In touch with green

Updated on: Monday, July 11, 2011

There is a lot of talk about the environment these days. If you talk to the elders in your family, especially your grandparents, you will realise that from the stories you hear, how drastically the environment has changed. It was a much cleaner and a healthier looking planet when your grandparents were young.

But all is not lost, as the remedy can lie in your hands. Listen to the teachers in school as they constantly keep telling you to keep your environment clean, to segregate the waste and lots of other things. An interesting seminar was held recently for teachers at CSI Monahan Girls' HSS, Peter's Road, Royapettah. The topic was “How subject teachers can teach environmental issues through their own subject”. The resource person was A.J. Mithra from Campus School, Tambaram.

This highlighted the point that in each subject there were pointers to be aware of the environment, This enabled one to be in touch and in tune with the environment.

The discussion led to show that only Science teachers who should handle environmental issues. Every teacher who handles a particular subject can teach environmental issues through their own subject. This would make the subject more interesting, creative and interactive too.

For example, the Maths teacher can teach how to calculate the angle of elevation and also the distance between the predator and the prey as the eagle swoops down upon its prey. Another would be to calculate how the bee directs other bees on the angle and distance of availability of honey from the hive on the basis of its wriggle dance.

In Physics, you can learn about air thermals and how birds use them to migrate and how feathers act as a prism. How animals know when to migrate just by the angle of the sunlight is another example.

Why certain trees do not grow unless a bird spreads the seed, how the Macaw eats clay to stay beautiful (Remember how women use multani mitti for a face pack, they could have learnt this from birds and animals that eat clay for salt supplements), is something that can be learnt in Chemistry class.

You can learn about waste management during the Economics and Commerce class.

The Geography teacher can help students find the topography of a place with the help of the eating habits and physical features of the animals and birds and the History teacher can show how birds were used as messengers in times of war. To trace the origin of food, especially in our own culture, would be interesting.

Language classes can also play a large part in bringing in the concept of green. Poets have been inspired by birds and have used them in their work, particularly the rhythmic patterns of bird calls can be seen in the rhythmic structure of poems. Let's not forget how dance and theatre can show us how we have adapted different styles of dance from birds and animals while the music teacher can compose songs on ecological issues.

In the field of games and athletics, you can learn how the eagle plays relay in mid air and how many styles of fights originated from wildlife. Vital body swirls as seen when the deer is chased by the leopard can be taught especially to hockey and football players.

At the end of the seminar, it was clear that being aware of the environment and being in touch with it was not only to be in the Environmental Science class but also in other subjects and in our day to day life too.

In touch with green

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