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Learners should be able to meet the guidelines included in this section by the end of fourth grade.
The kindergarten through fourth grade years are a time of tremendous cognitive development. By third and fourth grades, learners have developed some basic skills that help them construct knowledge. Instructors in earlier grade levels should use these fourth grade guidelines as a target, extrapolating from this end goal appropriate activities and lessons for younger learners.
In these early years of formal education, learners tend to be concrete thinkers with a natural curiosity about the world around them. Environmental education can build on these characteristics by focusing on observation and exploration of the environment--beginning close to home.
Examining Environmental Issues
in Fourth Grade
Many educators believe that exploring issues helps fourth-grade learners make important links between conceptual understanding, what is happening in their community, and their own responsibility for environmental quality. Others caution that fourth graders are only beginning to synthesize their knowledge into the kind of complex understanding that is essential to examining environmental issues. When deciding how to handle environmental issues in the fourth grade classroom, educators must rely on their own judgment about what each class--and each student--is ready to handle.
Basic guidelines for examining environmental issues with fourth graders are:
- Keep it simple.
- Keep it local.
- Make close links with what they're observing and learning about the local environment.
Local solid waste and water issues easily fit these basic guidelines. They are especially appropriate for these young learners.
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