Teaching Students about Environmental Conscience
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Posted by Jo Murphy Sep 30, 2008 |
The article Whale Watching As a Creative Arts Project gives an example of a whale watching experience and talks about ways to create multi-modal projects designed to explore the experience of a nautical tour. Readers may wonder why environmentalists are prepared to venture into the terrain of these beautiful creatures.
They may ask, “Aren’t teachers modelling behaviour that is detrimental to the environment by organizing such tours?”
Environmental Conscience
The trick for these tour companies is to organize sound educational experiences, whilst avoiding or minimizing damage to the environment. The creators of Sea World have responded with sensitivity to the need to care for one of Australia’s most precious resources, the Australian coastline. They see it as a duty of stewardship to be respectful and to proactively protect the natural beauty that exists within it.
The Sea World Official Whale Watch Gallery portrays imagery of a whale being freed from a net. This tension between fishermen and environmentalists is a dilemma currently challenging Australians who would like to protect their coastline. The topic can be a stimulus for debate and documentary projects about our relationship with oceanic waterways.
Respecting The Australian Coastline
Because Sea World tours enter the world of the whales every day operators wish to make as little impact on the environment as possible. An approach to responsibility for protection of the environment is explained on the Sea World Website, “Sea World, through its Research and Rescue Foundation, has made a meaningful contribution to marine conservation by conducting internationally recognised research studies, promoting marine education and rescuing Humpback Whales, which have become stranded or entangled in nets.”
By taking students on these educationally designed tours teachers are modelling stewardship in a simply, practical but profound manner.