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Investigate Environmental Legislation
Lesson Four
Current Environmental Legislation
- Grade level: Upper Elementary, Middle School.
- Subject Area: Science, Social Studies.
Brief Description
Students use the Internet to identify and review pending environmental legislation that might impact their local community.
The rich variety of Internet resources allows students to search for current or pending legislation of interest to them based on
their own interests in environmental issues.
Objectives
Students will:
- Learn Internet research skills by finding pending legislation on environmental issues.
- Synthesize their understandings of the concepts of how laws are created.
Materials and Resources
In developing our lessons and activities, we made some
assumptions about the hardware
and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the
LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or
activities have a computer
(PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and
monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or
dial-up
software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but
perhaps
Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special"
hardware
or software
requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above)
and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.
-
Special hardware requirements: none.
-
Special software requirements: none.
-
Internet access: medium-speed (28,800 BPS via phone) or High-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network).
Activity Description
- Students visit the Internet sites listed below to find environmental bills under consideration in the U.S. Congress and check on current legislation that affects endangered species.
- Students search the Congressional Record [http://thomas.loc.gov/i104/i104index1.html] to find environmental Bills under
consideration. An example of what students might find using this approach if they searched the congressional record using the keyword
"Peregrine" would be the text of a speech by Rep. David Skapps (CO) where he proposed legislation to
protect the St. Vrain River watershed, an important habitat for the Peregrine falcon.
- Encourage students to continue following the voting record of their local and state legislators on environmental issues,
and other issues of interest to them.
Internet Resources
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