Lewis/Life - Teaching Techniques

Chapter 44 - Teaching Techniques

A. General Tips
Chapters 41 - 44 deal with problems for which there are no simple solutions. Your students, however, will be looking for simple solutions. Be on guard for simplistic approaches to complex situations. Play devil's advocate liberally throughout this material.
The biggest problem you will face with this chapter is the tendency to be overly pessimistic. Read the last section first. Then, go back and look at the rest of the chapter in a positive mode. Is everything fine? No. But, look at our awareness of the problems. This present awareness is an awareness beyond what the world has ever known. Our increased awareness has to be part of our resiliency.
Many of your students will want to be purveyors of the "doom and gloom" theory. I urge you to countermand that thinking. If we believe "all is lost," then all will be lost. If we believe that, "yes, we have problems, but we can solve them," then we will be able to solve our ecological and environmental difficulties.
We can use the resources of this planet for the betterment of our own species -- as well as for the betterment of all species. Environmentalism does not mean, "We gotta save everything!" Environmentalism means we have to use our intelligence to figure out how to use and reuse the materials we have, how to promote and build life, how to maintain our quest for the future.
You might wish to copy and distribute to your students the Overview of Chapter Objectives flowchart found at the beginning of this Instructor's Manual Chapter.
B. Possible Approaches to the Chapter
Many of the sections of this chapter lend themselves well to lists. Try to summarize ideas and concerns.
I urge you to challenge your students throughout this chapter. Challenge them with what they can do personally to make our world a better place. But, also, challenge the ideas presented in this chapter. Force your students to be aware of the facts.
In the real world, there are environmental extremists and doomsdayers as well as those who are environmentally destructive or who do not understand what is happening. These people will use statistical ploys and skewed ideas to influence those who have not thoroughly thought through the threats to life as we know it. If your students are forced to think through the environmental difficulties we face, they will not automatically accept everything they hear and they will be better able to work toward logical and appropriate solutions to our environmental problems.
C. Hints Related to Specific Chapter Topics
- I. Challenge your students with what must and must not happen for bioremediation to be successful.
- II. Ask why environmentalism sometimes has a bad connotation. Do not accept shallow answers. Challenge the obvious.
- III.A. Ask about personal experiences with air pollution. Anyone living near a big city has seen the cloud of smog that envelopes our living space. What can be done? Be positive.
- III.B. Challenge your students to find out about some of the different theories about acid precipitation. Ask about natural sources of this acid rain. How does this influence our thinking?
- III.C. There are many unanswered questions about the ozone layer. Some of those questions are mentioned in this section. Challenge your students to delve further into the controversy. Why doesn't everyone agree on the "ozone problem?"
- III.D. This is another area in which scientists do not all agree. Why are there so many varied arguments about something that should be so simple? Is the planet warming or isn't it? But it has been warmer at other times in the past. And there have been periods of time when there was much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there is now. What is the answer?
- IV. I urge you to make lists throughout this section. There is a great deal of information here and you want it presented logically and sequentially.
  Throughout this section also, there is a very positive note. As you make lists of the problems, also make lists of the solutions and the steps forward that have already been made.
- V.A. In the last chapter I suggested the challenge of finding out the history of where the forests once were. Relate that to this section on deforestation.
- VI.B. Read this section and require that your students do the same!