Environmental Studies (EVS) and its Pedagogy (Paper I): key facts and practice questions

Revise Environmental Studies (EVS) and its Pedagogy (Paper I) for CTET and state TETs: the facts and distinctions that keep coming up, a one-glance revision list, and 10 practice questions with answers and explanations.

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Key concepts and facts

• Nature and scope of EVS: At the primary stage EVS is an integrated area of study that draws on science, social science and environmental education. It is not taught as separate science and social studies because a young child perceives the surroundings as a whole, not in disciplinary compartments. In classes I and II, EVS themes are transacted through language and mathematics; from class III to V it is a separate subject. Its scope covers the natural, social and cultural environment of the child, and its aims include awareness, skills of observation and inquiry, and values such as care for the environment and respect for diversity. Environmental education is narrower: it aims mainly at awareness, attitudes and action for protecting the environment, whereas EVS is a full curricular area in which environmental concerns are woven in.
• NCF 2005 themes: The EVS syllabus is organised around six themes rather than topics or chapters: Family and Friends, Food, Shelter, Water, Travel, and Things We Make and Do. Family and Friends has four sub-themes: Relationships, Work and Play, Animals and Plants. Each theme is revisited in classes III, IV and V with increasing depth, which is called a spiral approach. Mapping and directions appear under Shelter ('Mapping my neighbourhood', Class III) and mapping and aerial views under Travel in Class V; occupations, pottery, weaving and tools come under Things We Make and Do.
• Learning principles: EVS lessons begin with the child's own experience because learning is meaningful only when new ideas connect with what the child already knows (the constructivist view of the learner as an active constructor of knowledge). Related principles are learning from the immediate environment, from known to unknown, from concrete to abstract, from local to global, from simple to complex and learning by doing. The textbook is one resource among many, not the only source. The questions in Looking Around are meant to make children observe, think, discuss and ask, not to be answered by copying from the chapter. The community, parents, local artisans, the village pond and the market are all resources for EVS.
• Approaches and methods: Thematic presentation, inquiry and activity based learning, projects, field visits, surveys, story-telling, discussion, demonstration, experimentation, observation, concept mapping and role play are all recommended. Match the approach to the situation: a survey when children collect information from many homes, a project when a group investigates a question over several days, role play when the goal is empathy or seeing another person's perspective, experimentation when children test an idea themselves, and demonstration when the teacher shows a process that is unsafe or needs scarce material. Open-ended questions (what would happen if...) and probing questions (why do you think so?) are preferred over yes/no recall questions. Misconceptions are handled by letting children test their belief through an activity and discussion, not by simply announcing the correct fact.
• Assessment in EVS: Continuous and comprehensive evaluation uses observation of children, oral questions, drawings, portfolios (a collection of a child's work over time), anecdotal records (short notes of a significant incident), checklists, rubrics (criteria with levels of performance), group work assessment and self and peer assessment. NCERT lists indicators of learning: observation and reporting, discussion, expression, explanation, classification, questioning, analysis, experimentation, concern for justice and equality, and cooperation. Questions can describe a child's behaviour and ask which indicator it reflects.
• Values and sensitivity: Looking Around deliberately shows fathers cooking, girls playing kabaddi, a naval officer named Wahida, a girl in a wheelchair (Chuskit), families of different kinds and children from tribal, rural and urban homes. The purpose is to challenge stereotypes of gender, disability, caste and region, and to build respect for diversity and concern for justice.
• Content hotspots: Ants follow a smell trail; animals with ears visible outside and hair on the body give birth to young ones; the koel lays its eggs in a crow's nest; the tailor bird stitches leaves; clove is a flower bud, cinnamon is bark, turmeric and ginger are underground stems; coconut is dispersed by water; seeds need water, air and warmth to germinate, and most do not need light (a few species do); Assam has stilt houses, Manali wooden sloping roofs, Rajasthan thick mud walls, Srinagar houseboats, the Arctic igloos; Jaisalmer harvested rain in lakes like Ghadisar; the Konkan Railway runs from Roha to Thokur; Gaurav Jani stayed with the Changpa of Ladakh in rebo tents; Amrita Devi Bishnoi died saving khejri trees in 1730; Chipko began in Uttarakhand in 1973.
• Traps: Do not confuse EVS (a curricular area) with environmental education (awareness and action). Energy, Air and Health are not among the six NCF themes. Potato is a stem, not a root. Malaria is mosquito-borne, not water-borne. In CCE questions, the option about a single written test is unlikely to be the answer. In scenario questions, prefer the option where children act, observe, discuss or investigate rather than the one where the teacher explains.

One-glance revision list

• Six NCF 2005 EVS themes: Family and Friends, Food, Shelter, Water, Travel, Things We Make and Do. Mnemonic: Family Feeds Shelter, Water Travels, Things Work.
• Family and Friends has four sub-themes: Relationships, Work and Play, Animals, Plants.
• Classes I-II: EVS through language and maths; classes III-V: EVS as a separate integrated subject; classes VI onwards: separate science and social science.
• A survey collects information from many people (sources of water at home); a project investigates one question over days and ends in a product or report.
• Portfolio = collection of a child's work over time; anecdotal record = brief note of one significant incident; rubric = criteria with levels of performance.
• Indicators of learning in EVS include observation and reporting, classification, questioning, experimentation, concern for justice and equality, and cooperation.
• Spices: clove is a dried flower bud, cinnamon is bark, turmeric and ginger are underground stems, black pepper is a fruit, saffron is the stigma of a flower.
• Houses: Assam stilt houses on bamboo, Manali wooden houses with sloping roofs, Rajasthan thick mud walls and flat roofs, Srinagar houseboats, Arctic igloos of snow.
• Water-borne: cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, jaundice. Mosquito-borne: malaria, dengue. Anopheles carries malaria (Ronald Ross).
• Konkan Railway: Roha (Maharashtra) to Thokur (Karnataka) through Goa, about 740 km, opened 1998; in class IV, Omana's train journey from Ahmedabad to Kottayam, via Goa, runs over this route (the textbook does not name the Konkan Railway).
• Amrita Devi Bishnoi, Khejarli (Jodhpur) 1730, khejri trees; Chipko, Uttarakhand 1973, villagers hugged trees; Gaura Devi led Reni women in 1974.
• Seed dispersal: wind (madar/aak, dandelion with hair), water (coconut), animals (burrs that stick to fur), bursting pods (soyabean, pea).

Practice questions

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Where this is tested

Environmental Studies (EVS) and its Pedagogy (Paper I) is tested in CTET and state TETs. Check the current official notification and syllabus of the exam you are preparing for to see how it is covered.

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