Key question
How can we be responsible for our world?
Learning objectives
Through this unit, students learn to:
• reflect on values and commitments (including religious ones)
• link values and commitments with their own attitudes and behaviour
• relate values and commitments to issues of stewardship and interdependence.
Activities
Ask students to:
• read a story with an environmental theme such as Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish (see below for details)
• write thoughts and concerns about the environment on repositional notes and stick them on to a picture of the earth
• read and discuss a story in which people have taken action to protect the environment, such as The People Who Hugged the Trees and Thengapalli Locality Study (see below for details)
• explore how gardens are significant for many religions
• design and make a paradise garden with a water feature using Muslim principles, or a Zen Buddhist garden
• devise a set of guidelines for planners for enhancing or restoring an environment
• reflect on what they have learnt, and make a poster showing what should be done about the environment, and why.
Further resources
Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish, Michael Foreman, Picture Puffin, 1992
The People Who Hugged the Trees, Deborah Lee Rose, Roberts Rinehart, 1990
Thengapalli Locality Study, Hampshire County Council, 1997, available from Oxfam
An Islamic Paradise Garden: Faiths for a Future, Robert Vint (ed), RMEP, 1998
Love at Home (contains an illustration of a paradise garden), Khurram Murad, Islamic Foundation, 1983
