Environment: Stewardship

Outcomes
HSIE Outcomes
ENS2.6
Describes peoples interactions with environments and identifies responsible ways of interacting with environments.

English Outcomes
TS2.1
Communicates in informal and formal classroom activities in school and social situations for an increasing range of purposes on a variety of
topics across the curriculum.
TS2.2
Interacts effectively in groups and pairs, adopting a range of roles, uses a variety of media and uses various listening strategies for different
situations.
WS2.10
Produces texts clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text

type.

Indicators

identifies issues about the care of places in the community or places of importance to them
identifies some organizations concerned with the care of features, places and environments in the community
examines some regulations, laws and practices associated with the management and care of natural and built features and sites
gives reasons why groups are associated with a feature or site, e.g. Streamwatch, National Trust
evaluates the necessity of caring for and conserving a feature, site or place
plans and implements a strategy for caring for a particular feature or site
presents alternatives to, and consequences of, using features, sites and places in particular ways
identifies the viewpoints of others regarding how sites, places and features can be cared for and demonstrates an appreciation of the rights
of others to have these viewpoints
gives reasons why a specified feature, place or site should be cared for
compares uses of environments in Australia with uses outside Australia
recognises that Aboriginal peoples have a special relationship with the land and sea

 examines the advantages and disadvantages of various land uses

examines some of the practices used by Aboriginal peoples to care for land and water environments
identifies processes used by people to design environments.

School Name
Unit Title: Stewardship
KLA(s): HSIE, English
Year Level: 4
Duration of Unit: 8 Weeks
Context for Learning/Rationale for teaching and learning strategies.
This unit is developed for NSW stage 2 year 4 with the notion of environmental stewardship in-mind. This class is based on a practicum class
and contains 21 students, with 10 boys and 11 girls in total. The demographic of this group of students involves those who are high achievers
and those with difficulties in learning. This HSIE unit is developed with the study of different learning styles in mind. (Honey & Mumford)
mentions a couple of learning styles, which include, the activist, the theorist, pragmatist and the reflector.
It is advised as a behavioral management strategy, to divide the students into groups to encourage collaborative learning (Burden & Byrd,
1994, p. 96). Further management strategies that is encouraged to adopt during this unit are, management by walking around, reinforcing
correct behavior by a rewards chart and continues verbal praise (Super Duper Publications, 2009). The type of teaching style that is
encouraged also is the authoritative teacher. This type of teaching style is recognized as the most effective, and is correlated with the correct
behaviors in students, produces socially responsible students and instills responsibility (Wenning, 2004).
A couple of teaching theories can be used in this unit such a, behaviorism, maturationism and constructivism (Fosnot & Perry, 1996). The
theory that is encouraged and emphasized throughout this unit is the constructivists theory. The constructivists theory regards the continual
development of the understanding of the subject rather then teaching for teachings sake and to do examples (Cunningham & Duffy, 1996).
The paradigm of pedagogy in NSW is structured in a way that enhances a couple of values, to continue to develop and empower higher stages
of cognitive quality, to encourage a greater level of education in the students, and to instill ownership and awareness of the value of their
personal work and assessments (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003). The approach in this unit is based heavily on an inductive
style of teaching, group work, and inquiry and discovery approaches. This unit attempts to be sensitive towards all learning styles and multiple
intelligences by teaching with a student focused style (Smith, 2008).
Piaget's cognitive development theory indicates that students in middle childhood are heavily receptive to active discovery. Thus this unit of
work is tailored to the research (Rathus, 2008).
It is essential to pre-test for prior knowledge as this will give the teacher an understanding of the level of understanding that the students
already have. It also gives the teacher a chance to establish which students need differentiated activity and work (NSW Department of
Education and Training, 2004). There are several ways of conducting pre-testing, formal and informal. The formal assessment tasks can include

previous assessment artifacts. Informal assessments include a more practice way of analyzing knowledge, this includes possible mind maps at
the beginning of class and discussions on the relevant topic, "guidelines provided for peer assessment of the oral extension activities, teacher
provision of ongoing oral feedback concurrent with class activity, and student self-reflections" (NSW Department of Education and Training,
2004).
Focus Questions and Inquiry Sequences
Several focus questions and inquiry sequences can be used to determine previous knowledge and whether the students have grasped the
previous lesson. The process in which to do this would be to base it on the IGASAR model of inquiry (NSW Deperatment of Education). IGASAR
stands for, Initiating, Gathering information, Analyze and Organize, Synthesize and Conclude, Apply and Reflect.
Some examples of the focus questions can be:
Initiating

What animals and plants are endangered?

What products can be recycled?
What are some animals or plants that are extinct?
What are some organizations that value conservation?

Gathering Information

Why is it important to take care of our environment?

Why is the Great Barrier Reef important and WHY are people trying to protect it? (This question is an example and subject can be
changed)
What animals are extinct?

Analyze and Organize

Why is the Great Barrier Reef important and HOW are people trying to protect it? (This question is an example and subject can be
changed)

Synthesis and Conclude

What are people doing to protect the Great Barrier Reef?

What can you do to protect our environment?

Apply and Reflect

How can we care for our environment?

Ask students to create posters on stewardship.

Teaching and Learning Activities/Assessment Strategies and Examples.

Some teaching and learning activates in this unit must include mind mapping for pre-testing and initiating, usage of ICT for research into
knowledge of the effects of bad stewardship, group activity in producing posters with facts about specific environments and places, involving
everyone to create a picture of a habitat possibly in the forest of in the sea to have students understand the ecosystem and the importance of
stewardship, and a final assessment for students to pretend to be a news reporter to inform listeners about stewardship and the importance
of it. All these suggestions can also be used as assessment strategies to constantly analyze whether the students have grasped the concept of
what they are learning. It is important to use every opportunity whether formal or informal to assess students so that differentiation can take
place if necessary.
Resources

These resources are provided to give students a wide range of materials and scope so that they may understand how big an impact on the
environment they can have.
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=288&id=2651
http://lgfl.skoool.co.uk/content/primary/science/renewable_sources_of_energy/index.html
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/interactive/2012/jul/27/olympic-regeneration-legacy-stratford
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/carboncops/
http://www.futurescapes.com.au/#
http://www.ollierecycles.com
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nswcultureheritage/

Evaluation Framework
What worked?
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What would I change?
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Anything that I would do differently next time?

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How was student interest?
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Which students needed extra care?
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What do I need to spend more time?
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What were some of the teaching strategies I used? Were they effective?
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What assessment strategies did I use? Were they effective?
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Other comments?
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Rationale of chosen subject matter.

Environmental stewardship is extremely important as human population begins to rise and resources begin to deplete (Mahan & Sheldon,
1996). It is ironic however, that God commissioned us to care for it while greater demands through changes in population is becoming the
catalyst for our environments destruction (Mahan & Sheldon, 1996). It is in scripture that God provides a template and an insight of what
creation means to Him and what it also should mean to us. Stewardship in essence, is care (Barry, 2006).
So then why should we can for our environment besides the fact that it seems like we have to? The environment is incredibly important to the
existence of humanity. Everything is somehow connected and thus environmental neglect will eventually complicate the process of growing

food and affecting the production of food, which then may eventually lead to starvation (Ask). The environment can also be linked to be worth
$33 trillion dollars of services annually (Wilson, 2002).
For every small victory in environmental stewardship, we can begin to protect and save our environment for future generations. If we do not
start taking action now, the leaders of the future will not have an understanding of the impact that humans can have on the environment.

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