Skip to content

What is Environmental Literacy?

Learning Experience 5

Big Ideas

To be productive, active citizens of the world, we all need the knowledge, skills and dispositions to solve problems and resolve issues individually and collectively that sustain ecological, economic and social stability.

Summary

Studying or practicing science, we need to consider all possibilities. That means investigating any ideas and opinions we may have when evaluating claims and evidence. Be open to new ideas. Systematically question all information during your investigations. With this approach, we are better able to make responsible and strategic choices that affect the sustainability of  all living and non-living things on the  planet.

Engage

Students will identify an idea, topic, or issue related to the environment that is important to them. Group students in small teams or pairs to share their ideas with their peers. Bring their knowledge and facts associated with the topic to the members of the group . This will be important for the next step in which teams will hone in on one topic to be determined however they decide–  by consensus, argument, or simply “rock paper scissors” ! Teams will brainstorm what to do next to investigate the topic.

Explore and Explain

To being their group investigations of the topic, students will conduct a survey to collect data on the  knowledge,  opinions and attitudes of others related to their topic.  Ask them to draft no more than 5 questions that collect data on how much others know, feel or think about their issue. Students should determine on their own what a good sample size, and demographic should be to give them good feedback.

The data will be collected anonymously and can be completed either in person through an interview process or a google form.

After collecting their data, students will analyze the responses. 

Students can code the responses into categories such as:

Fact or Opinion

What statements did they  hear that were stated as fact? How do they know ?

Have students back up the facts with research citations to verify the facts they heard. 

Teams can then create a brief summary presentation about

  • the issue they focused on,
  • what the data told them, and
  • how they verified the information

Elaborate

Help students understand that  knowing how to determine what is true and what is not, distinguishing fact from opinion, and recognizing misinformation advances their efficacy to make informed and responsible decisions for the health of the environment. 

Facilitate a discussion with the students about what they think Environmental literacy is and why it is important. 

Students can brainstorm about how they can help promote environmental literacy.

Reflect on their own survey experiences on issues they cared about. What’s next? . Can they identify some strategies to help their school community become more environmentally literate?

Teacher Support

Essential Question:
Why do we all need to understand what science is, how we do it, why it changes and what it’s good for?

Guiding Questions:

How do we avoid getting stuck in our thinking?

Students will be able to:

  • Participate in a series of experiments designed to demonstrate the power of cognitive frameworks, confirmation bias and the ability to re-frame to see more of what there is to see
  • Document your experience i.e., tell the story from your point of view
  • Reflect on the implications of “in the box thinking” and write down some ways you can ensure that you are paying attention to what matters while remaining open minded to the unexpected.

There is no vocabulary list for this learning experience.

Describe how our mindsets can limit our thinking, and identify and recognize how they can affect us now and in the future. (EfS/C47, C45)

Reflect in writing on how the strategies helped them avoid being stuck in their thinking. For those they didn’t underline, ask them to choose three strategies that they might use in the future and explain how they could use them to avoid confirmation bias.

Follow up each week and ask students to share the strategies they are practicing and what difference they make (three weeks).

EfS  C47 and C45 Describe how our mindsets can limit our thinking, and identify and recognize how they can affect us now and in the future

Student Materials

Student Worksheet

Back To Top
Skip to content