Environmental Education Study Projects for High School Students.

This paper has been designed as a general guide to the teacher, student, group, or club interested in identifying environmental or resource problems at the community level and helping to find solutions to them. The paper discusses the independent studies program as a method of studying environmental problems as well as a source of academic credit. The establishment of such a program and considerations involved in such a study are examined. Environmental problem solving and the complexity of environmental problems are also discussed. The paper presents three project types which may be used as guidelines for other independent studies. The first project involves identifying and lessening the impact of a community environmental problem and involves either study of the relationships between related concerns and establishing priorities or assessing the perceived problem through a number of interviews or questionnaires. The second project, Assessing Impact of a Developmental Project, involves using some of the guidelines established by the National Environmental Protection Agency in their impact statements. The third project, Environmental Research, requires a laboratory test facility. Suggested readings and a checklist of environmental concerns are included in the paper. (TK)