ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING PROJECT NICOLE MENESES Environmental and Sustainability Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

PROJECT GOALS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Encourage identification of connections between areas of personal importance and environmental issues Discuss connections and issues which can be linked to local region Approach problem and create potential solutions

AN ENVIRONMENT OF CONNECTIONS PROJECT DESCRIPTION

IDENTIFY PROJECT DESCRIPTION Identify Areas of personal importance Environmental issues and how this issue may impact them Create a card for one of the above Share cards Air Pollution Impact on health : Asthma Smoggy summer days Results from factories : factories are in Milton My car Car creates air pollution Need car to drive to work Car uses non renewable resources

CONNECT PROJECT DESCRIPTION Display Cards of learners around the outside of a large piece of paper or board Allow each learner a turn to connect to cards and describe the connection Connections should be unique

EXPAND AND FOCUS PROJECT DESCRIPTION Discuss the activity and personalize What was learned? How are these issues related to the local community? School? What other issues may be identified? Which issues are the most important? Allow students to rank issues and vote as a class on which one they would like to approach

PROBLEM SOLVE PROJECT DESCRIPTION Brainstorm Allow students to brainstorm ways to approach identified problems in the school community Problem solve Students work in groups to focus in on one idea critique and then ultimately present it

PROBLEM SHARE PROJECT DESCRIPTION Brainstorm Allow students to brainstorm ways to approach identified problems in the school community Problem solve Students work in groups to focus in on one idea critique and then ultimately present it

FEEDBACK Students said they enjoyed: The looser format of the class itself Being in charge of which problem they chose to approach That we focused on their ideas That the activity had meaning by being shared with the eco - team Students didn’t like: Being guilted - this was seen directly in the choices they made about what problem to approach and general discomfort observed when discussing what is good for the environment and what isn’t Taking the time to share in the grade 12 class

CHALLENGES AND ADAPTATIONS Originally: Grade 9 Academic Geography, Grade 9 Applied Geography Grade 12 University Canadian & World Issues In actuality: Grade 9 Academic Geography, Grade 12 University Canadian & World Issues Grade 9 applied constrained by time… Originally: Start right away with all classes each doing different portions of activity to work together Eco – team feedback involved In actuality: Portions split up among classes due to time constraints and timing of assignments and each class doing full activity separately No time for eco – team feedback after reviewing class - unable to find out who

CHALLENGES AND ADAPTATIONS Learning IN, about and for the environment… AT preferred to stay indoors Curtains pinned shut Weird controversies : Water bottles

MINI RE-ENACTMENT/ POSSIBLE ACTIVITY IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THE OTHER ONE On GOOS paper write in top two left hand corners write two different things that are important to you In bottom two corners write two different environmental issues Then pass your sheet to the right and on your new sheet draw one connection joining any two corners and brief point on line explaining connection Pass and repeat until you have your sheet back Discuss

ANY QUESTIONS?