ecological education through Primary school science
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THE "ECOSYSTEMS" TEACHING PACKAGE by PS Rose
This is a science teaching package about Nature, for children of 7-14 years. It looks at the differing and the common needs of living things (including human beings), their relationships with each other and with their surroundings. The significance of individual organisms within ecosystems is explored, as are the consequences of human influence.
The package was designed to be taught within the school science curriculum, but would also satisfy other curriculum requirements, such as art, language and geography. It specifically fits within the guidelines for Key Stage 2 of the British National Curriculum.
Many activities, experiments, discussions and games are suggested, to stimulate learning in different ways. The topics are all interrelated to compliment one another.
Extracts from different sections of the package can be viewed online (below). The whole package can be downloaded (free) as a series of Word documents. These are formatted ready for printing (around 15 pages in the teacher's guide and 15 pages of children's worksheets).
Ecological Education - What's the point?
The relevance of ecological education, within the contexts of science, society and schools is outlined in a technical report produced with the Ecosystems Package, and may be of interest to teachers. It assesses the effectiveness of the package, when taught to a group of seven-year olds from a school in south Manchester, in 1998, and recommends potential improvements.
The package and report were developed as part of an undergraduate Biological Science teaching project, at the University of Manchester [supervised by Prof. Michael Grant].
See the report...
Download the package (free)
Online Extracts from the Teacher's Guide
Where does our food come from?
Co-operation between different living things
Experiments: plants and worms in the soil
Ecosystems connected to Ecosystems
Ecology Resources for Schools: Some UK organisations worth contacting
