I have decided for my submission to create a possible lesson that a teacher could do in a

geography class to discuss what it means to balance our needs and wants with environmental
stewardship. I selected stewardship because one of the key principles of catholic schools is
“stewardship of creation”. Students show respect for God by taking care of all His creations. It is
our responsibility to protect people, creatures, environments and our planet. This is also an
interesting topic for students to discuss moral and ethical challenges that impact the
environment.

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Subject: Geography Grade: 9 Level: Academic and Applied

Lesson: Environment Stewardship: How to balance human needs and wants?

Overall Expectations: By the end of this course, students will:

 The Physical Environment and Human Activities: analyze various interactions between
physical processes, phenomena, and events and human activities in Canada

Specific Expectations: By the end of this lesson, students will:

 analyze environmental, economic, social, and/or political implications of different ideas

and beliefs about the value of Canada’s natural environment, and explain how these
ideas/beliefs affect the use and protection of Canada’s natural assets
 analyze interrelationships between Canada’s physical characteristics and various human
activities that they support
 explain how human activities can alter physical processes and contribute to occurrences
of natural events and phenomena

Learning Goals: By the end of this lesson students will be able to:

 formulate questions, interpret and analyze information to investigate the challenges

that are linked with human needs, wants and activities
 make connections between human needs, wants and actions
 communicate the intended and/ or unintended consequences to the environment
  justify the importance of finding a balance to human needs, wants and activities to help
the environments
 begin with coming up with an action plan that will help rectify the effects that human
actions have on the environment

Minds On: (30 mins)

The class will be divided into 3 groups; the first group will focus on human responsibility to the
planet, the second group will look at what the basic human needs are, and the last group will
consider human wants and the choices we make to satisfy them. Each group will receive chart
paper and markers to brainstorm and record their ideas and conclusions. After a few minutes,
students will put up their conclusions and thought to the front of the class. The class will then
walk around and examine what other groups came up for their topics, they will also have an
opportunity to add on their own ideas and questions to other groups that may have been
missed.

Then as a class, students will discuss anything interesting they noticed, saw or questions they
have from the activity. The teacher will be watching to see if students are making connections
between the three topics and how each of them effects or is affected by the other two.

Assessment for learning: the teacher will be observing and facilitating discussion between the
groups. The teacher will be looking for insightful discussions and how students relate their own
experiences to the topics being discussed.

Action (40 mins):

For this portion students will begin by working in small groups (2-4) or independently to
examine the connection between our needs/wants and the impact our actions have. During this
activity and discussion, the teacher is to act as a facilitator that provides possible questions and
prompts to extend the discussion and include different perspectives.
Each student will be provided with a graphic organizer where they will look at specific needs
and wants and the actions we take to satisfy them. They will also be asked to look at the impact
these actions have on the environment around us and globally.

The teacher will do the first example with the students to give them an idea of what to consider
and how to approach the task. For example: A need that we have is food. A want that links with
food is to have our food delivered. So the need and want have been established, now we need
to consider how our need and want will be satisfied. We will get our food by having someone
drive to our place to deliver it, this is our action. Now how does our need/ want and action
impact others (family, business employees, etc.), the environment and so forth. Now students
can fill out organizer with a need that they want to examine.

Afterwards students will share what they came up with in their groups and as a class students
will discuss other ways to satisfy those needs. Students will go on to answer the questions “how
do we balance meeting our needs/wants with how we treat the environment”, “do we have a
responsibility to the environment and why” and “how can we use stewardship to reasonably
reconcile the impact of satisfying wants vs. needs”.

Assessment for learning: teacher will monitor how students communicate and relate to
environmental stewardship using experiences and terminology. The teacher will also be looking
at the way students cooperate with each other and build on each other’s’ ideas.

Consolidation (10 mins):

Students will independently fill out an exit card that will be submitted before they leave
answering what environmental stewardship is and what are some of the ways in which we can
decrease the negative effects our actions have on the environment.

Assessment as learning: teacher will look at student responses for big ideas, insight and
perspectives that were discussed in class. The teacher will also see if students have a clear
understanding of the vocabulary that was introduced in class.