ASSESSMENT OF MAPS AS A MEANS OF EDUCATIONAL TOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

Geography is an interdisciplinary subject studies the man-environment relationship over a period of time along with spatial distribution. The subject includes the physical and man-made environment. The modern society is responsible for disturbance in natural geographical environment having negative impact on people. There is need to conserve the environment for sustainable development. Geographical knowledge can be well described with the help of graphs, diagrams, tables, photographs, satellite images and maps. Geography is one of the important subjects taught in schools by using different methods. Map is a tool used to create geographical environment awareness among school children. The map reading and map filling skills are very much important to teach and learn about geographical environment, its degradation and conservation. After thorough observation the researcher felt that there was a need to look at the awareness level of subject content in relation to map reading skills as an effective strategy to understand environmental conditions, degradation and its conservation. Thus evaluation of awareness level of a group of rural and urban students including boys and girls was carried out. Environment Awareness Measure was used as a tool for data collection. Map Reading technique was used to understand the aspects of geographical environment, its degradation and conservation in relation to global warming. After environmental awareness training, another Environment Awareness Scale was used to measure awareness level. The data has been compiled by using percentiles, correlation and ‘z’ test techniques. The concluding remarks and findings were based on the data analysis and observations.