The History Classroom

What is Environmental Education (EE)?

Environmental education is education about the environment, for the environment, and in the environment that promotes an understanding of, rich and active experience in, and an appreciation for the dynamic interactions of:
• the earth’s physical and biological systems;
• the dependency of our social and economic systems on these natural systems;
• the scientific and human dimensions of environmental issues;
• the positive and negative consequences, both intended and unintended, of the interactions between human-created and natural systems.

(Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future p. 6)

Curriculum Connections

Making EE a part of your classroom is easier than you think!  Listed in no specific order, below you will find a compilation of EE History curriculum connections.  Regardless of high school grade or stream, these ideas can be adapted for your classroom agenda.

Communities: Local, National, and Global

External Forces and Events on Canada: Climate Change

  • Aim: Students will critically view, analyse, and discuss different sections of the movie Cool It!
  • Begin lesson by having students engage in dialogue about contentious issues.  This can be done as a whole class style discussion, or you can divide the class into small groups and give each group a topic of discussion.
    • Topics:  Would you rather…
      • Have clean air or clean drinking water?
      • Cure AIDS or cure cancer?
      • Feed the hungry in Africa or feed the homeless in America?
      • Eliminate trash and plastic in the ocean, or reduce unemployment by 5%?
      • Fix the economy or solve global warming?
  • Have groups discuss for 5-10 minutes and then share some of their discussions/points of contention with the class.
  • Video analysis:
    • Chapter 10: Funding, 1:16:03-1:20:57
      • Students should be prompted to watch this section with a specific eye to key facts and figures.
      • Critical thinking question for class discussion: Given the blame that technology has received for propelling us toward the current environmental crisis we face, is it reasonable to look to technology for a solution?
    • Chapter 2: Notorious Figure, 10:14-19:09
      • Students should be prompted to watch this section with a specific eye to key facts and figures.
      • Critical thinking question for class discussion: Why did Rio, Kyoto, and Copenhagen fail to mitigate climate change?
    • Chapter 11: A Radically Practical Solution, 1:20:57-1:24:36
      • Students should be prompted to watch this section with a specific eye to key facts and figures.
      • Critical thinking question for class discussion:
        • Does Professor Lomborg’s proposal seem reasonable?
        • Is it possible to address global warming without bankrupting the world?
  • Extension activity:
    • “Cool It!” is just one movie and one perspective on the global climate change debate.  Students are asked to think critically about what they have watched in this lesson, and to ask the question “is this research credible?”
    • Students will write a 400-500 word documentary commentary and critique.
      • They will use the notes the took during the movie (key facts and figures), and they will measure these against other data available.
      • They will assess the validity of the data that was presented in the documentary,
      • Students can agree or disagree with the overall conclusions of “Cool It!”, but they must back up their commentary with additional resources that either validate or refute the information in “Cool It!”
      • Make sure that you include a lesson on ‘how to assess the validity/reliability of online sources’.
    • Breakdown:
      • Word count: 400-500 words
      • Facts/figures critiqued & commented on: at least 3
      • Outside sources: at least 6 (2 for each fact/figure)
      • Bibliography

Change and Continuity

Let’s Debate: Alberta’s Oil Sands

  • Aim: students will use debate style dialogue to explore the pros and cons of Alberta’s oil sands from the perspectives of industry, environmental supporters and Aboriginal peoples. This debate will consider the importance of Canada’s economy, environment and global responsibility.
  • Click here for a primer on debates in the classroom.
  • Overarching questions to guide the debate:
    • Are the Oil Sands good for Canada?
    • Should the Canadian government support the expansion of the Oil Sands?
    • Should Canada set their sights on foreign markets such as China or America with regard to oil?
  • 1) Split students into 3 groups.  Each group is given a title of
    • Industry
    • Concerned Citizens
    • Aboriginal Community
  • 2) Students will be given 2 class research periods to prepare
    • Each student must prepare a debate graphic organizer
    • Students can adapt the organizer if it doesn’t provide them with the necessary space
  • 3) The actual debate can take various forms:
    • Whole class
    • Dual debates – if there are 6 groups then there can be two simultaneous debates happening
    • Small group debates – if there are an even number of students you can have small 3 person debates happening around the class.  This will give each student the chance to use their group’s research and to participate in the dialogue.
  • 4) Students will hand-in their debate graphic organizer to the teacher
  • 5) Final 10 minutes of class: whole group discussion
    • Teacher asks the whole class these questions: Was there a clear winner? Was it easier to argue from a certain perspective? Did most students agree with the perspective that they had to defend?
  • Activity Extension: Exploration of renewable and sustainable energy
    • 1) Watch the video “Green Jobs and Environmental Sustainability: Sierra Club“.
    • 2) In pairs or small groups, students research career opportunities in the energy sector with a focus on renewable energy. Teachers may assign each pair/group a career to research or may leave this up to the students. The more diversity, the better.
    • 3) Students present their career to the rest of the class in such a way as to “sell” the career – make others want to learn more or enter that field of work.

Citizenship and Heritage

Political Party Analysis & Comparison

  • Aim: Discover and evaluate the platforms of current political parties in Canada in reference to environmentalism. A) What their position is to environmental sustainability and sustainability efforts, B) How other policies that they support impact the environment. 
    • Modification: can focus on various movements OR can focus on a specific period of time and evaluate the political parties of that era.
    • Note: Evaluating current political parties will act as a spring board for Civics connections, as well as get students engaged in evaluating the political agendas of parties, and offer them avenues to make their own support/voting decisions.
  • Option #1: Individual research task (Web-based research activity and report)
    • Each student will act as an investigative journalist.  Their job is to assess the major Canadian political parties environmental platform.
    • Questions to ask during research:
      • What projects and initiatives does this party support?
      • What bills have they recently supported?
      • Has their position changed recently? Why?
      • What does the party have to say about their support about environmental protection?
      • What does the party’s critics have to say about their position?
    • Students will write a report that includes:
      • 250-350 word summary on each political party environmental platform
      • 250 word journalist commentary – make reference to what you have uncovered, if you have changed your mind, what you found surprising, etc.
      • This is a great activity to reinforce research skills: bibliography, citations, academic writing
  • Option #2: Group research task (Web-based research and presentation)
    • Class will be divided into groups.  You can either do this based on the four major Canadian political parties (4 groups), or you can also include other groups such as: Environment Canada and the Canadian Military
    • Each group will have to prepare a 5-7 minute presentation on their party/organization
    • Will aim to answer:  A) What their position is to environmental sustainability and sustainability efforts, B) How other policies that they support impact the environment.
  • Option #3: Individual community based research task
    • Find the name and address of local political party headquarters.  Write up this assignment and include this information at the bottom.
    • Decide on the length of time that you want to offer students to complete this task.   You may want to give 3 weeks to ensure that there is a fair opportunity for this task to be completed.
    • Task: Each student will be required to choose a political party representative from the list, and to visit them and ask them about their efforts toward environmental protection and sustainability.
    • Students will submit a summary report of their visit:
      • Date, time, location, individual visited/talked to
      • Questions asked and answers given (Note: use this as an opportunity to demonstrate good reporting/ questioning.  Use news articles, news clips, etc.)
      • 200-250 word reflective statement on the experience, and comment about their current position toward that political party.

Social, Economic, and Political Structures

Social and Environmental Connections: Ongoing or Culminating Task

  • Aim: Students will analyse climate charts, and will draw connections between key events studied and environmental impacts.
  • 1) Teacher to decide if this is a task that students will do as an ongoing task (ie. at the end of each unit, and then will compile at the end of the term) or if it will be a culminating task (ie. will be a final task that will compile all of the key events covered in the term).
  • 2)  Students will use the Canadian climate data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
    • This is the IPCC graph students will use and adapt
    • Students should note about the graph: “Temperature changes relative to the corresponding average for 1901-1950 (°C) from decade to decade from 1906 to 2005 over the Earth’s continents, as well as the entire globe, global land area and the global ocean (lower graphs).  The black line indicates observed temperature change, while the coloured bands show the combined range covered by 90% of recent model simulations.  Red indicates simulations that include natural and human factors, while blue indicates simulations that include only natural factors.  Dashed black lines indicate decades and continental regions for which there are substantially fewer observations.”
  • 3) Students will construct a dual climate graph/time line based on the IPCC graph
    • Objective: to offer students an opportunity to gain insight on climate change over the last century, and to give them an opportunity to make connections to major technological events, to ask questions about how/why the climate has changed, and to offer critical avenues where they can propose avenues for the future.
    • Students should be encouraged to use the continental IPCC graphs to laterally explore themes and events that connect with content material covered.  This will help fill in both the historical and environmental impact perspectives.

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