Section — lI

Pedagogy Concerns

Module 8 — Pedagogy of Environmental Studies

(Primary Stage)

Module 9 — Pedagogy of Mathematics

Module 10 — Pedagogy of Languages

Module 11 — Pedagogy of Science

(Upper Primary Stage)

Module 12 — Pedagogy of Social Sciences

(Upper Primary Stage)

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 True education must correspond to the
surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy
growth. What is really needed to make
democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but
right education.

— Mahatma Gandhi

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 Module
Pedagogy of Environmental Studies 8

(Primary Stage)
1. Overview
This module presents the various aspects necessary to be taken
into consideration in the teaching learning of Environmental
Studies (EVS) at the primary stage. It elaborates upon the
following points —
• Learning objectives of the module
• Nature, status and curricular expectations at primary stage
• Learning outcomes and pedagogical approaches
• A theme “Water” has been taken as an example to illustrate
the pedagogical approaches.
• Attempts have been made to take care of concerns such as
diversity, gender, art and aesthetic, values, etc. wherever
appropriate and possible.
• Activities for the participants in the training programme
which can help them develop deeper insights on different
themes of EVS along with their pedagogical dimensions.
• The module includes how assessment can be integrated
with teaching learning process and cannot be considered as
an activity in isolation.

2. Learning Objectives
After going through this module you will be able to
• appreciate EVS as an integrated curricular area at the
Primary Stage
• relate its objectives with the concepts and issues
included in the syllabus
• locate the concepts and issues in textbooks and be aware
of different approaches to their transaction in classroom
• plan and design context and need specific learning
experiences for children
• organise learning opportunities to engage all learners
meaningfully.
• use varied assessment strategies to map the learning
progress against learning outcomes in EVS

3. Environmental studies as a Curricular Area

The National Curriculum Framework (2005) views EVS in
classes III to V as a subject, which integrates the concepts and
issues of science (natural and physical), social studies (natural,

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physical, socio-cultural) and environment education. In order

to reduce the curriculum load on young learners, it has not
been recommend as a separate curricular area in classes I and
II. Instead the issues and concerns related to it are meant to be
part of language and mathematics.
EVS at the primary stage envisages exposing children to the
real situations in their surroundings to help them connect, be
aware of, appreciate and be sensitized towards the prevailing
environmental issues. Beginning with the child’s immediate
surroundings (including natural, physical, social and cultural
settings) related to self, home, family and school in the early
grades and gradually moving on to the wider environment
(neighbourhood and community at large. Creating learning
situations in the context of children is very crucial to learning
EVS. Efforts need to be made to avoid giving direct information,
definitions and descriptions and instead create situation for
children to construct their own knowledge by interacting first
hand with their surroundings. During this process they would
access various sources of knowledge besides the textbook and
explore various learning sites other than the classroom.
Exposure to real world would give opportunities to children
to encounter various social issues such as those of gender
bias, marginalisation, child labour, illiteracy, caste and class
inequalities in rural and urban areas, challenges of the differently
abled or those of the elderly and the sick. Care may be taken
to ensure that besides the resource materials, the classroom
environment and pedagogical processes are inclusive, that is,
they cater to the diversity of learners in terms of their abilities
(including differently abled), pace, style, etc. Exposure to real
world problems related to the environment (such as those of
protection, preservation, conservation of natural resources,
environmental justice and other environmental issues) is also
crucial. Initiative has to be taken to establish a strong bond
between children and their environment. It is envisaged that
teaching learning of EVS, as a subject will enable children to
realize how their decisions and actions affect the environment.
It will also help in building knowledge and certain skills
necessary to address the challenges they face around them.
This will enable children to become advocates and stewards
of the environment. Ultimately this will contribute towards
building a sustainable future.
Let us reflect
• As per this understanding of EVS, what do you think
children at the primary stage are expected to learn?

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• How can these expectations be accomplished?

• Which strategies can be employed to do so?
The sections 4 and 5 will throw some light on how we
can establish the linkage in the expected, transacted and
accomplished curriculum. Given below are the curricular
expectations and learning outcomes in EVS. Can you think of
how these are related?

4. Curricular Expectations and Learning Outcomes

in EVS
Curricular expectations are prospects, which are broad and
which aim caters to a stage of learning whereas learning
outcomes provide the criteria to map these expectations.
The curricular expectations in EVS for the primary stage are
given below.
4.1 Curricular Expectations
As per the EVS curriculum, children at the Primary Stage are
expected to —
• acquire awareness about immediate/wider surroundings
through lived experiences on various themes related to
daily life e.g., family, plants, animals, food, water, travel
and shelter.
• nurture natural curiosity and creativity for the immediate
surroundings.
• develop various processes/skills e.g., observation,
discussion, explanation, experimentation, logical reasoning
through interaction with immediate surroundings.
• develop sensitivity for the natural, physical and human
resources in the immediate environment.
• point out and raise issues related to equality, justice and
respect for human dignity and rights.
4.2 Learning Outcomes in EVS
In order to facilitate learning and development of a child vis-à-
vis the curricular expectations enlisted above, it is important
that the teachers are clear about the criteria against which
they can map their progress time to time so as to keep their
efforts in the right direction and also help the children to do
so. Therefore, the learning outcomes need to be clearly spelled
out and different stakeholders especially teachers, parents
and if possible even the children need to be aware of them.
Learning outcomes as the criteria in EVS can be used to assess

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the learning and development of a child in both qualitative

and quantitative manner against the expected learning of this
curricular area.

In National Achievement Survey 2017 which was based on

Learning Outcomes, percentage of correct responses (on an
Average) for classes III and V in Environmental Studies (EVS) has
found as follows —
Class III — 65%
Class V — 57%
Do we know about state average achievement and district average
achievement? Details are available on http://www.ncert.nic.in/
programmes/NAS/SRC.html. We need to reflect on how to improve
learning outcomes of our students in EVS.

For example, what do you think of the following?

The Children
• differentiate between objects and activities or past
and present
• estimate spatial quantities and time in simple standard
units and verifies using simple tools/set ups
• record observations, experiences, information on
objects/ activities/places visited in different ways and
predicts patterns
• create drawings, designs, models, maps, poems and slogans
• show sensitivity for plants, animals and other organisms in
surroundings
These are some learning outcomes in EVS at class III.
Can you relate these with the curricular expectations? What
kind of pedagogical processes can be adopted using your EVS
textbooks to accomplish these learning outcomes?

Note — Please refer to the document ‘Learning Outcomes at Elementary

stage (2017).

Let us reflect
• In order to accomplish the above curricular expectations
what kind of curricular material; textbooks, supplementary
material, resources are required?
• What kind of teaching learning strategies need to
be adopted?

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• What kind of textbooks and resources do you envisage in

view of such an understanding of EVS as a curricular area?
• In order to accomplish the above curricular expectations
what kind of teaching learning is required?

5. Resources and Strategies for Teaching-learning of

EVS
Children are curious by nature which is expressed in their urge
to explore, question and as to why things happen the way they
do. Contemporary research on how learning occurs emphasizes
the fact that they are not passive recipients of knowledge but
all children are capable of learning things on their own. With
the shift in the perception of learning and children, there is
a need to look at the role of teachers, which requires them to
facilitate instead of being mere transmitters of information.
A conventional approach till now followed by most teachers
is to introduce the lessons followed by explanation and some
examples. Instead, the teachers can plan some challenging
situations that lead children to explore, enquire for the problem-
situation. They need to be encouraged to get engaged with the
problem and feel motivated to find a solution or probe the issue
further. This may be done keeping in view the teaching points
or concepts, which can be converted into questions or inquiries,
which would act as the basis for constructing knowledge.
We all know that the process of learning is continuous and the
teachers need to make it meaningful by providing experiences
that employ essential process-skills such as – observing,
discussing expressing explaining classifying, communicating,
experimenting, predicting etc., without labeling any response
as right or wrong, children need to be encouraged to explore
alternatives with appropriate support of the teachers. This will
help the children to construct new knowledge and connect the
new knowledge with their existing one.
In order to engage children meaningfully, teachers need
to plan the different learning experiences to develop required
skills, and concerns for social and critical issues, which are
one of the prioritised objectives of EVS. The variety of learning
experiences used to facilitate learning of the surroundings help
to develop essential cognitive processes, attitudes and values.
The learning contexts in the form of narratives, case studies,
and media reports can be used to sensitise children about
social discriminations, environmental issues, and other critical
concerns. Some of them are discussed here using examples.

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5.1 Strategies for Teaching-learning in EVS

i. Projects
Projects constitute an important learning mode, which can be
assigned to an individual or a group of students. A teacher may
identify the projects theme wise or chapter wise and students’
involvement in planning and designing the projects may also
be sought. For project work children may be required to work
in school hours or at home as well.
Some of the examples are
• Find out about the availability of water at the time of your
grandparents and parents and compare them with the
present situation.
• If there is a lake, well or step well near your house or school,
visit it and find out more about it.
There could be projects on pollution of water, water
availability and its reuse or recycling. You may divide children
into groups and each group may plan and design activities on
such themes. Children may be supported to conduct survey,
experimentation, go to libraries or field visits. Children may
prepare reports of the projects in groups and present reports
in the class. The assessment may be done using criteria in the
form of rubrics, which can be prepared with the help of  children.
ii. Discussion
Discussion helps in learning through social interaction in group
settings. Knowledge is constructed meaningfully when ideas
and experiences are shared with others through discussions.
In many EVS lessons, there is ample scope for children to
discuss in the class with their peer groups and teachers. The
questions such as- How do you feel when you are hungry?;
What would happen if you do not get water for two days?;
Why some people do not have water and others have it in
plenty?; can be used by the teachers to facilitate the discussion
where each child is free to express his/her opinion and each
response is recognised without demeaning anyone. You may
use newspaper reports/TV reports or certain case studies to
substantiate your discussions on the issues and concerns of
contemporary relevance.
Let us reflect
• What are the roles expected from a teacher in this context?
• How would she organise discussions in the classroom?
Enlist some tips for a teacher.

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• Identify some exercises in the NCERT, EVS textbooks

where teachers are asked to discuss with children some
of the critical concerns in order to develop awareness and
sensitise them towards the issues.
iii. Experiments and Explorations
Experimentations and explorations encourage children to
investigate, observe, create, discuss, critically think, categorise,
analyse, reason out and draw conclusions. The EVS textbooks
deal with much experimentation where children can do the
activities on their own and learn from their observations. In
Class V textbook, under the lesson titled “Experiments with
water” we find activities related to i) what floats and what
sinks? ii) what dissolved, what did not? iii) where did the
water go? You may facilitate children to do the activities by
providing resources or suggesting how to arrange them. Also it
is important that they need to be familiarised with the purpose
of doing such activities. It is possible that at times children
go beyond of what is expected of them and come out with
very interesting observations that create the scope for further
investigations. You only need to draw their attention towards
it and encourage them to explore further scaffolding wherever
it is required.
iv. Surveys and Interviews
Surveys help to involve children to seek, collect and use
information to draw meaningful insights. In most of the
exploration and survey activities children seek information
from people using interviews. Children may be encouraged to
talk to people in their surroundings and collect data related
to the problem or the task given. This helps them acquire first
hand experience of the problems around and learn more about
the problems around them. Children may be encouraged to
frame questions on their own for interviewing and use the
data gathered to prepare a report. Interacting with people and
interviewing them helps in developing skills of communication,
framing and asking questions, recording the responses,
preparing reports, etc.
Some examples of survey exercises are given below
• A survey of the school and the neighbourhood to find out
wastage and conservation of water.
• Children can collect information on leaking taps, pipes,
overflow, overuse of water in school and society and share
the reports with the class.

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v. Sharing of Experiences
An important aspect of EVS classrooms is to help children
express freely. The teacher may create situations where each
child feels like sharing without any hesitation. The opportunities
for expression could be oral, written, drawing or any other. For
example, when discussing about water availability, children
may be asked how they get water in their homes. They may also
be encouraged to share about the usage of water in different
festivals in their families. They may do so by writing a few lines,
narrate or draw the same. This creates an awareness about
the socio- cultural environment prevailing across people from
diverse backgrounds.
vi. Role play
Children in primary grades love any hands on and performing
activities. Theatre helps children enact certain real life and
imaginary characters which facilitates in not only building up
their confidence besides helping them gain insights into the
values, attitudes and roles of such characters. Putting children
in certain roles helps them learn better and internalize the
contexts, which allows them to not only explore the subject
matter in varied ways, but also imbibe appropriate dispositions.
There are many situations, which can be created for role-play
situations.
A teacher asked children to enact the following situations
• A girl child who has to stay at home to do all household
chores.
• A family, which fetches only two buckets of water from a
water tanker every day.
Let us reflect
• Which process skills and values can be addressed through
these situations?
• How do these activities align with the curricular expectations
and learning outcomes given above?
• How will you involve visually challenged children in
such activities?
vii. Field Visits
Visits are often considered as activities for joy and fun but until
we plan and organise them in a manner that help children learn
the concepts and be sensitised for the social and environmental
issues, the visits will not help to accomplish any objectives of
the EVS curriculum.

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Visiting a dying/revived water body (well, lake, pond) in the

neighbourhood and exploring about it from the people can be
one such example.
These are some of the modes, however the teachers can
employ many more as per the contexts and need of students
wherein children can be engaged in individual or group
activities The group activities may take many forms like
jigsaws, discussions, projects, role-play, discovery, etc. Teacher
may group the children according to the tasks to be carried
out. While grouping, it is important that the group needs to
be heterogeneous in nature, with children from different
backgrounds and abilities.
5.2 Learning Resources
Children learn in different ways. Hence it is important to
provide them with various learning opportunities using different
learning resources. Several kinds of learning resources can be
used in the teaching learning of EVS. For example, printed
textbooks and other supplementary and complementary books,
e-resources which could be in the form of audio, video, text,
picture, table, cartoon, etc., the natural and built environment,
information from persons and personalities, etc.
Identifying a good learning resource is crucial. For example,
it is important that EVS textbooks for the primary stage are
centered around the child’s immediate surroundings which
include the natural, physical, social and cultural settings.
The textbooks should not be the only source of knowledge,
but should support both teachers and children to construct
knowledge through different sources around them. It should
incorporate scope for children to explore and connect with their
real lives. Textbooks that emphasise on formal definitions and
mere information may be avoided since it will only lead to rote
learning. In addition, the language needs to be simple for all
children to comprehend at a particular level.
The NCERT textbooks in EVS revolve around six themes
namely; (1) Family and friends, which consists of four
subthemes – (1.1) relationships (1.2) work and play, (1.3)
animals and (1.4) plants. Others are – (2) Food (3) Water (4)
Shelter (5) Travel and (6) Things we make and do. Each theme
begins with key questions in a language suitable for children.
The complete syllabus is available on the NCERT website
(http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/syllabus.html). The
chapters include real life incidents, every day challenges of life
and contemporary issues such as those related to food, water,
forests, protection of animals, pollution, etc. Every idea and

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concept has been given through activities and discourses to

attract their curiosity and generate interest. There are ample
opportunities for children to freely debate, engage with and
develop a sensitive understanding about these.
In order to establish a link between curricular expectations,
pedagogical dimensions and the learning outcomes in EVS, an
attempt has been made in the section 6 wherein theme “Water”
has been taken up. Before we understand its pedagogical
dimensions let us have a look at how this theme can be used to
take up different concepts and issues in science, social science
reflecting integration with other subject areas like mathematics,
language, art education and health and physical education at
the primary level.

6. Scope and Pedagogical Dimensions of the Theme

‘Water’
6.1 Scope of the Theme ‘Water’
Water is an important resource for the sustenance of all life
forms on the earth. EVS being an interdisciplinary area seeks
establishing linkages between the natural, and socio-cultural
environment of the child. Concepts and issues related to
‘water’ are universal irrespective of any class, region or terrain
so it can help understand various environmental concepts
and issues in a holistic manner. Therefore, ‘water’ can be a
theme for EVS curriculum at the Primary level. It has a wider
scope to provide many learning opportunities to develop an
integrated perspective in EVS. As a theme, it encapsulates a
range of concepts through Grade III to Grade V that gradually
extends the child’s understanding of their surrounding world,
beginning from the immediate “self” and immediate family
(water for me and family, understanding the importance and
use and storage of water in our homes), the neighbourhood
and locality (mapping water sources in the neighbourhood,
gender and other discriminatory practices, water conflicts
in neighbourhood) to the larger context (who has a right to
the natural resources?, impact of water pollution on other
species, tracing historical sources of water, traditional and
modern ways of water conservation). Besides, it includes
scope for development of many process skills like observation,
experimentation, measurement, estimation and mapping, which
cut across disciplines. This section will help you to reflect on
the issues and relate to the students’ lives and capacitate them
with understanding of concerns and issues around the theme
of water. Further, the interdisciplinary linkages elaborated

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through this theme will help you understand and promote

various process skills of EVS learning and cutting across other
curricular areas.
Let us reflect
• Which concepts and issues can be taken up to forge an
integrated perspective in EVS if ‘water’ is a theme?
• Try enlisting the concepts and issues that relate to water.
Represent these in the form of a mind map.
One such mind map is given below.

Sources of
water
Properties
of water

Access and
Cultural
unequal
significance
distribution
of water
of water
Water

Water
Wastage,
availability,
Conservation
Storage

Try adding some more to this

• Which other subject areas these entail from?

• Can you establish the linkages across other themes in EVS?
• Do you see the integrated perspective in EVS? How?
Now, let us take up a few concepts/ issues to understand
how teachers can create meaningful learning opportunities
to help children imbibe the necessary knowledge, skills, and
values.
6.2 Planning and Creating Learning Experiences
Children have their own understanding about the sources of
water as they relate these to the obvious places that they get to
see/use for taking water and some children may harbor some
alternative frameworks and alternative conceptions regarding
the sources of water. To help children overcome these, it is
important to gather their past experiences regarding sources of
water and facilitate them to construct this concept.

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6.2.1 Water: Availability, Access and Distribution

Activity 1
Ask children from where do they get water at home? Let them
answer one by one and their responses can be written on the
board. There can be a variety of responses that the children
may give, such as river, stream, well, rain, tap, hand pump,
etc. Some children may even say can, pitcher, bucket, etc.
Accept all the responses and write those on the board.

Note — No attempt should be made to label their responses as right

or wrong.

You may see the responses and identify the students with
alternate frameworks with respect of source of water they have
framed. The teacher can challenge their thought process by
asking questions and facilitate the reconstruction process.
The teacher may choose any odd response and encourage
a discussion amongst children by asking some questions,
such as,
• From where did you/they take the water in a pitcher?
• From where did water come in tap?
Analysing any odd response and enabling children attain
the desired learning through further questioning helps in
addressing many alternative frameworks which arise in
learners’ minds. Continue questioning to create opportunities
to challenge the alternative frameworks.
Keep on recording the responses on board and facilitate
discussion till the children are able to trace the sources of
water.
Now help them to categorise their first responses as follows.
I. Things in which we store water II. Things in which water comes itself
1. Can 1. Stream
2. Bucket 2. Pond

What will you do if some children write ‘hand pump’ and a

‘well’ in the first column?

Hint 
—  The teacher may facilitate further discussion with appropriate
questions.

For example  —
• Has anyone seen a well? Where?

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Note — children may respond about well/ tube well.

Now the teacher may ask;

• Where does the water in a hand pump/ well/ tube well
come from?
• Where do you think the underground water come from?
• Where does the water after rain go?
This will help the children to differentiate the sources of
water from ways of storing water.
Let us reflect
If some children still have any alternative conceptions about
sources of water, how will you help them?

Hint — if possible the teacher may take children out to show how water
gets available in their home/school

Activity 2
Take children to the spot from where they get drinking water in
their school, such as, a tap and then a few more questions can
be asked about it.
• Where does the water in this water tap come from?
• To answer this, children can be taken to the big tank and
how the water goes to the tap.
• Children may ask questions like -How is water filled in the
tank?
Children may not be able to respond immediately to such
questions. The teacher may facilitate them to understand
according to the local contexts of the area. They, if possible,
may be helped to explore whether it is a bigger tank of the area,
or a river, lake or even an underground source of water, etc.
with the help of teachers or their elders.
Activity 3
Ask children to draw how they get water in their home? Some
class III children, when encouraged to do so enjoyed this activity
created beautiful drawings. A sample is given below.
Remember when children get opportunities to express
creatively through art and craft activities, these should not
be treated only as fun-based activities but these offer you
opportunities to analyse the responses of children to facilitate
them towards the desired learning.

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The teacher can use these drawings to understand the

children’s contexts and discuss to enable children provide
deeper insights for the issues. Some questions for discussion
can be;
• Why do you think Manvi has put a water tank?
• Why has Salil added a motor in his drawing?
Try adding more questions to this.
Such questions may be challenging for children however,
the teacher needs to facilitate them to understand using
appropriate modes like discussion, videos, interaction with
elders, visit to the big tank of neighborhood, Jal board
office, etc.
The teacher can raise some more questions in local context
and ask children to share their experiences and discuss about
the inequalities in regard to water availability and distribution
and access in their contexts and sensitise children towards
these issues.
Activity 4
Please see the poster given below. Teachers can use it to discuss
the unequal distribution of water and the problems faced by
people. Let us see how.
Some points of discussion can be —
• Water is essential for survival of all and it is available on
this earth for one and all.

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• What are the ways by which people get water in

their house?
• What kind of problems these people might face?
• Does everyone get adequate water to drink and
meet other needs?
• Why do some people have it more and
others not?
• Do you think some people draw more water by
putting motor or bore well?
• Can it cause problems for others?
• Have you ever experienced such situations?
• Who fetches the water in your house and from
how far?
• Do all people use the same source of water?
• Are there some people who are restricted from
coming near to these water sources?
• Do such people have some separate sources
of water?
• Who are those people? What kind of work do
they do?

Note — Please note that the issues of caste, class, if any, need to be

discussed very sensitively from children’s perspective.

Let us reflect
• Can you design some more activities?
• Which strategies has the teacher in activities 1 to 4 used?
• Which process skills are emphasised in the above activities?
• Do you think EVS offers any opportunities to integrate Art
education? How?
• Do you think any social issues were addressed? Which ones
and how?
6.2.2 Water: Scientific Principles and Processes
Water being universal and unique in terms of its characteristics
like state, colour, taste, and polarity due to its distinctive
chemical composition provides excellent opportunities to
explore different scientific phenomena and principles. Children
from a very early age have experiences such as floating,
sinking, and mixing with water from their day-to-day life. Help
them to reflect upon their experiences by providing them hands
on opportunities.

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Activity 5
Encourage children to name and draw containers of different
shapes and sizes, which are used for carrying/keeping water.
They may then be provided opportunity to look at each others
drawings and have discussion over
• What are the containers made up of?
• What works are carried out by using water contained
in them?
• For how long can the water last in them after doing all
the work?
• How much water can be stored in them?
• If the water is at the same level in a narrow and a broad
container, does it mean that they contain the same amount
of water?
Activity 6
The children may collect substances, such as, sand, sugar,
chalk, turmeric powder, and try to dissolve these substances
in water. Guide them to stir those mixtures for some time and
observe what happens and record their observations. They may
also collect some liquids and check if they mix with water or
not, e.g. ink, milk, honey, oil, etc.
Activity 7
Let the children collect a variety of objects, such as, wooden
pencil, metal pen, inflated or deflated balloon, brick piece,
steel spoon, plastic spoon, ice cream cup, needle, wax candle,
butter, oil, cardboard, match stick, eraser, steel plate, leaf,
stone, empty water bottle, filled water bottle. Now encourage
them to guess which among these would sink/ float in water.
The children may then verify by putting various objects in a
bucket of water one by one and record their observations in a
tabular form.

Table
Object Float Sink

Now discuss,
• Which objects float in water?
• Which objects sink in water?
The children may be encouraged to discuss, why some objects
float on water while others sinks, in their own words. They may

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also be motivated to observe if objects of same materials but

different shapes display different behaviour regarding floating
or sinking.
Activity 8
Float a rubber ball in a bucket of water. Encourage children
to think of and try different ways of making this ball sink. Did
they work? Encourage children to look for other situations in
which a floating object can be made to sink or vice-versa and
share their observation in class.
Children may be asked to draw what they have observed.
This would help the children to observe closely to see things
that the fraction submerged differed among objects.
Activity 9
Children may take some water in an ordinary kitchen tumbler
and gently put an egg into it. They observe whether it sinks
or floats. Suggest them to add some sugar to the water and
observe again. They may keep adding sugar to it (about 10-12
tea spoons in a glass of water). What happens? Let them repeat
this activity with salt and observe what happens.

Note — Allow each child to perform the activity, observe, record and make
meaning of his/her observations. Accept an answer that children may
give in their own language e.g. water is “heavy” or “thick”. Children at
the primary stage are not expected to learn about density, viscosity, etc.
and their definitions. Since Science is not about memorizing facts and
principles but it is a process when children hypothesise, test this and make
generalisations.

Let us reflect
• Which concepts have been dealt with in activities 5 to 9?
• Which process skills can be enhanced through these
activities?
• How can the teacher assess children?
• How can you emphasise assessment as learning through
the above?

Hint — Assessment as Learning emphasises providing opportunities of self-

reflection/self learning and peer learning/ assessment

• Which learning outcomes you may hope to realise through

these activities? Enlist them.
• Which other concepts can be taken up at the primary level?
Design some more activities based on them?

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6.2.3 Water: The Cultural Aspect

Revering water bodies, rivers and role of water in various rituals
and practices across different regions, religions, has been
integral part of our culture since ancient times. This provides
ample opportunities to connect children’s socio-cultural
world with that of natural and sensitise them to protect the
natural resources.
Activity 10
The children may be encouraged to recite/ sing any folk song
that they know, related to water in class. They may then
be asked
• Where did they learn this song?
• What was the occasion when people sang it?
• Name some festivals where water has cultural significance?
(e.g. Chhat Pooja in Bihar, Durga Pooja in West Bengal,
Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, Behdienkhlam in
Meghalaya, etc.)
• What are the festivals in your area where water plays an
important role?
• How is water helpful in celebrating that particular festival?
• Besides festivals, what are some other occasions/ cultural
practices (e.g., at the time of birth /death/ marriage, etc.)
where water is very significant/ worshipped?
• Do people sing some special songs related to water on such
occasions? Mention a few lines.
• Are there some specific dances related to water? Name  those.
• Do people offer some statues/eatables, etc. to the water?
• Name some other things which people offer/ throw in water?
Do people also take a holy dip in water?
Let us reflect
• EVS calls for providing experiences that help in holistic
learning and overall development of children. How do you
think the above activity helps in this direction?

Hint — Addressing the socio-emotional dimensions along with the

cognitive aspect.

6.2.4 Water Conservation: An environmental concern

Water occupies a significant place in our lives. It sustains
all lives and is also required for our day-to-day functioning.
However, being a scarce and valuable resource children not

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just need to be sensitised but also need to be equipped with

appropriate skills and attitudes to enable them to take action
to conserve it.
To do so mere preaching or telling them to avoid wastage,
re-use or conserve water will not help. Thus, you may have to
think of situations embedded in their real life contexts where
they get opportunities to look for problems and take action at
their levels for the addressal.
Activity 11
You may show newspaper cuttings, pictures or video clips
regarding water supply shortages.

Water supply to be disrupted across Delhi due to maintenance work

NEW DELHI:  Water supply will be hit in major parts of the
city, including NDMC areas, this evening due to ongoing
interconnection of pipes, Delhi Jal Board has said.
Areas where water shall not be available or available at low
pressure include Civil Lines, Hindu Rao Hospital and adjoining
areas, Kamla Nagar, Shakti Nagar and Karol Bagh.The situation
arose due to the complete shutdown of Chandrawal WW (water
works) for interconnection of main pipe in a water supply system
with pipe lines at DCM chowk, Rani Jhansi Road, DJB said.
Source — https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/water-supply-to-be-
disrupted-across-delhi-due-to-maintenance-work-1475615; retrieved on
27 April 2019.

Discuss with them about the problems to be faced due to no

water supply. Then raise some questions, such as,
• Have they ever come across such a situation of water
scarcity?
• When? How did they manage at that time?
• If their families receive only two buckets of water a day,
enlist the works they would do in an order of priority.
More such situations can be created to allow children to
analyse, critically think and reflect to enable them to appreciate
the importance of water and check wastage and pollution
of water. To do so, it is important to expose them to real life
situations around them.
Activity 12
Children may do a survey in groups in their school, house,
neighbourhood or locality to find out whether the wastage/
overuse of water is taking place. The teacher may provide the

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following table to record their observations. They put a tick

mark in the different columns according to their observations.

Table
S.No. Source of wastage of water ` School House Locality
1. Leaking tap
2. Leaking pipe
3. Overflowing of water from the
tank/vessel
4. Any other

The children may also be encouraged to find reasons behind

leakages/overflowing of water by probing the concerned people.
They may record the responses of the people and draw their
own conclusions. The findings of the survey are presented and
discussed by the groups in the classroom wherein the teacher
may assess them based on the criteria (given below), a rubric
has been developed with the help of children.

Criteria Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Framing The teacher framed Framed questions with Framed most questions
questions all questions for the the support of teacher and within group with the help
group peers of peers
Collecting Asked questions with Asked questions with Probed deeply and even
Responses no effort to probe probing sometimes added new questions
during interaction
Recording Responses were Systematically recorded the Systematically recorded
information not organised and information and presented the information and
and report verbally shared some written report presented the report before
making information class both orally and in
writing
Drawing Made some sense Drawn appropriate meaning Made meaning and
Conclusion of the information and gave some relevant explained logically
without giving any suggestions Practical suggestions were
suggestions given
Cooperation Some members Some members have All the members have
contributed and contributed and others were equally contributed in the
others were not aware/informed work
involved at all

The teacher may use the descriptions of the rubric in

identifying the areas that need improvement. With appropriate
feedback and scaffolding she creates opportunities for self-
reflection and self-improvement.

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Activity 13
Encourage children to reflect and come out with some strategies
to combat the situation of water scarcity. The teacher needs to
analyse the responses of the students keeping their context in
mind. The students need to be given opportunity to realise how
important is water and understand the various ways the people
manage water crisis.
Activity 14
Pose the question ‘In what ways do they reuse water in their
daily life?’ and the children may enlist some of the tasks, which
can be done by re-using the water. For example, water left after
washing of vegetables, fruits, water may be used for mopping
the floor and watering of plants. The variety of responses may
be recorded either on the board or on slips and pasted on a
chart. They may read out those responses and discuss. You
may take up some of the responses of children, which are
advisable to create more situations to enable children to build
further knowledge, e.g.
• Can we offer water left after washing the clothes to the
animals?
• If no, why?
• If yes, how?
• Can we drink water after washing clothes?
Further you may ask,
• Will it harm plants? How?
• Can we reuse this water?
• How? Suggest few ways?
In this way, different responses can be used to build the
knowledge about proper reuse of water.

Did you know

Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) is a time-bound, mission-mode water
conservation campaign. The campaign will run through citizen
participation during the monsoon season, from 1st July, 2019 to
15th September, 2019. An additional Phase 2 will be run from 1st
October, 2019 to 30th November, 2019 for States receiving the
North East retreating monsoons. The focus of the campaign will
be on water stressed districts and blocks. It encourages Citizens
to join hands for water conservation and create a Jan-andolan
along the lines of the Swachh Bharat Mission, to save water and
secure the future. It emphasises on the water conservation and

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rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water

bodies/tanks, reuse, bore well recharge structures, watershed
development and intensive afforestation. Jal shakti abhiyan can
be brought to the classroom through the environment studies by
the collaborative efforts of teachers and schools. Students can
be made aware of water conservation and rainwater harvesting,
renovation of traditional and other water bodies/tanks, reuse,
bore well recharge structures, watershed development  and
intensive afforestation through not only the textbooks but by real
life experiences. Field trips, visit to agricultural fields and hand
on experiences can help in the successful implementation of the
abhiyan in the context of the school curriculum.

Activity 15
You may take up the need for water harvesting in their
contexts and some water harvesting practices relevant in their
surroundings can be dealt with, e.g. rain water harvesting in
Meghalaya. For what purposes that water is used? You may
encourage them to draw pictures that how the rainwater is
being harvested there. Let children make presentations of their
finding. Let them share certain unique experiences that they
might observe.
Activity 16
Children may divide themselves into four groups and let each
group brainstorm to design projects on the themes given
above  like —
• Re-use of water – Suggest different ways in which water can
be reused at home/school
• Water Harvesting – Find out how to harvest rain water in
the neighbourhood
• Wastage of water - Estimate the quantity of water loss
through a leaking/dripping tap
• Pollution of water - Collect news of water pollution of a
month and enlist the causes of pollution
They may be encouraged to tap different resources, visit
library and speak to the elders. Each group may also write a
story/poem or enact through a play/puppet show on the given
topic. Through these activities children may voice opinion on
wastage of water in family and school; create slogans and poems
and suggests different ways of reduce, reuse and recycle water.

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Note — Allow children to prepare the scripts and material and divide the
roles among themselves. They may perform in class/school assembly or
on some event in school.

The children through these activities would be learning

different ways of collecting and recording data, drawing
conclusions, sharing the findings with others. When children
are encouraged to observe the prevailing situations of water
scarcity, wastages, etc. in their surroundings, they are not only
able to analyse the problems but also come up with some ways
of addressing them.
Let us reflect
• Which concepts and issues have been addressed through
the activities given in the module? Try to locate them in the
EVS syllabus and textbooks of the NCERT?
• Are these concepts and issues given in the activities above
dealt in the syllabi and textbooks of your State/UT? How?
• How will you assess children? Design some criteria for the
project activities given above (a to d).
• Which learning outcomes are targeted in the activities given
above? What do you think of the following?

Learning Outcomes
• Identify sources of water and objects for storing water.
• Describe need, availability of water and use of water at home and
surroundings.
• Describe roles of family members in fetching and storing water
• Records observations/experiences/information for objects/
activities in different ways and predicts patterns in activities
• Groups objects/substances which float or sink, soluble
and insoluble according to differences/similarities using
different senses.
• Differentiate between objects and activities.
• Guesses (properties, conditions of phenomena and verifies using
simple tools/set ups ( e.g., floating and sinking/mixing).
• Record observations, experiences, information on objects/
activities/ places visited in different ways and predicts patterns.
• Creates drawings, designs, models, maps, poems and slogans.
• Voice opinion on social discriminatory practices in using water.

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7. Suggested Activities for SRGs in EVS

This section contains some activities to help you acquire a
deeper understanding of the theme, and issues and their
pedagogical aspects. You will be able to design age appropriate,
context specific and need based activities for children in
your classrooms.
The activities may be conducted by forming groups and
facilitating discussions on the given topics. Each group may
carry out in groups followed by presentations by each group.
1. Draw a mind map for any other theme and reflect on the
integrated nature of EVS.
2. Develop a unit plan on the selected theme.
3. Design some group projects for the theme food, travel and
shelter in the EVS textbooks. Also design their plan of
assessment.
4. Analyse the EVS textbook of NCERT or that of your State/
UT. How are the gender concerns addressed in them?
5. How can the teaching of EVS be made inclusive? Select
chapters/topics from EVS textbooks of primary classes and
give suggestions for improvement.
6. Select chapters/themes from EVS textbooks and suggest
ways and means of contextualisation with respect to
children of your State/UT.
7. Design some age-appropriate situations where children get
opportunities to explore scientific understandings.
8. Children enjoy use of art and craft. How can the art education
be integrated with the teaching learning of EVS? How is this
addressed in the NCERT, EVS textbooks?
9. Find out the audio/video/other e-contents for different
themes in EVS for primary classes and map them with
textbooks. Full urls /web links should be mentioned.
10. Select a chapter in an EVS textbook and suggest how you
will you help a visually challenged and a hearing impaired
child understand different concepts included in it?

8. Feedback about Teaching and learning of EVS by

Participants
Appropriate number of groups may be formed among the
teachers with each group being as diverse as the entire
assembly of teachers is. Each group should discuss and record
their respective experiences of teaching learning of EVS in
classrooms in the following format.

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Sl. Class in Topics Pedagogy Challenges Challenges How do What Remarks,

No which that that they that they that they go strategies if any
teachers they follow in face in teachers about teachers different
teach cover teaching adopting a face in assessing adopt in from
the particular general in and making their already
topics pedagogy teaching evaluating classroom discussed
EVS learners? inclusive? so far.
Experiences?

Teachers in groups may discuss and record their experiences

and present in front of all. The idea of this feedback is to
understand teachers’ perspectives on teaching and learning of
EVS and set the tone for training on EVS.

9. Suggested Readings
NCERT. Environmental Studies. Textbooks (Class III-V).
——. 2015. Exemplar package on CCE for the primary stage.
——. 2017. ‘Learning Outcomes at Elementary stage.
——. 2006. Syllabus of Environment Studies for Elementary
Classes.
Source books on Assessment in EVS. NCERT
Supplementary material in EVS. Pustkon Se pare Hamara
Paryavaran.

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