Exploring Environments: The Beginnings of a Grade 7 Inquiry

As a lead into the Grade 7 Geography unit into Physical Patterns in a Changing World, the student we asked the question, "What is an Environment?" Using that question, the students discussed what they though the characteristics of an environment were or what they thought the word meant. As a class, we then compiled their ideas and thoughts. Here is what they came up with together:

As a class, we then went through each characteristic to agree or disagree it was a good fit to create an appropriate definition of an environments. Students were given the opportunity to vote and rationalize why they believe each idea was a good explanation of what an environment is. Each definition they agreed on, was given a checkmark. Each definition that wasn't was given an "X." At the end of the activity, the students agreed upon the following definition: An environment is:

a habitat where living and non-living things interact

a place where things change - like the climate or the weather

a place to communicate or intact with each other

a place where we get our survival needs (i.e. - food, shelter, etc.)                                                        One characteristic that the students couldn't agree on completely was "a place where things live." We decided to place a question mark next to that one. Some students debated that not all things have to be alive in an environment, where others argued that living things are necessary in an environment. Upon further investigation, we hope to prove or disprove this notion.  Following the initial provocation, the students were able to brainstorm different geographic environments they knew.  Lastly, the students came up with their own wonderings about geographic environments together.