Discover: Step 1 - Community Environmental Inventory
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Activity - Outdoors
Subjects: Civics, Geography
Authors: Earth Force
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this activity, students get outside to gather information about their community to evaluate the environmental strengths and challenges.
- Students gather numerical data, analyze maps, conduct surveys, or talk to experts to evaluate their defined community.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The website for this activity has lots of suggestions and background materials that will help make the activity a success.
Prerequisites
- If students complete the full process, be sure to have them start a portfolio of their work.
- To access the tip cards mentioned in this resource, teachers can go to the Environmental Action Civics Alliance website and create a new account to view these and other resources for Step 1.
- Before starting the activity, be sure to have answered these questions to help define the scope of work for students:
- How will you define the community for this activity? Will students gather information about all aspects of the environment, or just one? Which sources of information will students use to create this inventory?
Differentiation & Implementation
- This can be completed as a stand-alone activity or as one step in a larger community-action and problem-solving process (see other EarthForce resources for other steps in the process).
- The website for this activity includes tutorial videos resources for introducing the inventory to students, and tools for determining the root causes of issues.
- Other hands-on activities include this solar oven resource and this wind energy resource.
Inventory mapping is one of the tools used in narrowing down and prioritizing projects to be studied. Using a root-cause technique is also appropriate to identify the most peculiar causative agents impeding positive change in any local community. This activity will guide students on taking decisive steps to actualize site-specific solutions. This resource is recommended for teaching and for facilitating project-based activities in a defined geographic setting.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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