Environmental Science : Field Trip class 11th

CHAPTER 8

Environmental Science : Field Trip

Introduction

Today, educationists have come to realize that the immediate Environment is a wonderful curriculum laboratory providing extremely  dynamic,  interesting  and  real  life  opportunities for learning. In its historical records every Environment has the  stories  of  people  and resources woven into the pattern of national development. Basic social processes and problems operate in every Environment in  action  for  or  against.  As  we  investigate  social  problems they become concrete in our own  communities.  Thus,  the  Environment  provides  concrete data on cultural, industrial, political and geographical facts and relationships. As these data are tangible, seeable and  describable  the  school  should  take  itself  to  the  Environment, regard it as laboratory, discover its resources, understand its culture, appreciate its problems and also suggest solutions to these problems. Through the use of resource people, field trips, environment surveys, service projects, etc. it should open doors for experience for a child to have knowledge about the factories and farms, social agencies and museums, council sessions and union meetings.

The school and the Environment must work together in the process of education in a co-operative and collective quest. In the absence of this living, dynamic relationship between the two, education will be anemic, unreal, and unable to make any abiding impact on the mind and character of children. The life of the Environment is powerfully influenced by social purposes the techniques of production, knowledge and culture. Not able to keep pace with these changes and adjust its programmers to them the school becomes an outdated, backward looking agency. Modern school cannot be an island in the midst of the Environment. It must enrich the Environment and the Environment must support it. The two-way traffic should not only be possible but also pleasant and useful.

“Let us study the Environment, use the Environment, serve the Environment and involve the Environment in the educational process.” Let Environment Education reform shall start with the relining of the school to Environment and the restoring the intimate relationship with the environment.

Methods of Utilizing Environment Resources

There are basically two ways in which the teacher may make use of environment resources—

A. Taking the school to the Environment

B. Bringing some  of  the  Environment  to  the  school

A. METHODS OF TAKING THE SCHOOL TO THE ENVIRONMENT

The emotions of children are most easily reached not by words but by sights and sounds. This is possible through field trips, surveys, camping, service projects, etc.

1. Field Trips

Environment Education teaching programmers are not complete without a field trip. Field trips may be undertaken for securing information, changing at des awakening interest, developing appreciation, promoting ideals, enjoying new experiences. Initiating a unit of study they can be a part of the core of it or they can give it the finishing touch. They are a means of getting first-hand knowledge and confirming and supplementing second-hand knowledge. They are a means for sharpening observation, testing principles and doing everything, which Environmental Science  requires.

Types of Field Trips

1. Complex undertakings—These require elaborate transportation, full-day planning, and additional adult helpers. These longer trips to historical sites and special events beyond the local Environment have exciting destinations to be explored for problem-solving and project executing the offer valuable opportunities for observation of the easily planned visits to factories, radio stations, newspaper plants, whole- sale and retail establishments, libraries and the like.

2. Simple undertaking—These may be embarked at the moment of conceiving the idea—the walk around the block to see nature and man getting ready for winter, the Journey to the neighboring farm, the walk through the park to gather some needed specimens etc.

Uses of Field Trips

(i) Stimulating imagination and laming through sensory  perceptions—Some  examples are the taste of fresh milk, the  breathtaking  heat  of  a  glass  furnace,  the  metallic hum of a weaving room, the sight of real things in the real world of adults.

(ii) Integrating classroom instruction—This is done by exposing the artificiality of traditional subject-matter divisions and enabling the pupils to view facts and forces as they exist in their everyday relationship in living communities.

(iii) Environment Realization through the field trips the student may come to realize Environment in ways different from bookish laming. They may come to know, see and feel their Environment as a way of life, “acting with vividness”

(iv) Laming the art of living with others—Traveling in the same conveyances, sharing rooms, sitting at the same table, participating in the same experiences are helpful on marking. Character qualities and defects come to the surface.

(v) Expanding emotional and intellectual horizons—This may be done making us acquainted with people whose manner, customs, living standards, outlook and interests may be quite different from our own.

Procedure of Field Trip

1. Preparation

A field trip should be planned democratically, organized properly, and executed carefully. Permitting our pupils an immediate reconciliation with “life in the round” requires a preface and follow-up connected with and extend to classroom study. It should be much more than “going to places and seeing things.”

2. Objective

Every pupil, as well as the teacher, should become fully aware of the objective why this particular trip is being planned, and of how it is related to his own classroom experiences and activities.

3. Guidance

Appropriate audio-visual aids may be used both for initial motivation and for general orientation to what will be seen on the trip itself. It will be better if the teacher suggests guide questions, which the pupils might put, while approaching Environment leaders from whom they want useful information about the various aspects of Environment life. Major purposes should be clarified and made specific.

4. Information

The teacher should be thoroughly familiar with the best route, bus stops provisions for guide service, things to be seen and done by the group, aspects or phases of the resource centre to be stressed or ignored, eating arrangements, time needed at each stage of the trip, etc.

5. Definite follow-up activities

These also form an integral part Utilizing Environment Resources in Teaching Environmental Science of any well-arranged trip. They may take the form of reading books on the places observed, writing reports or descriptive accounts, preparing scrap-books, panel or forum discussions.

6. Evaluation

Trips should be evaluated in terms of the originally established purposes. Mistakes and difficulties should be diagnosed;  the  conduct  of  the  group  should  be  discussed.  The  letters of thanks should be written to the persons concerned.

ENVIRONMENT RESOURCES

Environment Surveys

Environment surveys provide excellent educational experience to senior pupils. They constitute an organized and systematic method for an accurate determination of social or physical data.

1. Surveys foster comprehensive understanding of Environment structure and processes in their everyday operation, interaction and complexity.

2. They are extremely useful in stimulating depth of insight into vital Environment problems, which should be met.

3. They suggest possibilities for student participation in the affairs of the Environment. Such constructive participation imparts training to the pupils in democratic citizenship.

4. They develop awareness of human inter-dependence and of the practical necessity of general civic cooperation in carrying on successful individual group living.

5. Existing conditions can be critically examined and the way it is prepared for superior citizenship.

Scope of Environment surveys

1. Any aspect of the Environment, which has meaning for young people.

2. Past history of the locality, the social institutions, the customs, the traditions, the conventions, the ceremonies, the folk ways, the folk songs, and folk stories.

3. Problems of the Environment such as the problems of housing, health, sanitation, employment, taxes, traffic is some problems in which pupils will be interested.

Use of Environment Surveys

1. Procedure

Environment surveys can be useful only if  they  are  conducted  properly.  The  actual survey should be preceded by much discussion and framing of questions, for the best results are obtained, when the investigators have got warmed up to problems and seek answers and solutions to questions that have stirred in their minds.

2. Teachers

They should possess definite awareness of directions and possibilities before the group undertakes such explorations. They should spend as much time as possible in personal observations of the Environment in order to get the feel of it.

3. The interest of the pupil

The -teacher should arouse interest by relating the  proposal  for  a  survey  with  factors that touch the life of the pupils. He should see that survey has its basis in the good and bad achievements of people. Instead of starting with statistical summaries he should start with people.

4. Objectives preparation

(i) The purpose  of  the  survey  must  be  made  clear.

(ii) The problem  must  be  properly  analyzed.

(iii) Practical limits to the survey should be set.

(iv) Techniques to be used for collecting data should be decided upon.

(v) Data once  gathered  should  be  verified.

(vi) Collected data  should  be  recorded  for  future  use.

5. Teacher’s attitude

The teacher should have  an  encouraging  attitude,  never  an  “I  have  been  through  all this before” attitude. The teacher and pupils should work co-operatively together in a spirit of shared research. Environment survey ought not to be a one-man job. The entire staff on a continuing basis should carry it on co-operatively, year after year.  The  pupils  and  the teachers can approach local experts, old residents and social workers  by  collecting  data. Various types of important persons can be interviewed; places of interest can be visited.

6. Resources

The resources, uncovered in the survey, should be grouped in a logical way such as local industries, places of historical interest, governmental agencies, civic establishments, places of geographic importance, - persons to interview, persons of cultural significance and similar categories.

3. School camping

The drift to cities and the rapid tempo of modern living is creating a need for developing a closer relationship  between  human  beings  and  natural  resources.  Called  a  classroom  in the woods, the camp is a part of the larger Environment. The outdoor environment, in and around the camp, offers tremendous possibilities for true  education.  The  opportunities  to learn, work and play amidst the natural resources of the area stimulate interest and concern for the protection  and wise  use of  the natural  resources of  the Environment.

Advantages of School Camping

1. Learning by doing

School camping encourages direct learning experiences and has potential life-situations that are conducive to the most effective teaching methods, through learning by doing, seeing, hearing, testing, smelling and feeling with a minimum of answers given by teachers and resource leaders.

2. Miniature environment

The school camp is a miniature Environment with the campers and teachers as citizens. Many of the problems, faced by the Environment are inherent in the camp social  as  the handling, preparation and eating of food, sanitation, sewage disposal, housing health habits; social and cultural differences and the process of representative government.

3. Democratic group life

Camping experience, is democratic  group  living,  which  proves  useful  in  inculcating good qualities in the pupils. It  enables  the  pupils  to  understand  the  physical  environment and to use natural resources wisely. It provides additional real situations including work- experiences, where may be applied many of the ski1I and attitudes developed in the classroom.

4. Duration and types

Duration of the camping will depend upon the age of the pupils. Camping can be taken during school time for a one-week period, two weeks or a longer period. Similarly, the types and patterns of camping will vary according to the .age of the pupils. Appropriate activities can be taken up by the campers depicting the, folklore and history of the area, Indian life, transportation, correction of soil erosion, excavation of relics, etc.

5. Environment Service Project

The pupils for civic welfare involving individual activity of an integrated mental, physical, emotional can take up  Environment  Service  projects  and  spiritual  nature,  Service-projects are of educational value to the pupil as well as to society.

Examples of Service Projects

1. Social service among the backward population of the town. This includes cleanliness, ‘anti-mosquito campaigns, bathing young children, attending on the sick.

2. School labour service being organized on special occasions. These may be Republic day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti and Gandhiji’s Death Anniversary. Activities like planting of trees, road repairs and erection of platforms, cleaning  of  drains, digging of manure pits and drain, may be taken up.

3. Animal welfare. This may be done through provision of water facilities, fodder and medical aid.

4. Beautification of villages. This may be done through’ planting of trees, laying out of avenues, clearing up of public paces like streets, temples, drains, etc.

5. Relief Parties. Relief parties consisting of teachers and pupils may go  out  in  the service of the Environment at times of natural emergencies such as floods, epidemics, fire, earthquakes, etc., They may leave their classrooms to plant trees in out-of the way places of the Environment. They may help the Environment on fairs, festivals, and elections. They may  undertake  anti-mosquito  campaigns,  attend  the  sick,  etc., or work on fund raising for the welfare of the poor.

Advantages of Environment Service Projects

1. They lift education from the dull routine of leading each generation in the footsteps of its predecessor, to earnest yet joyous adventures in cooperative welfare.

2. They help in raising the status of the pupils. Their all-round growth and development is stimulated. Service projects help in making world citizens out of provincial youngsters because they lift the imagination from personal matters of the moment of the  enduring life concerns  of all peoples everywhere.

3. Children have a hunger for participation, which may be fed by experience. Schoolroom walls should disappear. The school and Environment must combine to meet the challenges of the crises that may beset the Environment so often.

Precautions in Use of Environment Projects

1. Service projects undertaken by the school should not be too complex, costly, dangerous, involved or delicate. These should be discovered through Environment surveys and other informational learning activities.

2. Education weeks, clean-up weeks and youth weeks, projects in public safety, civil beauty, health, agricultural and industrial improvement, local history and protection of resources are some of the  projects  through  which  the  pupils  and  Environment can mutually benefit.

3. Teachers of foresight and  patience  shall  do  much  to  provide  functional,  realistic and democratic education through such Environment service programmers.

4. Service projects must be planned, executed and evaluated with extreme care.

Form of Environment Project Information Card

Type:

Data needed:

Person to  call:

Equipment needed:

Expenses:

Age of  children:

Educational value:

Length of time:

Comment:

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B. METHODS OF BRINGING THE ENVIRONMENT TO THE SCHOOL

1. Lectures by resource persons

People as well as books are desirable sources of information and inspiration. In every Environment no matter how small or isolated, the scores of person of rich and varied background, who can open doors to vivid learning experiences? These include the banker, the doctor, the engineer, the merchant, the artist, the sarpanch, the municipal commissioner and the editor. These are Environment’s human resources, which can be utilized by the enterprising teacher to enrich and vitalize the school programmed. These distinguished men are resource persons who can explain to students their own important role in the Environment and services rendered by them to Environment in the different directions. Important persons from other towns, states and countries can also be invited to create better understanding of different types of people. This will help students identify themselves with other people and their problems.

Lectures by resource persons provide the students opportunities for developing  social skills in real life-situations such as letter writing, making introductions, receiving guests, carrying on conversations, listening attentively and leading discussions.

Form of Data regarding the resource persons Name:

Address and  phone:

Subject:

Has child in school- Yes/No Class:

Comment:

2. Parent-teacher associations

It has been well said that people “care when they share”. Parent-teacher associations create a constructive involvement of parents in the school policy and programmed planning, execution and evaluation. They co-operate in making the school a real Environment centre,

to locate and list resource visitors to the classroom, to assist with field trips and surveys and to develop the Environment programmed generally. Parents’ participation in the school programmed is also an intrinsically  rewarding  process  for  them.  They  know  what  is  going on in the school and what is expected of their wards. When the parents of the children in his charge appreciate the work of a teacher, it gives him encouragement and inspires him towards better and greater efforts. Thus, parent-teacher associations serve  as  two-way channels of communication between school and Environment.

In these associations, parents meet the pupils in the school and relate their experiences. Their success serves, as mottos and failures as eye-openers for the pupils. When they ‘talk’ to children in the school the gulf between and Environment is bridged.

The experiences from the parents may be used in socio-drama in which children play the role of parents and other important characters of the Environment. The characters acted out by the children can be made use of in teaching to give factual information regarding skills, biographical comparisons, local customs and individual’s peculiarities. It can be a rich source of conveying social, economic and moral values.

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3. Social service activities

The school furniture; the rooms, the playgrounds, the school hall, the school gymnasium and audio-visual aids may be lent to the adult Environment for purposes of education and recreation. School can be made the centre of social education. Bulletin Boards may be set up, containing daily news and other useful information about the local Environment in particular and the country in general. .

4. Celebration of festivals and national days

Environmental Science teaching can be improved with the help of fairs, festivals and national days celebrated in the Environment. Every child  is  told  about  the  significance  of these social events, which provide opportunities for dynamic, interesting and real life learning. Celebrations of the birth and death anniversaries of  great  men  like  Janm-Ashtami,  Good Friday, Easter Day, Shabe Barat, Id-ul-Zuha, etc, make the children  familiar  with  the  noble ideas and deeds of the great men. These  can  tell  the  children  about  the  different  religions and the beliefs of India. Familiarity with them can develop in the children a noble ideal of toleration and a  spirit  of  accommodation.  Cultural  festivals  like  Raksha  Bandhan  may  help to give an insight to the children into  Indian  culture.  Festivals  like  Lohri  and  Basant Panchami, national days and U.N. Day, Human Rights Day and Red Cross Day may develop international understanding and make the children understand the  life  of  human  beings allover the world. Celebration of  Children’s  day  may  enable  them  to  realize  their  own charter of rights. Observance of Social Education Day may show them the  magnitude  of illiteracy in our country.

5. Local fairs and festivals

A number of local fairs and festivals are celebrated in every locality. These can enlighten the pupils about the local traditions and local customs. Interesting talks may be arranged on how to celebrate local fairs.

6. Talks on National and International Problems

The school authorities may arrange talks on current problems of national and international interest. Members of the Environment may be cordially invited to listen and participate in the discussion.

7. Financial aid by the Environment members

Well-to-do-members of the Environment may be asked to help the school enterprise financially.

8. Apprenticeship

Local trades can provide apprenticeship experiences to the students. The Role of Teacher in liaising Environment Resources the role of the teacher for the proper utilization of the Environment resources is very important.  There  is  always  a  likelihood  of  the  existence  of evil  trends  like  favoritism,  nepotism,  dishonesty,  hypocrisy,  etc.  in  the  Environment  life. The teacher should bring home to the pupils the idea that children should study  the Environment life, and fight these evil trends. The teacher should make a wise and judicious study of Environment life  to  build  reasonable  pride  on  its  past  achievements,  and  faith  in its future possibilities. He is required to make the pupils alert about the processes of the Environment. He must develop the right attitudes  towards  the  Environment  local,  national and international. By displaying initiative  and  resourcefulness,  foresight  and  patience  to, build the Environment understanding of the pupils, he can prepare them  to  be  worthy members of the Environment.

Advantages of Utilizing Environment Resources in Environmental Science

1. Natural way of imparting education. A study of the Environment is useful for imparting education in a natural way. Proceeding from the known to the unknown and from the near to the distant it is natural process of establishing relationship, particularly suitable to young students.

2. Growth of new interests. A survey of the Environment and a study of its problems, provide opportunities for the growth of new interests, which are natural and creative, not imposed from outside but developed from within.

3. Choice of vocation. Study of Environment offers a wide choice of vocation to school children who observe various groups of people in the Environment engaged  in different economic activities for the welfare of the Environment. This observation creates interest and urge  in  the  minds  of  some  boys  to  explore  industries,  means of transport and communication, trade, commerce, business, agriculture and so on in their adult life. Some girls may feel inclined to home nursing, preparation and distribution of food, teaching or religion. Thus, a  choice  of  vocation  for  adult  life- may be  made by  students right  from the primary  or secondary  school stage.

4. Social use of leisure. Interested in the Environment outside the school, the student would spend his spare time in the study of some specific portion of the Environment life. Carrying this interest beyond school days, he may acquire a technique for using the increased leisure at his disposal creatively and usefully.

5. Development of skill and attitudes. After studying the problems of one’s Environment, one may think of development of one’s city, town or countryside. The students may

grow into useful citizens, anxious of tackling social problems: They may build, a sense of values and take pride in participating in their own Environment life. Friendships and appreciations may develop. Skills may be fostered. A sense of security may give a sense of pride in one’s Environment past achievements and a reasonable degree of faith in its future possibilities. Emotional values arise from a sense of attachment to the Environment.

Suggestion

Environment experience enrich social study instruction, in order to achieve the purpose of Environmental Science, the child must become a real part of the Environment in which he lives, interact with it and contribute to it. He must become a responsible member of Environment with civic attitudes and ideals compatible with the spirit of democracy. Again, venturing into the Environment, gives children an opportunity to observe and to participate in the basic human activities that characterize living in the social group under the careful guidance of the school and of cooperating Environment groups and field trip is the best way to develop these type of skill in the students at school level.

1. How can the environment enrich and support in the learning of environmental science in schools?

2. Explain the  importance  of  good  environment,  home  and  school  relationship.

3. What are the duties of the environmental science  teacher  in  this  regard?  Explain  in  your own words.

4. Discuss the ways and means to arrange a field trip in the secondary school students of class VIth.

5. What information would you collect to acquaint your students with the life of the local environment and how would you collect it?