Current Events
The goal of environmental education is truly environmental literacy, which can be defined as “the
capacity of an individual to act successfully in daily life on a broad understanding of how people and
societies relate to each other and to natural systems, and how they might do so sustainably. This
requires sufficient awareness, knowledge, skills, and attitudes in order to incorporate appropriate
environmental considerations into daily decisions about
consumption, lifestyle, career, and civics.” *
To help develop environmental literacy skills, each six
weeks you will be analyzing current events you find in
the media and selected current events that apply to a
specific issue covered each six weeks. As you start
becoming more aware of APES topics covered in the
news, you will see that environmental science is a
dynamic, cutting-edge science that is covered multiple
times daily in major news sources. Additionally,
environmental science topics have direct implications in the business, law, and economic realm.
AP Environmental Science is a course that is designed to have at least one FRQ that is current with
environmental issues (the test is written two years in advance, so current within two or more years).
The test designers expect a level of current environmental literacy from students, not just “rote”
textbook knowledge.
It is ABSOLUTELY impossible to write or compose an
article that does not possess bias. Bias is implied just
by the shear selection of a topic upon which to
report, or the amount of space allocated to the topic
in a publication. Although terms such as “like” and
“dislike” may not be present in the article, as a
surveyor of environmental publications and
information, it is your job to read for terms and ideas
that may be controversial or express an opinion.
Each six weeks current event assignment will have two parts. For part one of the assignment, you will
perform an in-depth analysis of an article you find from a respected source. For the second part of the
assignment, you will perform an in-depth analysis from selected articles posted on teacherweb (APES
learning portfolio page) over a topic covered during the six-weeks. Current events will count for 50
points of a lab grade each six-weeks.
*The Campaign for Environmental Literacy http://www.fundee.org/facts/envlit/whatisenvlit.htm
Part 1: The summaries will be written in your science journal, and a hard copy of the article or PICTURE of the
article on your smart phone must be turned in/shown when I check your journals.
1) Locate 1 article in a newspaper, online, or a recent periodical (such as Newsweek, Scientific American, Science
Daily or National Geographic). The New York Times, The Economist, the BBC, Science Daily, and CNN have
excellent online articles about environmental issues (www.newyorktimes.com, www.cnn.com, www.bbc.com,
www.economist.com, www.sciencedaily.com ). If you are getting an article from the internet, you MUST go to a
major news type organization, so no blogs or Wikipedia – think news articles, not encyclopedia or personal
opinions! Be aware that several news sites have “green” blogs associated with them – blogs associated with news
sites are not enough – you must have a primary source article!
2) Identify the source periodical or newspaper of the article, the author, and the date it was published.
3) Evaluate the article for bias. Where are the opinions offered? Is the source automatically a bias? (i.e. a
publication of the Nature Conservancy) In what direction is the bias? Is it pro or con environmentalist, pro or con
business, etc?
4) Reference the yellow APES topic outline and find at least 2 places where your article is applicable to our study
of environmental science. Note the Roman numeral and Capital Letter location in the outline where your article
applies. As you may be unfamiliar with some of the topics described later in the year, use your textbook to assist if
necessary.
5) Compose a short summary (5-6 complete sentences) of the article. Be sure to identify the ‘Ws’ - Who, What,
Where, When, and Why.) Most often these points can be found in the first paragraph or two.
6) Describe an economic issue associated with this article. Remember that economic issues MUST discuss money,
jobs, or business/industry.
7) Describe an ecological issue raised in the article (either benefit or harm). Remember that an ecological issue is
really a consequence of human action (can be positive or negative) on the natural world, not humans or
agricultural systems. So you are looking for a biotic consequence on “nature.”
Part 2: Choose 4 of the 6 articles from teacherweb to read and analyze. All of the articles are different
perspectives and information about a major issue from content covered during the six weeks. Use your articles to
answer the following:
1) List the titles and authors of the four articles you chose to analyze.
2) In 2-3 sentences, summarize the major points of EACH article. (So 8 to 12 complete sentences here)
3) Describe an economic issue associated with these articles. Remember that economic issues MUST discuss
money, jobs, or business/industry.
4) Describe the fundamental environmental issue raised with these articles (either benefit or harm). Remember
that an environmental issue is a consequence of human action (can be positive or negative) on any type of biotic or
abiotic factor of the plant, but again, not humans or agricultural systems.
5) What specific human populations are most affected by the issues described in the articles? Why?
8) Describe what you consider to be the fundamental trade-off illustrated in the articles. What would have to be
done to make environmental progress on the issues and what would have to be given up (in terms of money,
resources, etc).