Environmental Education in the Schools (Peace Corps, 1993): Activities, activities and more activities: Cartoons, fantasy, and creative

Environmental Education in the Schools (Peace Corps, 1993)

Activities, activities and more activities

		(introduction...)
		Using the senses
		Adopt-a-tree
		Duplication
		Music/rap/dance/drama
		Garbage shuffle
		The rain forest revue
		The all new water review
		Original skit
		Botswana adaptation
		A conservation drama - Trouble in Tikonkowo
		The awful eight
		Role plays and other simulations
		The commons dilemma
		Key mangrove: A system in conflict
		Change in a mangrove ecosystem
		Key mangrove: A conflict of interests
		Points of view
		Mining on the moon
		Mining on the moon: Part 1
		Mining on the moon: Part 2
		The reading and writing connection
		Folk stories
		Selected quotes
		A heated controversy
		A heated controversy: Part 1
		A heated controversy: Part 2
		An environmental education tool - The creative journal
		Cubatao: New life in the Valley of Death
		A letter from the village health worker - Clean water for elemit
		Life without oil
		Poetry
		Away with waste!
		Away on the bay
		Picture poetry
		Shades of meaning
		Poetry trail
		Poetry trail activity sheet
		Cartoons, fantasy, and creative
		The rare scare
		Cartoons and headlines
		Holey ozone!
		Guided imagery
		Flight of fantasy
		Riparian retreat
		Water wings
		Demonstrations
		Our watery world
		Keep on truckin'
		How do polyps build reefs?
		Investigations and experiments
		Acid tests
		Acid demonstrations: Part I
		Acid demonstrations: Part II
		Acid test follow-up
		How can an oil spill be cleaned up?
		The case for case studies
		Are we creating deserts? - The Sahel famine
		Student information - Famine in the Sahel: A case study
		Desertification
		Sustainable development
		Defining sustainable development: Part 1
		Defining sustainable development: Part 2
		Case study: United States: Part 3
		Case study: Thailand: Part 4
		Case study: Tanzania: Part 5
		Moral dilemmas
		The flying foxes of Samoa
		Harry Carter's grain company
		Scenario: Harry Carter's grain company: Part 1
		Scenario: Harry Carter's grain company: Part 2
		Scenario: Harry Carter's grain company: Part 3
		Hard choices
		Starving nation
		Concept mapping and webbing
		Aqua words
		Infusion activity for environmental health
		Issue webbing
		Field trips
		At the dump and postcards from the field
		The garbage dump field trip worksheet
		Seaside adventure
		Debates
		Tough choices
		The issues
		Surveys
		Glass and metal waste questionnaire
		Model questionnaire
		Data summary sheet
		Rivers through time
		What do people think?
		Games
		Pollution bingo
		Mammal know-it-all
		Mammal questions
		Bat and moth
		Branching out: Bat math
		The urban explosion
		Four urban activities
		Vandalism: Disordered communications
		Flooded streets
		Getting outside
		Expanding sensory perception
		Weather scavenger hunt
		Insect bingo
		Research/guest speakers
		Desert quest
		Values and attitudes
		Rare bird eggs for sale
		What would you do?
		Agricultural practices (A)
		Agricultural practices (B)
		Why save rain forests?
		Thinking about thinking skills
		The great swamp debate
		Go with the flow
		Dragonfly pond
		Cooperative learning activities
		Jungle sleuths
		Answers to scenarios
		Super-sleuth scenarios: Part 1
		Super-sleuth scenarios: Part 2
		We can all be experts
		Expert cards: Part 1
		Expert cards: Part 2
		Raters of the planet ECO
		Liven up your classroom
		A web on the wall
		Building the bulletin board
		Members of the web
		A look at four food chains
		The interdisciplinary connection
		Pollution pathways
		Tracking the radiation (day 2- day 10)
		Pollution pathways (A)
		Pollution pathways (B)
		Sizing up reserves
		Sizing up reserves (A)
		Science/technology/society
		Challenge technology
		Technology challenges
		Additional challenges (developed for the South Pacific)
		The ''good'' bacteria controversy
		Taking action for the planet

Cartoons, fantasy, and creative

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way."

-Edward de Bono

Cartoons can help liven up a lesson plan and help motivate students. They're also effective tools to help promote critical and creative thinking skills. For example, by having students analyze environmental political cartoons and comic strips focusing on culture and lifestyle, students can compare and contrast cultural attitudes, discuss differing opinions about environmental issues, and examine values and beliefs. They can also develop creative skills by developing their own cartoons and comic strips and sharing them with others.

Using fantasy in the classroom can also liven things up. For example, having students read and analyze stories about environmental conditions on a made-up planet or looking at how fantasy creatures are adapted to environmental conditions can help students apply the information they learn.

In this section, we've included activities that use cartoons and fantasy to help students investigate and understand environmental issues. In the first activity, students read descriptions of endangered fantasy animals to discover what makes an animal more prone to extinction. In the second activity, students use humor and cartoons to discuss forest-related issues. In the third example, a cartoon about ozone helps students understand why the ozone layer is thinning over many parts of the world.

ACTIVITIES IN THIS SECTION

1. THE RARE SCARE, reprinted with permission from Ranger Rick's NatureScope: Endangered Species-Wild and Rare, published by the National Wildlife Federation ( 1988).

2. CARTOONS AND HEADLINES, reprinted with permission from Project Learning Tree, published by the American Forest Council and the Western Regional Environmental Education Council.

3. HOLEY OZONE, reprinted with permission from Ranger Rick's NatureScope: Pollution-Problems and Solutions, published by the National Wildlife Federation ( 1990).