The environment has been my first introduction to sustainable development. “The goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations.” (Scottish Government, 2010, p. 4) We looked at two environments the natural and the urban. Because of task 1 I am more aware of what the urban environment is. As a teacher I now see the importance of educating the children about sustainable development. It is important to educate children to care for their environment as they live in it now but also for the future generations. We will be teaching them the values of sustainability about a healthier, happier, environmental friendly world that will develop benefits in health, the environmental improvements, better use of resources, makes education relevant and will help with policy making at government level.

I am very aware already of the damage that the environment has encountered as its good to teach children from an early age how we can contribute in protecting the environment where we live. “The disproportionate overuse of resources by industrialised nations has raised living standards in many countries but at a huge cost to the health of the Earth’s living systems” (Scottish Government, 2012, p.6)

The natural environment has to do with human relationships with nature, the biodiversity of the local area and interdependence.

One of the first workshops we had to look at plants and living things. This involved identifying the living parts and dissecting the flower. We then had to match the parts of the flowers to a diagram on a worksheet. We went outside to be nature detectives and we were looking at air quality and Lichen.  The Lichen can be used to find out how much air pollution is in the area and what affect this is having in the area. The children can look for Lichen and find where it is and why it is there, for example on trees facing a specific way.

The second workshop involved looking more at living things in our groups. We looked at snails in the classroom and I can see this as an excellent activity in the primary class by getting out the microscopes, looking in detail at the spirals, the tentacles and the air hole on the snail. The children could then draw their snail looking in detail at all of the colours, spirals and details of the snails.

 

Reference

Scottish Government (2012) Learning for Sustainability: The Report of the One Planet Schools Working Group. Edinburgh: Scottish Government

 

 

 

 

References

Scottish Government (2012) Learning for Sustainability: The Report of the One Planet Schools Working Group. Edinburgh: Scottish Government