Environmental history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Environmental history is the study of humans and nature and their past interrelationships.

Environmental historians base their understanding of human and nature relations primarily on historical methodology, but often borrow from the work of scientists and scholars in fields outside of history. As a result, many scholarly contributions pertinent to environmental history are written by scholars who typically would not identify themselves as historians.

[edit] Historiography

The modern field of environmental history emerged in the early 1970s in conjunction with the rise of environmentalism as a social movement in the United States and the world. A scholarly organization emerged out of a breakfast session at the (year) American Historical Association meeting (or was it Organization of American Historians?). That organization, the American Society for Environmental History began to publish a newsletter, ASEH News and also a scholarly journal. The journal first entitled Environmental Review was developed to support scholars interested in the study of human/nature interactions. The journal went through several title changes, including Environmental History Review, and is currently published under the title Environmental History.

What is Environmental History, by J. Donald Hughes, describing the history and historiography of environmental history, will be released in 2006 by Polity Press (Cambridge, UK).

[edit] Precedents in the field

George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Annales School

Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind

William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England; Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

[edit] Resources for Teachers

Below are some websites that can be utilized by teachers to help with ideas and activities to encourage elementary aged students to do their part in protecting their environment.

http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/scientificInq1/: This website on Discovery.com gives a complete project with materials, etc. for the age group of K-2. It’s a simple project which addresses three different objectives: ways in which people affect the environment, how other pollutants affect animals and plants, ways in which to recycle at school. There are other age group options as well on this site.

http://promo.yahoo.com/earthday05/: This site has a list of “10 Simple Ways You Can Save The World in a Day.” This could be utilized as a poster in a classroom. Having something visible to read on the wall would be helpful in enforcing the point of helping our environment. Putting this poster together could be a hands-on activity students could participate in as a group or an extra credit project.

http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/: PBS offers an entire section of sources for teachers in each different subject area. They also provide recommended links and books as additional resources.

http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/educators/lesson1.html: Although this is a wonderful site offering many activities to use, it only addresses grades 6 – 12. One suggestion for this site is to have these older students create activities or games based on what they learned in this particular area for kids in the K – 5th grade age group.

http://www.projectwet.org/: This is an outstanding site for addressing water issues with students. This site looks at National standards as well as state standards. It provides lots of great resources, which can be purchased.

http://www.plt.org/: Project Learning Tree develops awareness of environmental issues and encourages us to be better members of society. The PreK-8 Guide has 96 hands on activities, which covers topics such as “water and air quality, ecology, urban environments and recycling” (www.plt.org). This site also allows you to look at how their information works in with the particular state standards where you live.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/science/environment_and_nature: This site gives some great news stories to refer to as well as additional sites to look over. Also, the movie, “Happy Feet” has an environmental message, which would also work well for this age group.

http://seedsofscience.org/: This site provides grades 2-5 with “rich learning opportunities in reading and writing embedded in high quality inquiry-based science activities” (seedsofscience.org).