CHAPTER 5
This study of Cheboygan provides a number of opportunities for teaching
Geographical themes and skills in the Primary School. As a city that
has been shaped by rivers and lakes, Cheboygan could be used to fulfil the
following requirement of the National Curriculum (DfEE, 1999):
· (6c) Water and its effects on landscapes
and people, including the physical features of rivers
A more interesting application, however, may be to use Cheboygan’s growth
and decline as a lumber town and the subsequent development of the tourist
industry as a way of teaching children about sustainable development and environmental
change. An example scheme of work for a Year 6 class is shown below.
The National Curriculum Council (In Carter, 1998) argues that children are
the custodians of the future and that there has never “been a greater need
for young people to be aware of the necessity to look after the environment”
(p277). Whilst children are interested in the environment, they are
also concerned about its future (Wade & Hughes, 1994; Hicks in Carter,
1998). Studying sustainable development and environmental change can
not only satisfy “children’s natural curiosity about their world” (Bale, 1987:
p90), but also help to “raise individual awareness of the issues affecting
the quality of life on Earth” (Cater & Rawlinson, 1998: p277).
Studying sustainable development and environmental change also provides
good opportunities to improve enquiry skills such as asking geographical
questions (1a), analysing evidence and drawing conclusions (1c), identifying
and explaining different views (1d) and the use of secondary sources of information
(2d) (Foley & Janikoun, 1996; Carter, 1998). Through the creation,
manipulation and analysis of data and the use of secondary sources, drama,
interviews, letters and newspaper articles, environmental geography has good
cross-curricular links to Numeracy and Literacy (Hicks in Carter, 1998).
Sustainable development also involves the children’s attitudes, values, opinions
and the ability to analyse, consider and communicate their own stance on
a particular issue (Cater & Rawlinson, 1998). Wade and Hughes (1994)
agree and suggest that environmental geography can also help children gain
problem-solving skills.
Sustainable development and the environmental change are important parts
of the National Curriculum for England (DfEE, 1999):
· (5a) Recognise how people can improve
the environment or damage it, and how decisions about places and environments
affect the future quality of people’s lives
· (5b) Recognise how and why people may seek to
manage environments sustainably, and to identify opportunities for their own
involvement
· (7e) An environmental issue, caused by change
in an environment, and attempts to manage the environment sustainably
Plimmer et al (1996) suggest the sustainability and development issues studied
in the classroom are often focussed on the actions of less economically developed
countries. Cheboygan not only provides an opportunity to learn lessons
from the past and to study how natural resources are managed today, but to
understand that countries like the United States and Britain have used their
natural resources to stimulate their own economic development in the past.
Studying a range of places and environments in different parts of the world
is not only part of the National Curriculum for Geography (DfEE, 1999), but
can engage the children. As Storm suggests, “many children may be much
more interested in volcanoes, Australian Aborigines and coral islands than
in plotting the distribution of lamp posts” (1970, cited in Bale, 1984: p92).
Cheboygan’s lumber industry is a good example of what happens when natural
resources are managed unsustainably. The over cutting of the forests
near Cheboygan not only destroyed wildlife habitats, but the industry itself.
A Cheboygan case study could help the children understand the affects of human
activity on the environment, whilst the Sustainable Forest Game (See Figure
23) could be used to discuss alternative strategies to those used by the
lumber industry in the 19th Century. Cheboygan in the 21st Century also
provides opportunities for studying sustainable development. Today,
tourism and particularly boating, hunting and fishing are an important part
of Cheboygan’s economy. The children could use Cheboygan’s experiences
to discuss the positive and negative impacts of tourism and its possible affect
on the environment. Week 6’s activity, where the children are asked
to form a management strategy that takes into account both the local economy
and environment, will give the children an understanding of the issues and
problems involved. This would not only be “a real world problem” (Bale,
1984: p71), but one that the children would find interesting when “brought
out into the open and examined explicitly” (Hicks in Carter, 1998: p268).
The Cheboygan area has suffered in the past from the poor management of
resources, whilst today its forests and lakes are integral to the success
of tourism. Cheboygan provides and interesting perspective on
sustainable development that not only fulfils the requirements of the National
Curriculum, but gives the children an opportunity to gain geographical knowledge
and skills.
SCHEME OF WORK