All About Animals: Secondary Teachers: Lesson Plan 2: A Healthy Planet
Teachers’ Note: This lesson plan requires your pupils to practise their research skills and to summarise their findings into a formal report. The report should detail how a religion of their choice would view a particular environmental or animal-related issue and how that religion would encourage their followers to act in regard to this subject.
This gives a wide scope for their research and will, hopefully, lead to insightful and interesting work. Photocopy this sheet and distribute it to the class or simply read out the information and ask them to take notes.
Imagine you are a community leader, representing the views of your religion (you can choose any major religion to represent – this need not be your own). You are asked to write a formal report about an environmental or animal-related issue that affects not just your community but the whole planet. The religious community you represent are relying on you to put forward their views on this important subject. Throughout your report back-up your recommendations with evidence from sacred texts, religious principles and statements by religious authorities wherever possible.
You can choose any one of the subjects below.
- Laboratory experiments on animals
- Factory farming
- Zoos
- Hunting
- Genetic modification of animals, plants and crops
- Consumption of natural resources
- Pollution
- Deforestation
- Global warming
- Destruction of natural habitat and animal and plant extinction.
- Vegetarian and vegan diets