EE Activities - Perspectives
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The WWW offers a fantastic array of resources, which we might sort into two categories. Most of the links on EE-link are in the category of "ordinary information that makes what you are doing a little more efficient." A smaller number of sites offer tools or ideas that might actually change the way you or you students deal with or understand environmental issues. On this page, we'll offer short lists of such sites, organized to present a coherent EE perspective on the environment through the Internet. Perspective 1: Project-based Learning. If the end goal is for students to extend awareness and appreciation of the environment into action, then EE must create opportunities for kids to practice action skills. They need to evaluate, collaborate, communicate and advocate. Student-directed projects both teach these skills and achieve real environmental improvements. Here are four examples:
•Locate yourself in space at the Interactive Earth site. See the position of the earth in space, right now, as it appears from the moon's surface, or from 200 kilometers above you. •Look at your area from an ecosystem perspective on Sierra Club's Critical Ecoregions page. Quick readable illustrated descriptions of the environmental character of 21 US Ecoregions. Includes a summary of environmental issues and links other sites. •Locate your watershed at the US EPA Surf Your Watershed site. How are you connected to the ocean through streams, rivers, and groundwater? You can view the aquatic environment down to a radius of 1 mile. From the EnviroMapper page you can find your community and astonishing details: quality indices for drinking water and wetlands, level of forest cover, pesticide and ferilizer runoff, soil permeability, superfund sites, etc. •Find the sources of toxic discharges in your area from the the Environmental Scorecard site. Enter your zip code to find waste generating sites and information about the types and quantities of toxins released. The HazDat map presents the same kinds of information in greater detail. The map is a little difficult to navigate, but gives you usefully precise data: samples from ABC Drum's facility in Michigan contained 2.4 ppm of trichloroethane. (Look up fact sheets on toxic materials on this site too). •Investigate the environmental positions that your local legislators have taken on environmental issues at the League of Conservation Voters' National Environmental Scorecard site. Enter your zip code to find your representatives in congress and the senate. The site will tell you their voting records, and explain the environmental laws they have considered. Updated September 30, 1999 |
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