Overview & Description of Unit
This five lesson unit is for a third grade class. The purpose of the unit is to teach students about the effects of human characteristics on the environment. To teach students about the impact of human characteristics, they must first know the physical characteristics of a community, and how those characteristics effect the humans who live there. After learning about the physical characteristics and how humans adapt to those characteristics, students are then introduced to human characteristics as an extension of how humans may adapt to an environment and ultimately change it. Students will learn how human characteristics can change a community over time, and they will learn about some of the impacts that human impact has on the environment through the work of the artist Chris Jordan. Following the exploration of Chris Jordan's work, students will develop a way to teach society about an environmental issue and how they can decrease their impact on the issue.
Justification for Topic
The purpose for teaching students about the impact of human characteristics on the environment is because it relates to the how we as a society need to work together to protect the environment and our resources, which is a social issue. Students should be aware of our impact on the environment because they are part of our society, and can work as part of the society to decrease our impact on the environment.
Connection to Citizenship Development
This unit promotes citizenship development by allowing students to develop their own ideas about how they can decrease society's impact on the environment, and by requiring them to think about ways that they can promote change within their own community. The unit also promotes citizenship development by promoting citizenship knowledge, discussion, and decision making. The students practice develop their citizenship knowledge throughout the entire lesson by learning about physical characteristics of their community, human characteristics, how human characteristics can change the environment, and how some people, like artists, try to enlighten people about the damage society causes to the environment. Students develop their citizenship discussion skills throughout the lesson by having discussions with their classmates about ways that they can decrease the effects they have on the environment, the way human characteristics change the environment, and how humans adapt to the environment. Students develop their decision making skills in the final lesson. They decide as a group the best way to impact society's understanding of its impact on the environment.
Heading photo courtesy of Social Business News.
Heading photo courtesy of Social Business News.