Youth and the Environment

Strategies in the Implementation of an Environment Program for the Youth

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning about the Environment

•Environmental Education works best when it uses

the environment as a teaching resource.

    - Includes natural, rural, and urban environments

    - Emphasis on strong practical and field

orientations

​

​

​

​

Experiential Learning

•Learner is in direct contact with materials and

realities being studied.

   - Opportunity to experience actual problems

   - Students are highly motivated

   - Success results in increased confidence and

self-assurance in learning

   - New and challenging roles outside the

classroom

​

​

Field Trips

•Excursion outside the classroom to study

processes, people, and objects.

   - Enrich factual information read in texts

   - Improve attitudes, expand understanding, and

increase skills

   - Provide first-hand experiences

  - Blend the classroom, the immediate community and environment, and the world into a more meaningful whole

​

​

Acquiring Investigative Skills

Learners acquire content knowledge or understanding of messages associated with the problem, and, also learn how to go about solving problems in the future.

​

Problem Solving Methods

•Learner uses previously mastered skills to reach a solution for a challenging problem.

   - Define a problem

   - State a hypothesis

   - Examine data

   - Generate a solution

•Learner can be expected to arrive at a higher level of understanding of the phenomenon under study.

   - Generally known as “inquiry teaching”

   - Provide learners with content-related problems, themes, or environmental messages that serve as the focus for the research activities.

​

​

Activity:  HOW MUCH WATER?

Objectives:

At the end of this investig-action project, you will be able to:

1.  Describe how much water is wasted by a leaking faucet in your area.

2.  Identify possible ways of solving the problem.

​

Materials:

1. Glass/small container of water

2. Watch

3. Leaking faucet

​

Activity Guide

1. Place a container, like a glass or a small bucket under the faucet the to                       catch the drip.  Leave it for half on hour or until the container is full.

2. Measure the amount of water.  How much water was waste din that half hour?  How much water would then be wasted given a similar situation, in one whole day?

3. If the container is filled before the half-hour is over, note the time. Measure the amount of water.  Compute for the amount of water wasted in one day.

4. You may wish to compute how much water is wasted in a week, a month, or even a year.  Clearly, there is no such thing as a small leak.  A small leak that is not fixed adds up to a huge amount of water.

​

Action

What this problem may need is a simple solution, like shutting the faucet securely.  But if you think it requires further fixing, ask the help of a plumber or better still, try to learn how to fix it yourself, with some assistance from an adult.

​

Case Study 

•The learner is given information about a situation and are to design a solution to an identified problem.

   - An account of an event or events, in the life and environment of people, schools, community, or nations

   - Learners are asked what issues they find is raised by a certain case.

   - Task is to decide upon a course of action.

​

Activity:  What Pollutes my Community?

Materials

Manila Paper and pentel-pen

​

 

Activity Guide

1.  Elect a discussion leader and a recorder.

2. Think of ten people’s activities and natural events that bring about air pollution in your community.  Allow everyone to contribute additional details about those sources of pollution

3.  Rank the identified sources of pollution in a scale of 1 to 10 ( i.e. contributing the most pollution, 10 = least).  Explain why you ranked the problem as the ultimate source of air pollution.

4.  Summarize the group’s report.

5.Discuss your report with the rest of the class and look for similarities in other group’s reports.

​

Questions

1.What does your group recommend to reduce or prevent the pollution from the different sources in your community?

2.What are the actions being done to reduce/prevent air pollution in your community?

​

​

​

​

Suggested Activities for Schools

• Conduct of free and regular
  vehicle emission testing

• Conduct of sessions on preventive
  maintenance of vehicles for
  cleaner air

• Conduct of film-showing of air-
  related videos

• Active promotion of cleaner energy fuels (bio-diesel, ethanol, compressed natural gas, etc.

• Setting up of clean air information centers in the barangays

• Car less Day Campaigns

• Bike for Clean Air

• Community Air Watch     
   -  Bantay Tambutso          -  Bantay Sunog Basura
  -  Bantay Tsimineya           -  Anti-idling Campaign

• No Smoking Campaign

• Tree Planting (particularly of plant species known to effectively absorb air pollutants) in the barangays

• Conduct of film-showing of air-related videos

• Active promotion of cleaner energy fuels (bio-
  diesel, ethanol, compressed natural gas, etc.

• Support to Bantay Tambutso sa Eskwela programs
  -  Sponsorship of seminars for schools (for
  teachers, motor-pool-in-charge, student leaders, parents)
  -  Sponsorship of clean air contest for schools
  (e.g. poster making, jingle writing, essay writing,
  logo making, or sticker design)
  -  Support to the inclusion of clean air
  messages in the curriculum at all levels
  (reprinting of air-related modules, posters,
  stickers, flyers)
  -   Support to ban entry of smoke-belching vehicles (cars, jeepneys, tricycles, etc) in school premises

​

​

Action Research

•Flexible problem-solving strategy

   - Adopted for use in school and community

   - For ecological and scientific investigations

   - For assessments of the social and heritage implications of development issues

   - Resembles the design process used in technology studies

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Steps

1.   Identify the problem (What’s up?)

   - Conduct surveys, discussions, brainstorming, and debates to identify the real nature of the problem; and,

   - Conduct stimulus walks to places where environmental problems exist or where past problems have been solved.

2.  Investigate the problem (Just give me the facts)

   - Search of local papers and media

   - Observing, recording, classifying, and analyzing data

   - Building a database

   - Listing all known information

   - Measuring and surveying aspects of the problem

   - Identifying and interviewing people known to be affected by the problem

   - Building a database

3.  Evaluate the data (What does it all mean?).  Consolidate and organize the data.

4. List possible actions (What could happen?).  Identify and list alternative solutions (further research, interviews, and community involvement).

5. Predict outcomes (If we do that, what then?)

   - Construct alternative and consequence tables;

   - Investigate costs and benefits of various solutions;

   - Debate and discuss the merits of alternatives;

   - Consult all interested individuals and groups who will be affected.

6.  Select the best action (This is it!). 

7.  Implement action (Let’s hit the road!).

   - Develop a plan of action using flow charts, diagrams, timelines, etc.

   - Exhibit the plan and invite comments;

   - Allocate roles and responsibilities;

   - Put the plan into action; and

   - Monitor progress using checklists, keeping diaries and gathering data.

8.  Evaluate action (How did it go?)

   - Establish whether the problem was correctly identified in the first place.

   - Were the data and information accurate and adequate?

   - Were the correct alternatives considered?

   - Has the situation improved?

   - Is further action necessary?

​