The first week should be used to help the student obtain a vocabulary that can be used as a vehicle to the understanding of the nature of environmental difficulties and the dangers that exist if the difficulties are not addressed.
The second week should be utilized by identifying some of the environmental crises that are endangering the environment in the present day. This can be accomplished by discussing some of the present day problems that exist. They can be found in the daily newspaper or downloaded from the internet each day and distributed to the classroom for discussion about the responsibility for the clean-up and the cost and maintenance of the natural resources that are limited and not endless.
Identification of Environmental Problems
The next three weeks should be spent identifying the three main areas of concern to environmentalist: air, land, and water. Once these three topics have been addressed, the interdependence of these concerns should be examined.
The first of the areas of major concern is air pollution. The following questions should be addressed at this point. What is air pollution? What causes it? What happens as a result? What are some things that can be done to prevent air pollution? What are some of the things that have been done already to address the problem? What are some of the problems that we may face in the future in dealing with air pollution? What is the ozone? What is global warming and is there a way to prevent it? What are fluorocarbons? What is a pesticide? What is meant by after-life? How do insects become immune to the use of pesticides?
The next area of major concern is land. What do we mean by 'land pollution'? What are the causes of soil erosion? Why is the destruction of the rain forest so detrimental to the existence of mankind? How can the production of food and other natural resources be harmful to the environment? What kind of measures can be taken to prevent the misuse and the destruction of these natural resources? What is radon? Where does it come from? What is a landfill? How much solid waste do we produce? Do landfills harm the Earth? What do we mean by biodegradable? How do we solve the problem of solid waste? What is the link between pesticides and life on the face of the earth? What effect do pesticides have on the interdependency of life on earth?
Water is the next area of concern that should be explored. What is water pollution? What are some examples of water pollution? What are the causes of water pollution? What can the ramifications be if water pollution is not remedied? Why is water pollution so important to prevent? What measures can be taken to prevent the pollution of water resources? What can be done for resources that have already contaminated? Who is responsible for the clean up of polluted resources and who pays to clean it up? How can it be determined what the cost of the clean up would be? What methods can be used to calculate the cost of keeping water clean and potable and healthy for the population.
At the end of this period spent identifying and examining these three major areas of concern, time should be used to look closely how they are interdependent upon one another and how the loss of one of them affects the remaining ones. Examples should be shown how the neglect in any of these areas could have a devastating result upon human life on this planet. A thorough examination regarding the ecological system as a whole should be addressed at this time before continuing with the case studies and exercises in making ethical decisions.
Case Studies
The next three weeks of the curriculum unit should be used to look at different ecological problems that exist and some of the ways to remedy them. The case studies should be made of actual environmental problems that have arisen or are foreseen as a difficulty that may pose a problem in the future. Included at this point should be the topic of the cost of cleaning up environmental problems that may exist and the responsibility for cleaning up the pollution and developing ways to prevent future destruction of valuable natural resources.
Week six should be a case study dealing with air pollution. This can be the causes of acid rain, smog, or problems with the ozone layer. The first case study may deal with acid rain. Where does it come from? Who is responsible? How do we clean it up? What are some of the levels that are acceptable and how do we pay for the clean up? Who pays for the cleaning of the air from pollutants? How do we prevent pollution from being continuously introduced into the atmosphere? What are some of the alternative forms of energy that may be used in place of the fuels that produce sulfur and nitrous oxides that are used by industry? What may be the advantage and disadvantages to other forms of energy? What would their cost be
The next case study should be about smog and what causes it. There should be discussions as to what is meant by acceptable levels of contamination and who pays for the maintenance of the described levels of acceptance. Who decides what the acceptable levels are? What are some of the things that can be done to prevent smog? Are there alternative fuels that may be used in place of the ones that are polluting the air? An example that could be used here is the smog that covers the Los Angeles basin. What are some of the steps that have been taken by Los Angeles County and the State of California to relieve this problem? What are some of the costs that have been involved in taking the necessary steps to solve the problem? How is the problem unique to the area and are there other cities in the world that have been afflicted in the same way.
The next case study should be an examination of the problem dealing with the O-zone levels. What is the problem with the O-zone and how does it affect us? What are some of causes of the problems that exist? How can we prevent further destruction of the O-zone? What will eventually happen if nothing is done to prevent the destruction of the O-zone? Again, decisions as to who decides what should be done, how much of it should be done and who is going to pay for what needs to be done should be discussed.
The seventh week should deal with case studies involving land pollution? What are some of the ways to prevent the destruction of valuable farmland and its use to feed the human race? What are some of the problems with using pesticides and herbicides? Do they affect more than just the crop that they are being used on? If so, how does that happen and what can be done to alleviate the problem? What is erosion and what are some of the ways to prevent it? What are some of the other forms of land abuse and destruction by misuse? How can this be prevented? What is radon?
The first case study that can be used can be the problem with the destruction of the rain forest. Where are the rain forests found throughout the world? Why are they so important for the health of the Earth and the health of mankind? Who is responsible for the destruction of the rain forests and how is their destruction taking place? Who is to decide what is to be done with them? What are the issues and the ethics behind the destruction of the rain forest? What will the result are if nothing is done to prevent its demise? What are the costs of keeping the rain forests from being destroyed both in terms of dollars and esthetic value?
Another case to be dealt with in the area of land pollution should be the problems of dealing with landfills. Here a lot of communities can be used as examples of poor land management and overfilled landfills
The third case study should deal with the actual chemical pollution of the land. How does it become polluted? Are there any safe chemicals that can be used and still be effective for the purposes that they were intended for? How many chemical substances are being used and what are they being used for? What are their effects? How do these chemicals affect the soil and do they affect other environmental areas of the planet such as drinking water or food grown from the soil? What are pesticides and how are they used? What are the benefits of using pesticides and how do we weigh the benefits against the negative results of their use? What is radon and where does it come from? How can it be prevented or if the soil has been contaminated how can it be cleaned up or changed back to its original composition?
The eighth week should be used to look at case studies that deal with water pollution, usage and conservation. The questions should promote the idea that the amount of usable water that is available for human use is insignificant. This should include places where water has been deemed unusable and unsafe to drink. The issue of acid rain may be reviewed at this time. Is the water from the Connecticut River or the Housatonic River safe for human use? How do they determine when shellfish from the Connecticut shoreline is safe for human consumption? How do you determine whether or not the well water in your yard is safe to use? A good case study here for the week could be the Exxon Valdez incident.
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The ninth week should be a discussion on finding out how each of the three main areas previously mentioned is dependent on one another and what may happen if any of these areas is neglected. Specific examples should be given and discussed in the classroom. For instance, the spraying of pesticides on crops in the United States may be carried by the wind over the Pacific Ocean. From there the sea life of the ocean becomes contaminated by the pesticide. Then the Polar Bear feed on this ocean life and become infected by the pesticides. Thus, this becomes an example of how interconnected the ecological systems are to one another.
The tenth week could be used for assessment purposes. Assessment should be as unconventional or conventional as the presenter decides. Part of the assessment process should be used to help the student use the social skills that may have been introduced during the case studies in the previous lessons. New alternatives can be used to assess the student's knowledge in environmental studies. For example, a poster contest in any of the three main areas that have been discussed in class may be a good approach to traditional standards of assessment. Of course, a good poster would not be based only on the artistic ability of the student but also on the understanding of the environmental principles behind the poster. Another approach could be for the students to write to their local, state or congressional representatives asking them to take care of a certain ecological problem that affects their area where they live.
Classroom Activities should be varied and present a real matter of making important decisions involving responsibilities to future generations and yet knowing that there is not a never ending supply of resources either natural or economic. Group discussions and decisions on what to do or how much to spend on situations that arise should help with student understanding of limitations and the difficulties of coming to a general consensus that is democratic and not overburdening on one particular group.
Identifying Environmental Issues
Fundamental to the curriculum is the student's ability to identify environmental problems and their particulars. There should be activities that promote awareness of not only of the issues involved but also ways to evaluate their importance when making decisions on how to solve the problem and how much economic resources should be used on that specific environmental dilemma. It is important that the student recognizes and is aware that environmental problems do exist.
Determining Economic Resources
There is a vast array of activities that may be available to help students come to an understanding of limited resources and many of these activities can come straight from math lessons dealing with simple addition and subtraction. Another good area of math in this particular instance could be problem solving. What could be advantageous here are lessons involving alternative resources. The student should be aware that there are more ways than one to reach objectives.
Applying Democratic Principles to Solve Environmental Issues
Here is a golden opportunity to present democratic ideals and principles on how democracy works and some of the fundamental ideas involved in using the process to make decisions. Making activities using small groups should be exciting when students are asked to identify what they should do to solve their economic situation. It is important that the student recognizes that there will be others that may have different ideas of what may be important or not important. Other people may prefer different ways to solve the same problems. Or their way may be different because their resources are more or less. The lesson should involve how decisions in a democratic society are brought about and how decisions come about in the real world when decisions involving public monies are concerned.
Using Conflict Resolution to Come to a Consensus
Once again a great opportunity presents itself for elaboration. This part of the curriculum is especially vulnerable to valuable lessons on the art of compromise and the use of sophisticated communications to come to an understanding. The student should be able to become integrated with using communications as an instrument of concordance.
