Introduction to Environmental Science
Environmental science is a great class to teach. The material is interdisciplinary and has a lot of real-world application. It is also challenging, however, as most schools designate environmental science as the science-class-for-kids-bad-at-science. If your students are taking the class because they essentially had no other choice, it can be an extraordinarily hard class to teach. Unlike other core science classes, there is no standard curriculum, set of topics, or set of concepts that everyone teaches.
Environmental science is a true elective. Unlike most other science classes, the teacher must spend a great deal of his time working with students' affective domain. How do you a feeling of importance in the topics you are covering? As this is an interdisciplinary class, there is a highly political component, one which may run counter to the students' own beliefs and philosopies.
The best way to teach this course may be to focus on the facts, present the information in as objective manner as possible, and try to encourage critical thinking, analysis, and informed opinions based on science. The resources in this section hopefully can be a means to that end.
Unit Plans and Sequence
I follow the sequence of units as shown on the listing to the left. Unit plans are available at the page for each chapter.
Research and Current Events
A listing of long-term research project topics with suggested sources is a good place to start. These are topics that should be spread out through the entire semester so that the students' presentations match the concepts currently taught.
Current events are an essential part of the environmental science course. Truly, the crux of the class is to gain a better understanding of how we currently interact with the environment. However, finding articles that are relevant, objective, and comprehensive can be a very challenging task. This is particularly true for students who are apt to simply pick the first result on a Google search, or find the shortest article possible.
For your current events assignments, try the Environmental Science Current Articles Search Engine. This is a custom Google search that only takes articles from a select few websites, such as National Geographic and Popular Science.
Please select one of the topics to the left for specific resources.
