Let’s Make Green Decisions (LS-HR-573)

This lesson is meant to be used with students thirteen years of age and older. It is about raising awareness of the negative environmental changes occurring in the modern world.

Thanks to the mass media, we are witnessing dramatic environmental changes happening over the world on a daily basis. What causes these changes is the big question. How to react in order to save the environment for future generations is another one. The students will try to answer these questions during this lesson.

At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to talk about the causes of negative environmental changes, their consequences and possible corrective actions. They will be able to talk about the effects as well as of the possible actions that every person can do in order to protect the environment. The topic is in line with the Croatian National Curriculum. It deals with environmental issues that are included in the syllabi of several subjects and it is a part of the interdisciplinary topic dedicated to  education for sustainable development.

When I started preparing this learning scenario, teachers and students were in their classrooms. Then the decision was taken to go online. Consequently, I had to modify this learning scenario and adapt it to the new situation. It was an interesting process requiring the implementation of more digital technologies.

Activities

As the first activity of the lesson, I collected students thoughts of the causes, effects and possible corrective actions as concerns environmental issues using Mentimeter. Then, they looked back into the past to see how people tackled this problem then. They read the Europeana blog Green Through Time: Four Historical Figures Who Raised Awareness of the Environment. Using breakout option, students were divided into four teams. Each team did online research about one of the four historic figures concentrating on their environment-related activities. They presented their findings to the class after they had posted them onto the Jamboard slide.

Then I encouraged students to imagine going back to the past. Their task was to interview one of the four famous people from the blog, the topic being environmental problems. Students were divided into pairs, one being the famous person and the other the interviewer. Having done that, students acted out the interviews. After that, my students watched the National Geographic YouTube video called Causes and Effects of Climate Change. After that, they discussed what they had seen and heard. Then, they discussed the similar problems that occurred in their town and region.

In line with the aim of the lesson, students were instructed to create posters with slogans and illustrations that would raise awareness of the negative environmental changes. The format was not determined so the students used paper and crayons, PowerPoint slides or Canva to accomplish this task.

I prepared exit tickets for the end of the lesson. It contained three statements/questions and students were asked to answer them. They were supposed to name some causes of environmental changes, some effects and some actions they could do to preserve the environment.

Using Microsoft Forms, I created a questionnaire in order to get students’ feedback about how they felt during the lesson, if they liked it, if they had fun and if they found it interesting. The result was excellent. Once more, it was proven that students like lessons that depart from daily routine.

I implemented this lesson using Microsoft Teams platform. The material was presented using PowerPoint 365. By sharing the screen, students were able to get the necessary links, watch the YouTube video and share the material they prepared in the end of the lesson.

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

Did you find this learning scenario interesting? You might also like:

• Connecting with the Environment using our Senses
• Sustainable Future 4 European Heritage
• Nurture Mother Nature

Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Slovak National Gallery.