The McGinty government plans to implement the recommendations of the report: "Shaping our schools: Shaping our future". This report is the result of a study done by the Working Group on Environmental Education chaired by Roberta Bondar. The report makes the following recommendations and it is these that the McGinty government plans to implement by January 2008:
- Integrating environmental education into all subjects in all grades
- Developing a new optional Grade 11 course focussed on environmental education
- Increasing experiential learning opportunities for students
- Creating and publishing an environmental education policy by the fall to ensure high quality and relevant learning
- Establishing environmental education standards to be applied to current and future reviews of curriculum
- Working more closely with community partners and other government ministries to enhance environmental education
- Providing training and resource guides to teachers.
The full report can be access at:
shaping our schools
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4 comments:
I think the idea of sharing environmental education across other disciplines besides 'science' is a good step to promote awareness and (hopefully) inspire change.
At the same time, however, I'm not sure how easily this will be achieved. For example, how does a music instructor integrate environmental education into their lessons? This made me think about how easy it is for science teachers to integrate other subject areas into science. For example, mathematics has a close relationship with many areas of science; language skills are incorporated when students are asked to write a newsletter or persuasive essay on some topic; music can be studied from a scientific point of view (e.g. sound-waves); etc. The good thing I see with this is that each of these things can be made to fit the science curriculum. I suppose a music teacher could do a lesson on vibrations and sound waves, but I doubt it would be very relevant to the music curriculum.
You're right Craig,
It's great to think of ways to intergrate various areas of the curriculum. We've had fun with integrating science, math, language, history and geography, art AND music! We had a great music teacher who wrote songs about the environment with children in grades 1-3. We used the songs in a play that the children performed for their parents. We worked on art work with the class for the backdrop and we tied in a study of ecosystems and human impact during science class.
Carol
I think that integrating the environment and environmental considerations into our schools in early years of education is extremely important. It not only makes children aware of the problems and the beauty of our world today but sets them on a path to creating sustainable living in their later life. And though I believe that it may be more difficult to integrate the environment into subjects like music it is not impossible. I was working supply work at a daycare centre this past summer and the kindergarten aged children learned a few songs that talked about saving energy and decreasing gas emissions. They then had someone from city council come and listen to and watch their presentation. I talked to some of the children afterwards and they were so proud of what they had done and how good of a job they were doing at "saving the earth."
Also, I really do hope that the optional grade 11 course focused on environmental education can be brought into the highschools. I took some environmental courses in University and I found them to be extremely informative. It was one of the few university courses that I would come home from school everyday with something to tell my roomates about. More importantly, the courses introduced topics that related to my everyday life while at the same time teaching me about biological processes. It was such a great learning experience - I really hope that highschool students will get a chance to do the same.
Hi Tanya,
your summer experience sound like alot of fun. It's great to hear a city council member took the time to come to the presentation.
Carol
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