Powerful Learning for Raising Environmental Awareness
This section aims to:
* Introduce the concept of environmental awareness.
* Explore the importance of raising students’ environmental awareness.
* Explore a set of online educational resources for raising school students’ environmental awareness.
* Present the process of designing / adjusting learning activities that address both the national curriculum and the raising of environmental awareness.
Environmental Awareness
Environmental awareness means being informed about our natural surroundings, and understanding how our actions affect the well-being of our local and global environments (add yt video).
The environment refers to all parts of nature, living and non-living.
Being aware of the environment is important because of the increasing environmental challenges the world is experiencing, such as:
* climate change
* deforestation
* drought
* floods
* global warming
* water scarcity
* pollution
Understanding these issues and making lifestyle changes that contribute to environmental conservation is what environmental awareness is all about.
Source: https://www.gvi.ie/blog/how-to-cultivate-environmental-awareness-in-schools/
Link to PDF / PPT
Examples of Online Open Environmental Awareness Learning Resources
Additional to the Teaching the Future resources (available on the website), there are several online repositories of teaching resources that can support teachers in enriching the learning objectives of the learning activities they implement by adding objectives relevant to raising students’ environmental awareness.
Activity: Explore these web sites and identify and take note of environmental resources useful for your classes.
ECO-SCHOOLS
This global initiative, operated by the Foundation for Environmental Education, began in 1994 and encourages young people to become environmentally conscious. They’ve assisted in establishing environmental education programs in schools in 68 countries.
Between 1994 and 2019, the program had already reached 19 million students and 1.4 million teachers in 52,000 schools.
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Sources:
https://www.ecoschools.global/how-does-it-work/
https://www.ecoschools.global/lesson-plans-for-teachers
WWF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
WWF’s Wild Classroom program aims to connect educators and parents with the tools and resources they need to help kids explore and understand the world around them in order to inspire the next generation to build a future where people and nature thrive. It has been recently recognised as one of 2021’s Best Digital Learning Tools by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).
There are additional educational resources available in English by WWF UK, CANADA, INDIA.
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Resources:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/teaching-resources
https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools
https://schools.wwf.ca/
https://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/environmental_education/
Tips To Support Environmental Awareness In School Education
* Teach children about the three Rs: reduce waste, reuse resources and recycle materials.
* Organise tree planting days at schools and teach children why trees are important to the environment.
* Encourage children to switch off all appliances and lights when not in use.
* Encourage children to ensure taps are properly closed after use, and to use water sparingly.
To support environmental awareness through powerful learning, the teacher may:
* Connect/link the lesson topic to a topic or an activity aiming to raise environmental awareness.
* Enrich the learning objectives with additional that relate to environmental awareness.
* Use the appropriate resources and tools.
* Design the learning activities aiming to foster powerful learning.
Source: https://www.gvi.ie/blog/how-to-cultivate-environmental-awareness-in-schools/
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Activity: For one of the resources you identified, describe how you would link it to one of the national curriculum subject topics that you teach.
How would you endorse powerful learning?