Kathleen C. Rende
An appreciation for our environment can be fostered at a very early age. Along with that appreciation, and awareness of our responsibility for our environment can be cultivated early in a child’s life. Children are naturally curious about the world they live in and can easily become conscious thinkers about their world. Having young children explore their world by experimenting and discovering the effect of pollution on the environment can prepare students for a life of responsibility for their world. A sense of responsibility for their environment can be coupled with a consciousness of the effects of food on their own bodies.
Energetic Energy: A child’s guide to responsible energy use
introduces students to an important matter that will effect their generation and generations beyond. The issue of pollution and world energy consumption, although not a new problem will become a larger dilemma as their generation grows older and become energy consumers. Although there are advances in alternative energy resources the majority of today’s energy still comes from fossil fuels. The use of those fuels poses a threat on the environment and a health hazard to humans. By introducing students to this problem, we can raise their consciousness early in their lives and give them the knowledge to conserve, rather then waste energy and hopefully introduce them to the alternative energy resources so they can develop better ways to “get work done”.
By relating energy to work their bodies do, I hope to introduce student to three major points. First, you can’t get something from nothing. The first law of thermodynamics states that “Energy is recognized as an entity found in many different and interchangeable forms…but in all its transformations the total amount of it never changes: it is conserved.” (Goldstein, 30-31) By understanding this, students can relate that to waste and energy conservation. Secondly, I would like my students to take this idea of waste and relate it to their bodies. By consuming foods that will not give them the optimal energy, they will not get the maximum amount of work. If they choose the right foods they will get the right energy. Lastly, I would like to relate the idea of waste to the environment. If energy is not used wisely, waste in the environment can become a health problem to all organisms.
