Teaching with Socioscientific Issues & the Environmentalist's Paradox

[Susan Musante]

Hi everyone,

I just posted this message in the Environmental Science group, but then found this Forum and thought it might be relevant here too. Please do let me know which is the more appropriate place for this discussion (maybe both?).

I'd like to share with you the unveiling of a new module, developed in coordination with the Carleton College's Science
Education Resource Center, titled "Using Socioscientific Issues-Based
Instruction" available for free on AIBS's ActionBioscience.org at: http://www.actionbioscience.org/educators/socioscientific.html. The module includes the what, why, how, and 5 examples of using this teaching method in the classroom.

I'd love to get your feedback for it is very much a "living" module, in
that it will be edited based upon what I learn from the community, for
example, are there other references that can be added, revisions to the
"how to" based upon classroom experiences, etc.

Take a look also at the following press release about a new article titled "Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox: Why Is Human Well-being Increasing As Ecosystem Services Degrade?" in this month's BioScience: http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/100901_researchers_an... and you'll see a "Teach With This Article" button. On that page I've
placed suggestions for teaching with the article based upon the module
information.  I'd love to turn this into an example but need to have
this tested in the classroom first. If anyone's game and wants to try
out using the article in the classroom to discuss the
"environmentalist's paradox" please let me know.  The BioScience article
is available for free as a PDF only until the end of this month (linked
from the press release).

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing how we can modify the information to make it even better!

Best,
Susan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susan Musante
Education Programs Manager
540-305-4125
[e-mail]

Headquarters:
American Institute of Biological Sciences
1900 Campus Commons Drive, Suite 200
Reston, VA 20191
http://www.aibs.org

[Colin Matheson]

Thanks for sharing this. I will forward to our eco-literacy teachers. (yes we have a 6 week eco-literacy class required for all 6th graders!)