Environmental Issues: Negative Aspects of the Human Behavior on the Biophysical Surroundings - Essay Example

Environmental Issues al Affiliation Environment issues are negative aspects of the human behavior on the biophysical surroundings. Major environmental issues include; environmental degradation, changes in the climatic patterns, pollution, and resource depletion. Environmental science helps in addressing the environmental issues facing our environment using science as an independent discipline (Fridell, 2006). A teaching plan consists of a detailed description of the course of instructions to guide the teacher in his/her lesson. The details of the plan vary with the preferences of the teacher, the subject being covered demographics of the students. The level of the target audience also influences the teaching plan. There are varied formats of teaching plans, below is a formal teaching plan regarding environmental issues. The title of the teaching plan for this scenario is “the environmental issues”. The title should be directly and make direct attributes to the topic under consideration. The time allowed should be indicated in the plan. This facilitates management of time and ensuring maximum utilization of the allocated and extra time. The time factor is important in formulating the entire teaching plan. In creation of a realistic timeline of the plan the following strategic points should be considered. The estimated time for all the activities in the teaching plan in general. Calculate the average time required for each individual activity and extra time required for each activity. For every activity, allocate extra minutes to answer any questions at the end of the discussion. Ensure flexibility in the allocation of time to avoid leaving important parts out. The list of required materials should include materials that should aid the teacher in explaining the topic. Materials to be used may include illustration charts showing graphical explanations about environmental issues affecting the community. Short films can also be used to explain through visual and audio recordings of the topic. The plan should include various categories of objectives. Behavioral objectives are the things the community or the targeted audience should be able to do at the end of the lesson(s).knowledge objectives includes what the community or students have learnt about environmental issues. The tutor should formulate a test to gauge the amount of information acquire by his/her audience. The objectives are guided by the following questions; The topic of the lesson. The information the tutor wishes to convey to the students. The outcome desired after the lesson. The instructional component of the plan includes sequence of events that builds the environmental issues lesson. This includes the tutor’s own instructions about the topic under discussion. Introduction of this section can be through questions to gauge the understanding of the community about issues affecting the environment. The plan ought to include independent practices for the community to extend their skills in the environmental field of study. The practices may vary according to the demographics of the community’s setup. They may include practical lessons on preventing environmental degradations amongst other issues. The summary of the plan concludes the discussion about environmental issues. This section of the teaching plan provides answers to the questions that may arise during the course of the topic discussion. The review component in the plan shows the mastery of the concepts and skills in environmental issues. Epidemiological rationale The rationale of environmental epidemiology is a risk assessment and development of standards in environmental issues like pollution .Environmental epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology concerned with the unearthing environmental exposures on the environmental issues. The study focuses on external factors affecting the incidence and the prevalence of health conditions. These factors are naturally occurring or introduced into the environment (Fridell, 2006). Environmental exposures being involuntary exclude occupational exposures. The voluntary exposures comprise of human activities like medication, active smoking and diet. The environmental exposures are broadly categorized into proximate or distal. Proximate are exposure that are direct in their impact and includes, microbiological pathogens, physical agents, and chemicals. Distal includes; social conditions, change in climate, and other major environmental changes (Fridell, 2006). Evaluation of teaching experience Evaluation of the teaching experience is crucial in estimating the level of impact on the community. Many evaluation techniques can be employed in assessing the level of effectiveness of the lessons given. Self monitoring is the most effective method in evaluating self. The teacher is supposed to assess whether he/she has met the set goals of the lesson. The teacher can complete a form as a way of a short self evaluating form. The assessment considers the good and the areas to improve in the next session. Maintaining a log is important in monitoring the progress over time. Limitation of self assessment is biasness. When evaluating self, only positive evaluations are recorded. This is through misinterpretations and manipulation of the evaluations. Using Audio and video assessment. This involves recording the presentations and using them for performance evaluation. This technique provides the tutors with objective information concerning the actual reality. This technique provides a clear illustration of the weakness and strength of the teaching experience. The recordings are useful in evaluating the improvement of performance in targeted areas. The communitys feedback on the lessons provided. The perception of the community provides the most direct way to measure the effectiveness of the teaching. The goal of the lessons is to pass knowledge to the community; therefore their feedback is an appropriate self assessment method. The feedback should be collected strategically to ensure correction of the poor practices early during the duration of the teaching plan. The feedback can be collected using the following two methods; Questionnaires: this is a common technique and is a standard practice practiced in many institutions. Standardized questions are used to collect information about the respondent and his/her general opinion about the course. Close ended questionnaires contains predefined scales of scores for the respondent to choose. An open ended questionnaire gives the community/respondent a chance to express in his/her own words, his/her opinion. Questionnaires provide a good feedback as the responses are from a large number of the recipients of the lessons. However they have the following limitations ; 1. They reflect the immediate perception. 2. Close ended questionnaires limits the expression of opinion. 3. The responses may be biased. 4. The response may be influenced by other factors affecting the topic. Interviews: this is conducting face to face or other appropriate interviews about the lesson given. The teacher may conduct the interview or an outside party may be contracted to conduct the interviews. This technique is more flexible as compared with issuing questionnaires to a large sample survey. The interview provides the students’ thoughts and other unrelated related information. The only limitation of interviews is the sample size used. Questionnaires can be used in a large number of respondents which is unrealistic in interviews. Feedback from observation of other colleagues and experts. Teachers can invite their colleagues to sit in class as observers. They later give feedback on the lesson and offer a constructive criticism. This kind of evaluation is similar to the audio and video recording as they point out things the teacher may have overlooked. 1. Junior teachers may invite their fellow junior teachers to conduct peer observations. Peer observation is important as the junior teachers can share information about the experience freely. 2. Observation of senior teachers. Senior teachers provide a better feedback as they are experienced in the areas of study. 3. Finally, the teacher can request an expert’s opinion. This provides the best feedback as the experts go beyond observations and giving feedbacks only. Community response The community response is directly or indirectly related to the effectiveness of the teaching experience provided. An effective teaching invokes a positive response to environmental problems facing the community. Positive response entails the community coming together and formulating strategies to deal with environmental issues. The community feels the urge of changing their approach towards their prevailing environmental situations. Strategies developed are used in reducing the amounts degradation or pollution emitted in the environment. The community becomes aware of the urgency to change the current situation. The information provides critical information on how improve and sustain the environment. A negative response is when the community fails to take any steps to improve or change the current situation. The community feels the current situation is most suitable and perceive no alteration is required. Negative response is achieved when the information conveyed had little or no impact on the community. Areas of strengths and areas of improvement The techniques used in presenting information to the community. The methods used in informing the community on environmental issues should be both effective and reliable. The information is shared in ways it’s understandable to the whole community at large. The effectiveness of teaching in environmental issues is facilitated by the following approaches (Fridell, 2006). The first thing to teach is the scientific aspect of the topic. Environmental topics are blends of many disciplines including science and human aspects. The first step in addressing the environmental issues is presenting science part to the community objectively. Once the science is covered thoroughly, then presenting other issues becomes uncomplicated. Teaching should be accompanied with relevant data. Providing data about the effects and causes of environmental to the community facilitates understanding of the issues. The data effectively convey important information about the topic more than mere teaching about the environmental situations. Make the topic interesting. Environmental topics are downright gloomy and the teacher should make efforts to make the topics more interesting. Presenting some informing using animated PowerPoint presentation makes the lesson less monotonous. Include successful stories in environmental conservation to encourage positive responses from the community. The ultimate goal is to make it easier for people to know the impact of environment on their health. Responses from the community constitute the areas of improvement. This can be adjusted by providing more information on ways of improving the current environmental situation. Diversification on the approaches used to educate the community on the effects of human activities on environment. Areas requiring experts should be presented by experts to make the areas clearer and more understandable. References Fridell, R. (2006). Environmental issues. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Read More