ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION B.Ed 4th sem Education
SECTION (A)
Q1. How will you spread environmental awareness amongst your students? Suggest some practical activities.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental awareness is about being aware of the state of the environment. The environment refers to all parts of nature, living and non-living.
Being aware of the environment is particularly important, given the increasing environmental challenges we are facing, such as:
Climate change, global warming, water scarcity, droughts, deforestation, floods, Pollution. Being aware of these issues and making beneficial lifestyle changes to alleviate negative effects on the environment, is what environmental awareness is about.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Shows children how to separate their own waste items to identify if it’s recyclable or not. Here are some practical tips to do the same:
• Teach children about the three R’s: reduce waste, reuse resources, and recycle materials.
• Organise tree planting days at school and tell children why trees are important to the environment.
• Encourage children to switch off all appliances and lights when not in use.
• Ensure taps are closed properly after you have used them and use water sparingly.
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2. Introduce Them to Everything Local
Supporting local produce and production is an excellent way in which you can help the environment with immediate effect. Make regular visits to the farmer’s market a fun family activity. It’s also the perfect opportunity to explain to your little ones where food really comes from and that the earth is a resource that nourishes us but also needs tending. Teach your kids about buying local, supporting farmers and eating healthily.
Include them in the process by asking them to choose ripe fruits and veggies from the baskets or help you decide on a dish that you can make as a family. Explain to them why products which do not look perfect are probably healthier-bugs are pro’s at choosing the best tasting produce!
3. Start a Veggie Garden At Home
After visiting a farmer’s market, ask your kids if they would like to grow their own food as well. If they show interest, you could start a gardening project. Initiating the project yourself is bound to get them interested and they will soon be right in there getting their hands into the soil. Growing a veggie garden teaches children (and adults!) responsibility and discipline and helps them understand how they can make a change. Choose foods that your kids love and would be excited to harvest and enjoy watering your garden together and watching the seedlings sprout or the veggies grow.
4. Recycle At Home
Another way to inspire your kids to be environmentally friendly, is to teach them about recycling. Make sure that you have a recycling bin at home, and teach them which items can be recycled.
You can even invest in your very own worm farm which produces the magical worm-pee that can be used in your compost for your veggie garden.
5. Teach your Kids about Solar Power
Apart from teaching children to switch off the lights and plugs for appliances that you aren’t using; you should teach them about natural resources. Ask them to help you hang the washing to dry outside instead of using the dryer. You could even create a narrative around it and introduce the sun as a superhero.
CONCLUSION
Thus with the help of above activities we can create environmental awareness amongst students. Making these activities fun will help your kids to establish a good relationship with doing good – and that’s what it is all about.
Q2. What is the importance of ozone layer for our environment? How is ozone layer depletion caused and how it is it harming the environment?
INTRODUCTION
Ozone is a gas in the atmosphere that protects everything living on the Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the Sun. Without the layer of ozone in the atmosphere, it would be very difficult for anything to survive on the surface. Plants cannot live and grow in heavy ultraviolet radiation, nor can the plankton that serve as food for most of the ocean life. The ozone layer acts as a shield to absorb the UV rays, and keep them from doing damage at the Earth's surface.
Effects on Human Health
Ozone layer depletion increases the amount of UVB that reaches the Earth’s surface. Laboratory and epidemiological studies demonstrate that UVB causes non-melanoma skin cancer and plays a major role in malignant melanoma development. In addition, UVB has been linked to the development of cataracts, a clouding of the eye’s lens because all sunlight contains some UVB, even with normal stratospheric ozone levels, it is always important to protect your skin and eyes from the sun.
Effects on Plants
UVB radiation affects the physiological and developmental processes of plants. Despite mechanisms to reduce or repair these effects and an ability to adapt to increased levels of UVB, plant growth can be directly affected by UVB radiation.
Indirect changes caused by UVB (such as changes in plant form, how nutrients are distributed within the plant, timing of developmental phases and secondary metabolism) may be equally or sometimes more important than damaging effects of UVB. These changes can have important implications for plant competitive balance, herbivory, plant diseases, and biogeochemical cycles.
Effects on Biogeochemical Cycles
Increases in UVB radiation could affect terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemical cycles, thus altering both sources and sinks of greenhouse and chemically important trace gases (e.g., carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbonyl sulphide, ozone, and possibly other gases). These potential changes would contribute to biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks that mitigate or amplify the atmospheric concentrations of these gases.
Effects on Materials
Synthetic polymers, naturally occurring biopolymers, as well as some other materials of commercial interest are adversely affected by UVB radiation. Today's materials are somewhat protected from UVB by special additives. Yet, increases in UVB levels will accelerate their breakdown, limiting the length of time for which they are useful outdoors.
CONCLUSION
To conclude we may say that without the layer of ozone in the atmosphere, it would be very difficult for anything to survive on the surfaces.
(Section-B)
Q1. What measures may be taken for conservation of natural resources? Discuss.
Introduction
We call Earth our mother as it has provided us with all the things that are essential for survival. Natural resources like air, water, wood, forest, oil, natural gas, coal, metals etc. are nature’s gift to humanity. Despite the fact that natural resources are limited and take millions of years in the formation, the human is exploiting them for their endless greed and comfort. Humans have become a threat to natural resources as day by day the human intervention in natural resources is increasing.
Ways to conserve natural resources:
• Turn off the faucet/taps when not in use while brushing, bathing, washing clothes, dishes, etc.
• Do not flush chemicals, sprays, medicine, and other toxins as they contaminate groundwater, rivers, lakes, and
• Reduce shower time.
• Install water-efficient showerheads, toilet flush and other appliances at homes or business.
• Reuse Greywater for watering plants and flushing toilets.
• Ensure that there is not any leakage.
• Practice rainwater harvesting.
• Install water treatment plants and seawater desalination plants.
• Do not water dry lands or during the daytime.
• Use water sprinkler for lawns.
• Take care of beaches and seashores.
• Less use of plastics as it gets to mix with water bodies.
• Make sustainable and safe seafood choices for the conservation of oceans. Do not demand species that are overexploited.
• Practice a Drip irrigation system to avoid excessive evaporation and excessive use of water in irrigation.
Conclusion
Natural resources like air, water, wood, forest, oil, natural gas, coal, metals etc. are nature’s gift to humanity. Despite the fact that natural resources are limited and take millions of years in the formation, the human is exploiting them for their endless greed and comfort. Thus there is a need to save them for better future.
(SECTION: C)
Q.5 Write short notes on the following:
a. Need of environmental education in schools
Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions.
The components of environmental education are:
• Awareness and sensitivity to the environment and environmental challenges
• Knowledge and understanding of the environment and environmental challenges
• Attitudes of concern for the environment and motivation to improve or maintain environmental quality
• Skills to identify and help resolve environmental challenges
• Participation in activities that lead to the resolution of environmental challenges
Environmental education does not advocate a particular viewpoint or course of action. Rather, environmental education teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking and it enhances their own problem-solving and decision-making skills.
b. Harmful effects of sound pollution
Noise is all around you, from televisions and radios to lawn mowers and washing machines. Normally, you hear these sounds at safe levels that don’t affect hearing. However, exposure to excessive noise can affect your health and damage hearing. Harmful or annoying levels of noise are considered noise pollution or sound pollution. Loud sounds can damage sensitive structures of the inner ear and cause hearing loss. This makes conversation and other daily activities more difficult, and also causes many other health problems. Exposure to noise causes adverse health effects like stress, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, and heart disease. People differ in their sensitivity to noise. As a general rule, sounds louder than 80 decibels are hazardous. Noise may damage your hearing if you are at arm’s length and have to shout to make yourself heard. If noise is hurting your ears, your ears may ring, or you may have difficulty hearing for several hours after exposure to the noise. Children often participate in recreational activities that can harm their hearing. These activities include attending music concerts and sporting events, participating in fireworks activities, and playing with noisy toys and video games. Listening to loud music, especially on headphones, is a common source of noise-induced hearing loss.
c. Consequences of polar melting
Most people may not know that icebergs in Arctic waters have little to do with rising seas because the ice floats in the water, already displacing it with its size. As the ice melts, the arctic sea levels, and thus the other oceans, stay the same, but the weather changes. The real threat in sea level increases come from the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets, which contain close to 99 percent of all the world’s fresh water. When the Antarctic melts, climate experts state that sea levels can rise to 200 feet and more. Greenland’s melting ice sheet will add another 20 feet to sea level rise. So all together, the melting of polar ice caps effects would include sea levels rising 220 feet or more worldwide.
d. Issues related to environment ethics
Environmental ethics deal with issues related to the rights of individuals that are fundamental to life and wellbeing.
• Resource consumption patterns and the need for equitable utilization: It deals with how we utilize and distribute resources. The disparity between haves and have-nots is widening. There is a disparity between the individuals, communities and countries in usage of resources. The well-to-do, educated urban dweller consumes much larger quantities of resources and energy than the traditional rural individual. This unequal distribution of wealth and access to land and its resources is a serious environmental concern. An equitable sharing of resources forms the basis of sustainable development for urban, rural and wilderness-dwelling communities.
• Equity-disparity in the northern and southern countries: It is concerned with who owns resources and how they are distributed. People living in the economically-advanced nations use greater amounts of resources and energy per individual and also waste more resources. This is at the cost poor people who are resource-dependent and live in developing nations.
• Urban-rural equity issues: The common property of rural communities has increasingly been used to supply the needs of the urban and industrial sectors. As the rural sector supplies food and a part of the energy needs (mainly fuel wood) to most towns and cities in India, the common lands of the rural sector are being depleted of their resources.
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