Ecotourism
Aim and introduction
This lesson explores what ecotourism is and why it is important for the sustainability of the tourism industry. It will then look at the example of 1000 Night’s Camp in Oman followed by the opportunity for pupils create their own ecotourism resort.
This lesson will take between 1 and 2 hours depending on the choice of Main 2 activity.
Curriculum links
Human geography relating to: population and urbanisation; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources.
Learning goals
- To define ecotourism.
- Using a named example to understand why ecotourism is important for a sustainable future.
- To apply understanding in creating an ecotourism resort.
Learning outcomes
Greater depth: pupils will be able to define ecotourism with precision and supported with relevant named examples. They will be able to select specific evidence to support their understanding of ecotourism covering environmental, social and economic elements. Their contribution to and / or creation of their own sustainable tourist resort will be thoughtfully created using information gathered from the lesson and their own understanding. Geographical terminology will be accurately used throughout their work.
Expected level: pupils will be able to define ecotourism supported with named examples. They will be able to select evidence to support their understanding of ecotourism covering environmental, social and economic elements. Some more than others (i.e. a bigger focus on environmental than social and economic). Their contribution to and / or creation of their own sustainable tourist resort will be thoughtfully created using information gathered from the lesson and / or their own understanding. Geographical terminology will be used throughout their work.
Working towards: pupils will be able to define ecotourism using prompts. They will be able to select evidence to support their understanding of ecotourism covering environmental, or social or economic elements. Their contribution to and / or creation of their own sustainable tourist resort will be created using information gathered from the lesson or their own understanding, this will largely focus on one element of sustainability (i.e. environmental). Geographical terminology will be used but with some inaccuracy.
Support: with support, pupils will be able to define ecotourism. They will be able to use some evidence to support their understanding. Their contribution to and / or creation of their own sustainable tourist resort will be created using information gathered from the lesson, this will largely focus on one element of sustainability (i.e. environmental). Geographical terminology might be used but with inaccuracy.
Key terms
- Ecotourism
- Conservation
- Employment
- Sustainability
- Tourism
Learning resources
- Teaching Presentation - Ecotourism
- 1000 Nights Camp Case Study sheet
What you will need
Depending on how you wish to present the ecotourism resorts, you will need some / all of the following:
- Glue
- Scissors
- Pens / pencils
- Large poster paper / backing paper.
- Smaller poster paper
- Paper straws / lollipop (wooden) sticks for structures
- Old cotton bedsheets (to be cut up and used to make tent like structures / shelters)
- Any other recycled materials that would help bring the models to life (e.g. the inside of a cotton reel will work well as a water butt and tin foil as solar panels).
Challenge and support
Challenge pupils in the starter by getting them to think about what they would like to know about these images by the end of the lesson. Support pupils in this buy guiding them to pick elements of the images out and use words to describe those.
When challenging pupils in the Main 1 task, encourage them to extract named examples to develop their knowledge further. Support pupils by providing examples of what the three categories could include.
Depending on the activity chosen for Main 2 challenging pupils to develop their annotations and supporting pupils with key ideas they should include
Starter
Present a collage of the different types of ecotourism as the pupils enter the classroom. Get them to think about what the lesson is about.
Keeping the images on the board, introduce the theme of the lesson and ask pupils to write down as many words they associate with the term ‘ecotourism’. Using these words, create a class definition (guide, if needed to identify the economic and social elements as well as the environmental).
Main 1
Teacher presentation on why ecotourism helps support a sustainable future. Pupils then read the 1000 Nights Case Study using highlighters to identify the social, economic and environmental elements of the camp.
They then summarise this information into any format they want in their books (i.e. a mind map, table, list etc).
Main 2
Introduce the class to the task of creating their own ecotourist resort. Set the success criteria as a class and have this on show throughout the task. This task can be completed several ways depending on the dynamics of the class and the time available. Some ideas are below:
1. Creating individual / small group models and present to the class.
2. As a whole class, individuals /small groups work on different aspects of the resort and bring their ideas together onto a large sketch map (of which one small group will be responsible for and will need to coordinate others as to what they want / need and where). This will most likely take up at least a whole lesson and will involve a lot of collaboration with the class.
3. Drawing an individual sketch map locating key elements of their resort using annotations. This could be collated as a large wall display.
Plenary
Using the success criteria, pupils reflect on (and potentially score) their ecotourist resort. Did it meet all the criteria?
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