Ideas for Instructors

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The articles on this web site are designed to help make students aware of current events that pertain to material they learn in class. As you know, any learning tool is best when it's used actively. Here are some suggestions for things you might do to encourage students to make active use of this site--and to help them think more thoroughly about the day-to-day significance of their course work:

1. Writing assignments: ask students to write a brief essay and --

• evaluate an article in the web site,
• propose a solution to one of the problems described,
• relate articles to events in your state or your community
• examine the web pages linked to an article, and describe the interests or the point of view of the organizations maintaining the different sites.

2. Have students follow up on additional topics covered in the web sites linked to the articles.

Note that the web links for each article access a variety of sources. We have tried to provide links to

• government agencies
• commercial news outlets, such as the New York Times or National Public Radio
• non-commercial news outlets, such as Greenlines
• environmental organizations
• organizations concerned with social justice
• private corporations concerned with developing the resources in question

Are there differences in the ways different sources treat the topics?

Many of these web sites have recent updates to the stories on this site. Others have related news. Still others are excellent sources for students to use in other research projects or to keep up-to-date in current events. In particular, the news agencies and government web sites are good sources for current events.

3. Ask students to use linked web sites to research a topic that relates to course material. The process of searching these sites will help acquaint students with current events they might otherwise miss in main-stream TV news or newspapers.

If a major source such as the New York Times fails to provide many good environmental stories, hold a class discussion on why there are such omissions: what determines the set of issues covered by major news papers? What do they include or exclude? Why?

4. Ask students to review and explain to the class the activities and products of one of the Federal Government agencies included in the web links. These federal sites are maintained for public use, but most are not heavily used by the public. Most provide high-quality, free data, information, news, and other useful services. Working with agency web sites can help students become familiar with the activities and responsibilities of their government. Similar activities can be done by surveying state and local government web sites or by looking for printed government documents and newsletters in the library.

5. Discuss the geography of the topics on this site. Choose an essay and have students consider questions such as these:

• why is the event happening there, instead of in a neighboring region/state/country?
• what political or cultural factors help shape the way a particular environmental problem evolved, or might contribute to (or hinder) solutions?
• what are the economic considerations that help shape the essay topic?
• what aspects of the physical environment are important--water availability? climate? soil conditions? physical landforms?
• how might the issue described change local physical, social, political, or economic conditions?
• can you think of other places where similar issues might arise--or where they already exist?

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