7th Grade EII
Environmental Issues Unit
This Environmental Awareness Unit is broken up into four levels. Level 1: Issue Analysis, Level 2: Ecological Foundations, Level 3:Issue Study, and Level 4: Responsible Environmental Action. The theme for this unit will be Wildlife of the Prairie.
Level One
Level One begins with Issue Analysis. Students will tackle the problem of "What is an issue?". Students will learn that an issue is not a problem unless people disagree about it or how to solve it. To begin this level students will identify and define different motivators or values of individuals. They will learn that motivators determine what we believe and what we think is important and in turn determine the actions we take or do not take. After defining values students will watch the original animation of the book The Lorax. Once students have seen the story they will analyze the characters, events, and problems to lead them to an understanding of an "issue". The Lorax provides a simple story to understand how to analyze an issue. There are two characters, one on each side of the issue, who have different motivations. For the last step of level one students will list out environmental issues in our community. They will then choose sides of the issues and debate to the class as a review of motivators, issues, and problems.
Level Two
Level Two will give students the knowledge needed to understand the environmental aspects of life in the prairie. To begin students will expand their knowledge on Prairie Ecosystems. Students will research different types of prairies focusing on climate, organisms, and growing times. Next, students will each receive an animal typically found in a prairie ecosystem and create and true false booklet of information they will research. Students will then create skits of different life cycles of organisms located in prairie ecosystems.
Level Three
In Level Three students will have now acquired the knowledge needed to begin identifying environmental issues our school is dealing with. They will determine characters, positions, and motivators. Students will also fully analyze the issues. Next students will move to community level environmental issues again determining characters, positions, motivators, and analyzing the issues.
Level Four
After analyzing school and community issues students will choose an issue and create a plan for responsible environmental action over their chosen issue. This plan will include personal activities, how they will convince others of their plan, group activities, convincing legislators, and predicting consequences.
