Saturday, April 16, 2011

Journal 9: "Teaching Green" NETS-T 1,2

Waters, John. (2011). Teaching green. The Journal, 38(4), Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/research/2011/04/digital-edition_april_pdf/asset.aspx?tc=assetpg&returnkey=DUc5hIYTuX9Y8Xmk4MsZaQse9VSulSL2

Summary:
In this article the author, John Waters, discusses educational websites that address the National Environmental Education Act enacted by President Nixon in the 1960's. These websites all provide resources for students and teachers about "green teaching and learning". The first website is called, "Classroom Earth". Directed towards high school students, this site encourages inclusion of environmental science into other high school subjects. There are resources for students and teachers including lesson plan ideas. The next source was "Walk in the Woods", a website for younger students grade 3-5 who are not often exposed to true nature. This offers a virtual tour trip through the woods in either English or Spanish that includes notes, picture snapshots, and identifies Illinois statewide learning goals, as well as sample lesson activities. "EEK" or "Environmental Education for Kids" is for student’s grade 4-8 and is in the form of an online magazine. It provides lessons on an array of environmental subjects, and also has a great teacher’s page with tips for teachers and subject specific lessons. "The Ecological Footprint Quiz" allow Highschool students to take a test to see how many planet earths it would take to sustain their lifestyle, hence showing them their environmental footprint. This will encourage students to live more sustainably to preserve our earth. "Power Up" is an online multi-player game in which participants get to save a foreign world from their environmental disasters. It also provides a parents guide and a lesson plan for teachers. Finally, the "US Environmental Protection Agency Teaching Center" is a teacher focused site that offers resources, lesson plans and helpful articles and tools separated for specific grade levels.

Question 1: How could you use these websites in your classroom?

I could use these websites in many ways as helpful resources for my class. Some of these sites I can use in my planning stages to prepare lessons for my class, and research environmental issues. Other sites students will be able to go onto during class to complete objectives, while others students can use on their own to complete assignments at home.

Question 2: Which of these sites do you believe sounds the most useful?

While all of these sites offer several useful tools, I believe the Ecological Footprint site is a great tool to allow students to visualize the damage done to the earth by not living sustainably. I used this site for one of my college courses, and it had a lot to offer students, and would be great at the high school level as well. When your Ecological footprint is high, it teaches you how to bring your score down and shows you how to live more sustainably.

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