No Impact Project Provides Free Environmental Education Curriculum For Teachers

Working to change the behavior of adults that are set in their ways is one of the hardest tasks facing the environmental movement. In the mean time, many activists have been searching for a way to reach the younger generation before it too becomes convinced that a sustainable lifestyle must be “hard and boring.”

Thanks to the Sundance Film Festival, many people are now familiar with Colin Beavan, aka “No Impact Man.” A year or two ago, Beavan and his family decided to try living in New York City for 12 months without doing any harm to the environment (aka the “No Impact Experiment“), and it attracted worldwide media attention.

But the family wasn’t content to end the experience with their 15 minutes of fame. Now, Beavan has helped to create the No Impact Project, which seeks to combine the information that his family gathered during the experiment into powerful educational tools for the next generation.

The No Impact Project recently released five free lesson plans designed to help middle and high school students explore the effects their everyday behavior has on the environment, their health, and their well-being.

Traditional educators as well as homeschooling parents can access all five lesson plans easily online, as well as curriculum summaries, additional resources, and an online community for sharing feedback with the lesson creators.

The five lessons address topics like consumption, energy, food, transportation and water, and challenge students to think about how the systems in our present society influence our lifestyle choices in ways that often are not good for environment.

Interested educators are invited to register here in order to receive the printer-friendly version of the curriculum and gain access to supplementary film clips and book passages.

Image Credit: www.agreenerindiana.com

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Adrian D.

11:40AM PST on Jan 24, 2010

Thanks for the article!

send a green star

Mervi R.

1:12PM PST on Jan 11, 2010

Yes, teachers should definately educate the kids about the environment, the younger the better!

Jodie S.

8:28AM PST on Jan 11, 2010

young people that is

8:26AM PST on Jan 11, 2010

It always amazes me to see the changes in attitude from generation to generation. I believe it starts with education!!!!! Thank you for providing it free because it sure doesnt seem like the governments want to spend anything on making you people aware.

Valentina S.

4:30AM PST on Jan 10, 2010

What is the use of teaching anything if we don't teach the younger generation to have a proper relation with the environment, with everybody and everything else on this Planet?

Cristen L.

12:15AM PST on Jan 10, 2010

Very cool! Thanks

Kirsty R.

8:24PM PST on Jan 9, 2010

Thanks.