Background Information: The Environment & ConservationFive basic underlying principles are important for students' learning as they use the EekoWorld lesson plans, interactives and activities. You may wish to engage your students in a discussion of these principles before, during and after students explore EekoWorld.
1. People can make positive changes in the environment through their actions.
As the students explore the two key interactives of EekoWorld, EekoCreature and EekoHouse, they will face a series of problems, challenges, and opportunities to make environmental decisions. The interactives are designed to help students see that their individual actions can have an impact on the environment. It is important to make connections between what students are doing in the virtual environment of EekoWorld and their real world environment. Encourage classroom discussion of environmental and conservation issues. Bring in newspaper articles to read to your students, talk about what is going on in the local community, and encourage students to become involved observers of the natural world around them.
2. If we reduce, recycle and reuse we can help fight air and water pollution.
As students become aware that their actions can have an impact on the environment, they should develop an understanding of the nature of this impact. For example, when you avoid making garbage in the first place, you don't have to be concerned about disposing of waste that can end up in a landfill or about recycling it later. When you recycle, you conserve resources. It is important to think of ways to use less electricity, petroleum products, metals, land, paper and wood. When we discard toxic, non-biodegradable wastes, we create pollution. Provide concrete examples for the students of positive behaviors such as writing on both sides of paper, buying items with less packaging, finding new uses for glass or plastic jars, and donating old toys or clothes to a charity. Help your students see the link between their actions and air and water pollution.
3. Protecting animal and plant habitats is an important part of conserving the earth's resources.
In order for students to understand the importance of protecting animal and plant habitats, it is essential that they understand the relationships between living things and their environment. One of the most important relationship is that all the plants and animals on the planet are part of food chains and food webs. A food web is a series of linked food chains. Food chains and food webs are important because the removal of a single species can set off a chain reaction affecting many others. An endangered species is a plant or animal that in danger of disappearing from the face of the earth if its situation is not improved. If it has not been seen in the wild for over fifty years, it's extinct. This is important because the food chain is broken. Help your students make connections between food chains and webs, human behavior, and threats to plant and animal species. The two most important causes of extinction and loss of diversity are habitat destruction and invasive species.
4. The earth contains diverse ecosystems with specific challenges and problems.
The EekoWorld Web site will contain five content sections: the environment, recycling and garbage, air and water, plants and animals, and the future. Each of these sections contains multimedia resources that allow students to read and listen to diverse information. These are excellent ways to teach your students key environmental and conservation concepts. The Environment section features animated stories that describe five main ecosystems: the aquatic ecosystem, the tundra, the desert, the grasslands and the forest. Each of these ecosystems is broken down into three areas. The first part describes different aspects of the natural environment of the ecosystem. The second focuses on specific threats to the ecosystem. The third section highlights efforts that people make to change and better the ecosystem. The Garbage & Recycling section highlights what happens to trash and how people can make efforts to reduce, recycle and reuse. The Air & Water section describes the impact of pollution and efforts to reduce it. The Plants & Animals section focuses on food chains, food webs, and threatened and endangered species. The fifth section examines efforts to create new technologies to preserve our environment. As your students visit these content sections and explore the EekoCreature and EekoHouse interactives, they will learn about the diversity of life on the planet and how people can help preserve the earth.
5. The earth is a place of wondrous natural beauty and we are its caretakers.
As students explore the different elements of EekoWorld through the Web site content, stories, and interactives, it is important to help them focus on the beauty of the natural world. Helping your students see the connections between what they are doing on the computer and off the computer is essential. EekoWorld describes the threats the earth faces, and what people can do to make positive changes in the environment. These actions have to be based on a genuine appreciation for nature. An important first step in being a caretaker for the earth is spending time absorbed in outdoor activities. Help your students focus on the beauty of the sky, stop and watch birds in flight, and stand outside and listen to the sounds of nature around them. Awareness is an important element of behavior. You have an opportunity to present an environmental perspective that awareness, appreciation and action are linked. EekoWorld is a resource that can help students learn that they can make a positive difference in the world.
