Lesson Plans in Pollution Prevention
Project Overview Statement
Welcome to "Lessons in Pollution Prevention", an environmental education classroom resource. This resource is designed for teachers and other educational professionals who wish to educate their students about pollution prevention and other environmental issues. It is designed to assist in teaching about the concept of pollution prevention (P2), and how P2 is an effective way to protect and conserve our natural environment.
The Canadian government defines pollution prevention as "… the use of processes, practices, materials, products or energy that avoid or minimize the creation of pollutants and waste, and reduce overall risk to human health or the environment." What that means is that P2 seeks to reduce the generation of waste and other unnecessary by-products, therefore eliminating the need for their care and management. By adopting more efficient production techniques, and by encouraging more selective consumer behaviour, Canadians can all learn to help prevent pollution.
This resource package contains lesson plans for teachers, consisting of step-by-step guidelines for class instruction, a thorough student assessment project, and suggestions for further enrichment through other activities. Each plan also identifies appropriate age/grade levels, relevant learning outcomes from provincial or territorial curriculum standards, what core subject areas are integrated into the learning activity, and what skills the students will use or acquire when participating in the lesson.
Currently the learning resource contains six lesson plans, each of which highlights one of six different ways of practising P2. The categories are further explained below. The lessons are designed to be integrated into existing subject areas, and all draw upon knowledge and skills used in the core subject areas, such as mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. In addition, the activities within the plans encourage students to demonstrate their new knowledge through different learning and assessment techniques, such as visual displays, oral presentations, or three-dimensional models.
It is our intent that this educational resource will help raise awareness and consideration for pollution prevention in Canadian societies. To that end, teachers are invited to adapt and/or modify these lesson plans to suit the needs of their individual classes and students. We also welcome any feedback or comments on the format of the lessons and the concepts that they develop.
We'd like to hear from you!