Thematic lessons
Thematic assignments
In this part of the site you can find some lessons based on actual themes
You can use them in the same way as the CASE-lessons, but in case you want to work in a more traditional manner, there are questions added.
These thematic lessons are designed to make students think of the connection between their everyday life and these problems and between history and ecology, between economy and ecology, etcetera.
The work can be done by individual students, but preferably by small groups (2 to 4 students)
The teacher can decide how ‘open’ or ‘closed’ these lessons are presented.
Possible subjects: geography, biology, but also history and economy. The most attractive way would be to use the material in a combination of disciplines.
The educational goals are of course knowledge, but much more learning to find information from different sources, and making connections between different fields of knowledge and not in the least awareness of the environmental aspects of daily life and the possibilities of sustainable living. Also the global aspects of everybody’s daily life are made clear.
For instance: looking at history through ‘ecological spectacles’: Why did cities grow at certain places and why did old civilisations disappear? The answers are at least partly ecological (see “water and history”). The themes ‘Water and History’ ‘Dead Sea’and ‘Easter Island’ combine ecology with history and geography.
In countries around the Mediteraanen a lot of fruits and vegetables are grown for markets in northerns and middle Europe
In this climate this means a lot of irrigation for which subterranean aquifers are being used. When they are empty the region could become a desert. This is an example of a negative footprint comparable with regions where earlier civilsations have existed which are now too dry for agriculture. Cases connected with this problem: ‘Desert fruit’ and ‘Wonderbeans’ combine ecology with economy, and possibly plant physiology.
The lessons on energy can be used combining with physics and chemistry.
- Theme: Water
Desert Fruits
Dead Sea
Water and History
Your food and the Himalayas - Theme: Food for Mankind
Wonderbeans
‘Growing food in the city’ and Growing Food in the city 2
Your food and the Himalayas
Where is the superfood? - Theme: Population and/or deforestation
Easter Island, a lesson for us all - Theme: Saving energy
Who needs oil anyway?
Make biofuel from car fumes - Theme: Sustainable energy:
‘Making sense of geothermal energy’
On farm anaerobic digestion
Windpower - Theme: Ecology
Foxes in Northern Henhouse
Biodiversity
Angkor Wat, a wake-up call
Plant life saved Earth - Theme: Biotechnology
Where is the superfood? - Theme: Climate change