Curriculum
User Guide
Unit 1: People
Understanding environmental justice starts with understanding how we, as people, interact with the environment.
Exploring who we are, what our environment is, what we depend on from the environment, and how our community and the choices we make shape the things we depend on from our environment.
Unit 2: Place
Our environment is where we live, work, and play.
Exploring how historical decisions have shaped Louisiana’s environment by analyzing landscape changes through a series of maps.
Unit 3: Power
The people who live in the places impacted by human-made decisions have the power to speak out against environmental injustice.
Exploring environmental justice case studies in Louisiana.
Each of these units can be implemented in many grade levels in their entirety and as standalone lessons. However, much care has been taken to ensure that these units and lessons can work together to create longer lessons or mini-units in your classroom.
It is recommended that you introduce concepts of environmental justice to your students with activities from Unit 1, before branching out to lessons from Units 2 and 3. Throughout this curriculum, there will be notes suggesting which activities and lessons work well together.
For each activity, there are the appropriate GLEs/Standards attached that show the interdisciplinary nature of this curriculum at most grade levels.
Notes on Lesson Format
This lesson plan uses a modified ‘5E’ learning model to structure student learning. The 5E model is broken into the following phases:
- Engage: ignite an interest in the topic, gain an understanding of student’s prior knowledge, and identify any pertinent knowledge gaps
- Explore: active exploration of the topic utilizing tools and concepts introduced in the Engage portion
- Explain: probing questions help gauge student learning to this point, and help the educator best present technical information needed for deeper learning
- Elaborate: students are given the space to apply what they’ve learned from the lesson
- Evaluate: formal or informal assessment of student learning; may include self-assessment, peer-assessment, writing assignments, exams, or other forms of evaluation
An additional 6th “E” has been added to the end of the lesson plan: Extend. Lesson extensions provide opportunities for students to take what they’ve learned and apply it beyond the classroom. Additionally, lesson extensions are ideal ways for educators and schools to share the work of their students with the community through activities such as science fairs, creative achievement competitions, or public advocacy. The lesson extensions outlined at the end of the lesson plan are optional and should not be viewed as a comprehensive list of opportunities. Educators are encouraged to develop lesson extensions that are appropriate to their students’ needs and abilities, and that build on existing support systems and partnerships between their school and community where appropriate.