Environmental Disasters of Modern History Research Paper
Often, one of the best ways to teach the importance of a concept is to show what can happen when everything goes awry. This project assigns each student a major environmental disaster. The students will construct a report and/or presentation explaining what exactly happened during this event, how it was handled and cleaned up, and what lessons were learned from it. Most of these disasters occur sometime between the advent of the industrial revolution and present day. A set of instructions and grading rubric is also available for this assignment.
Essential concepts: Environmental history, Rachel Carson, environmental movement, industrial revolution, Theodore Roosevelt, silent spring, progressive era.
