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- All Subjects: Education
- All Subjects: development
- Status: Published
As we count down the years remaining before a global climate catastrophe, ever increases the importance of teaching environmental history and fostering environmental stewardship from a young age. In the age of globalization, nothing exists in a vacuum, yet our traditional education system often fails to reflect the abundant connections between content areas that are prevalent outside of schools. In fact, many of the flaws of the field of education have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a forced transition to online schooling, with many educators reverting to outdated practices in a desperate attempt to get students through the year. The aim of this project was to design a unit curriculum with these issues in mind. This month-long environmental history unit engages students through the use of hands-on activities and promotes interdisciplinary connections. The unit can be taught in a physical, online, or hybrid American history class, and will hopefully inspire and motivate students to become environmental stewards as they look toward their futures on this planet.
By conducting a literature review, I have found a number of studies reporting links between a pregnant woman’s stress and the development of health issues in her child. For example, researchers of one study found that infants born to women who were depressed during pregnancy had early brain development issues and difficulty regulating emotions and stress (Hayes, et. al). In another study, researchers observed a positive association between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and asthma in offspring (Cookson, et. al). Such findings indicate the significance of the prenatal period in healthy child development. However, while we may suspect that there are some negative outcomes for children born to chronically stressed women, there was interestingly a lack of information in areas where we may expect to find effects on the child. This gap in the literature indicates that we do not fully understand the effects of stress during pregnancy, and it seems that we do not know what really seems important to know about mental health during pregnancy. Thus, the results reflect that the existing knowledge in this area is lacking, making it challenging for medical specialists to understand how they may best intervene in order to promote the healthiest pregnancies and children.
education in America is dire and in critical need of reform, (2) this dire state is evidenced by
statistics reporting that both student test scores and mental health are declining, (3) these issues
are perpetuated by recent efforts to implement extreme amounts of digital technology into
classrooms, rigid standardization and assessment-based learning, and the lack of attention paid to
philosophy and religion in public K-12 curricula, and (4) that many of these issues could be
resolved through the implementation of a curriculum teaching “mindfulness”. “Mindfulness” has
many different interpretations, but for this thesis will refer to an umbrella of skills that can be
taught and honed through critically reading and discussing philosophical and religious texts, as
well as engaging in different types of meditative practices. Skills such as logical and deductive
reasoning, ethics, emotional regulation, debate, public speaking, goal-setting, organization, and
planning. Practices and exercises found in philosophy, but many students may not necessarily be
accustomed to (meditation, yoga, silent prayer, stoic contemplation), would be read about,
practiced, and/or discussed, likely before class discussions on the day’s text. Implementing such
a curriculum can occur at varying degrees of intensity, with increasing levels of effectiveness
with each increase in the intensity of implementation.