Teaching Students About Short and Long Term Ecological Changes

There are many environmental conditions that can affect us throughout life and sometimes students are unaware of how serious some conditions can be for everyone. We are experiencing a hurricane as I write this article, but many people believe that this is simply a one day event, but storms can take much more time to pass and can certainly have an impact directly for a week, but if your house is severely damaged this can affect a family for a year or more.

A tornado is usually a short term event in length, but the damage can be extensive. The odd thing about a tornado is how it can devastate one side of a street and completely leave the other side of the street untouched. This type of an event may not affect a large area of a city or state, but for those impacted from such an event it could be drastic.

We have heard a great deal about "Global Warming" for its dangerous effects, but little about some of the potential good things over the short term that may be interesting to discuss with a class of students. In the north some paths through the ocean that would have been blocked by ice, may stay free of ice. Some areas may have a "growing season" that that area never had before. Areas uncovered by melted ice may become areas to search for oil and natural gas deposits. In the long term the sea level could rise so significantly however that many areas of the world could be flooded.

A few years ago we heard a great deal about the Ozone layer. This is still an important topic to discuss in class and it helps students to understand why some laws have been passed related to aerosol sprays and air-conditioning coolants.

A very large volcanic eruption could have a dramatic effect on the entire world and there have been some dramatic eruptions around the world in the past few years. The area around Krakatau is rising and could be building toward another violent eruption. It might be interesting for students to look at locations of recent volcanic activity.

Because of the energy crisis there are many interested in building a number of new nuclear reactors and each time one is build there is always another possibility of nuclear disaster not to mention the need to find a place to put nuclear reactor waste products. A major nuclear accident could impact an area for centuries and could have an impact on the entire world.

The graphic worksheet lists a number of environmental conditions and then asks students to mark the appropriate length of impact of the event. This type of activity is bound to spark a lot debate and interest. As students get older their views of such events will change and they will become citizens that may have to vote on projects that are related to these potential environmental conditions.

Every time I have used this worksheet it has promoted a great deal of class discussion.