Topic 3: Economic Issues Affect Cooperation between Germany, the European Union, and Other Nations

Lesson 2
Step #2: Extending and Refining Information

Strategy: Active Learning – Case Study

How should efforts to protect Germany’s environment be funded?
Why are there difficulties in trying to set international environmental standards?
Why would Germany’s pollution problems be of concern to the European Union as a whole?

Activities

Project Slide #15: Topic 3, Lesson 2 (Polluted Rivers in Germany). Have students identify areas of excessive pollution.

Slide #15

Slide #16

Superimpose Slide #16: Topic 3, Lesson 2 (Population Density in Germany and Europe), over the river map. Ask students: What is the relationship between the polluted rivers and population concentrations?

Have students do additional research to collect articles from the Internet, news magazines, or newspapers to highlight the problem of pollution in Europe and Germany in particular.

Thought questions that students might consider as they collect the information:

How have Germany and the European Union aimed to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment?
How have these efforts been funded?
Why would Germany’s pollution problems be of concern to the European Union as a whole?

The research should be done in cooperative learning jigsaw groups using “expert groups” to do research that answers each of the above questions. The experts can then go back to their home group and reveal their findings to the rest of the group.