Helping Students to Understand Ecology

A teacher uses her summer vacation to travel to the Gulf of Mexico to see firsthand the effects of the oil spill to help her teaching inner city students about environmental hazards. This a... See More

A teacher uses her summer vacation to travel to the Gulf of Mexico to see firsthand the effects of the oil spill to help her teaching inner city students about environmental hazards. This article describes her journey and experiences touring that area and how she planed to use it to improve her curriculum the following year. She talks about including more alternative energy sources, risk management, and increased school recycling. This article demonstrates how our own experiences can improve our student’s knowledge and understanding.

A first hand account from a visit to the Gulf

People living along the Gulf or near a coast may not appreciate the effect that it has on someone from the northern and central parts of the US or other places not blessed with access to the... See More

People living along the Gulf or near a coast may not appreciate the effect that it has on someone from the northern and central parts of the US or other places not blessed with access to the ocean. To finally have an opportunity to go to a shoreline just to find it covered with no swimming signs and pollution is just as heart-tugging as it is to live there and witness the tragedy. Perhaps sharing parts of this article with students would be a good introduction to an alternative energy unit (as the author plans on doing) as it puts a personal perspective to a tragedy It could also be included in an environmental science or chemistry course where you are talking about interactions between people and the environment/chemicals might also help to give students a reason to be interested.