Section 5 : Developing attitudes about our environmental impact

Key Focus Question: How can you help pupils develop values of caring and concern for the environment?

Keywords: human footprint; endangered; environment; discussion; research; projects

Learning outcomes

By the end of this section, you will have:

  • used discussion to help pupils become more aware of their values and attitudes towards the environment;
  • used different resources (articles, information books, web sites, photographs, drawings etc.) with your pupils;
  • helped your pupils plan, participate in and assess environmental action projects.

Introduction

We can feel very proud of Africa and being African. From research, scientists now believe that Africa is the ancient home of all people here on Earth. Southern Africa is seen as the ‘cradle of humanity’. Isn’t that wonderful?

Although human history is very short compared to the Earth’s history, humans have developed the capacity to damage and even destroy vital elements of our natural world.

How can you help pupils participate in serious discussion about their environment? How can we encourage pupils to develop values of caring for their world?

1. Discussing and imaging the past