Teaching Notes

Example Output

[Screenshot of a map of ESI over water quality/quantity map]

Grade Level

grades 7-12

Learning Goals

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

Note: (2022) My World GIS is no longer supported.

download and import a dataset into My World, a geographic information system (GIS) application
analyze the data in a table to rank countries for environmental sustainability
visually analyze country-level ESI data on a world map
use GIS to map multiple ESI components for correlation and comparison
visually analyze country-level data for environmental sustainability on a world map
analyze differences between countries in terms of performance on different factors that contribute to environmental sustainability

Rationale

In working to analyze and understand the complexity that the ESI represents, students build on skills and understanding in domains such as map reading, geography, and earth science, social studies and ecology. Connections between these skills and understandings are applied to carry out the comparisons, correlations, and other analyses involved in investigating the ESI using GIS.

The techniques for data analysis that are learned in this chapter can be used to analyze various types of scientific data and to visually present results of the analysis in various formats. The chapter also fosters discussion on the data, on techniques used for data analysis, and on interpreting the results of the analysis.

Background Information

The full report on the 2005 ESI is available from the Environmental Performance Measurement Project web site at http://www.yale.edu/esi/. The ESI was also calculated in 2001 and 2002.

The report describes the rationale and methodology of calculating the ESI in detail, and describes the main findings. The appendices are also of interest, especially Appendix B, which is profile of each of the 146 countries. Each country's score on the 21 components and 5 core categories are shown. [Include example here]. Appendix C contains a short description and ranking of countries for the 76 data sets used to calulate the ESI.

Instructional Strategies

The chapter may be presented to students as an exercise for the classroom or the laboratory. In a classroom setting, each step of the analysis may be presented and described to students, followed by questions and discussions on what is demonstrated by the intermediate results.

Within a laboratory setting students may work individually or in teams that each focus on a particular country or continent. Each individual or team may present the results of their analysis to the class, followed by an interpretation and discussion of the results.

The following questions might be useful to consider while completing the chapter and during subsequent classroom discussions:

How can environmental quality be measured?

How do different countries compare in making progress towards environmental sustainability?

How do individual component indicators contribute to the ESI?

Learning Contexts

This chapter engages learners in scientific inquiry by providing an opportunity to analyze scientific data on environmental sustainability. The 21 aggregated measures of the 76 component data sets of the ESI represent a wide variety of topics relevant to science and social studies. In-depth investigations of factors connected to earth science, ecology, economics, government, geography, and history can be designed for the ESI. Opportunities for interdisciplinary connections are inherent in the interdisciplinary nature of the ESI.