Environmental Studies and Environmental Education Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The key gives NCF-1975.

The 1975 framework, The Curriculum for the Ten-Year School, proposed that at the primary stage science and social science be taught as one subject called Environmental Studies. NCERT's position paper on the teaching of science records this, and says the 1988 framework kept the same arrangement, so 1975 is the first of the four frameworks listed to recommend it.

NCF-1988 continued what the 1975 framework had begun, and NCF-2000 and NCF-2005 came later still, so none of them can be the first to recommend it. Note that in 1975 separate science and social studies books were still used for Classes III to V; the key reads 'integrated area' as the single subject Environmental Studies.

Answer: D

The answer is All of the above.

Greenhouse gases absorb the heat (infrared radiation) given off by the Earth's surface and re-emit it, keeping the planet warm. Carbon dioxide, from burning fuels and deforestation, is the best known. Methane, from paddy fields, cattle and landfills, traps much more heat per molecule. Water vapour is in fact the most abundant greenhouse gas.

Since all three listed gases are greenhouse gases, choosing any one of them alone would be incomplete.

Answer: B

The yellowing is caused by sulphur dioxide.

Sulphur dioxide from the Mathura refinery and other industries around Agra combines with moisture to form sulphuric acid, which falls as acid rain and corrodes the white marble (calcium carbonate). This 'marble cancer' discolours the monument, and to protect it the government set up the Taj Trapezium Zone with controls on polluting industries.

Nitrogen dioxide also contributes to acid rain, but sulphur dioxide is the pollutant the EVS and science textbooks name, while elemental sulphur and chlorine are not the cause.

Answer: B

The integrated nature of EVS helps to reduce curriculum load and help children to learn meaningfully.

Teaching science, social science and environmental education together through themes from children's lives avoids repeating content in separate subjects, so the load falls, and it presents knowledge the way children experience the world, as connected wholes, so learning becomes meaningful.

Introducing specific topics, or a larger number of concepts, would add to the load instead of reducing it. Learning from information and description provided is passive reception, the opposite of the experiential, activity-based learning EVS aims for.