Think green

     Raising environmental awareness is becoming more and more important and urgent each day. By incorporating environmental learning into education, teachers help students understand the natural world and their personal connection to it. In this way the young learners will be able to make informed decisions to protect the environment at school, at home and in the community.
     The good news is that a lot of materials have been prepared for the introduction of nature conservation into the school curriculum. Textbooks and teaching resources abound in texts, activities and practical advice on what people can do to help protect the environment thus establishing an attitude towards nature.

While browsing the net I came upon these surveys which I believe will help the students to find out what they can do to improve their environmental behaviour.

Think Earth Environmental Surveys

Another useful link, one of the oldest, and most unbiased sources of online environmental news on the web: http://www.enn.com/

 All the images shown here belong to respected owners and are shared here for appreciation purpose.

Graffiti in the classroom?

The following activity, called Graffiti in the Classroom, is an excellent way to get the students thinking about a topic prior to reading. It is not actually connected with painting, but with writing and involves all students. Being an independent activity in which students can think and put down their ideas freely, it provides a way for shy students to get involved in the discussions.

Steps:
1. Prepare several sheets of paper with a topic to discuss written in the middle.
2. Stick them on the walls so that it is easy for students to write on them,
3. Give the students coloured pencils and tell them to go round the room and put down their ideas on each topic. They can also agree or disagree with what their classmates have written.
4. While doing the activity, the students must keep silent.

The following pictures are some of the Graffiti that my 11th grade students produced on some of the topics discussed in class:

Some of the ideas can be used while discussing the topics later during the lesson.

Freedom

Describe the picture /sculpture of Zenos Frudakis/ and discuss the topic of freedom in the context of the modern world.

Useful link: http://zenosfrudakis.com/sculptures/public/Freedom.html

How to get rid of plastic bags

BBC News Thursday, 2 August 2012 10:05 UK

Supermarkets 'should charge £1 a bag'

Everyone should be charged a small fee to get a plastic bag with their shopping, according to a group of environmental pressure groups.
Samantha Harding, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, says a fee of 5p would "seriously reduce litter and pollution... which is having a massive, massive effect".
Judith Holder, author of Grumpy Old Women, believes that a five pence fee would not work.
Her life is "full of bags", she told the Today programme, "my problem is I've never got them when I got to the till."
People need to be charged £1 for a bag so that they remember to take them in the shop, she suggests.

Do you agree? How do plastic bags affect our life?

Useful link: http://www.riograndeguardian.com/green_story.asp?story_no=4