Teaching Materials – Environment and Engagement in German Studies

17 Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung – Kennenlernen. Nachdenken. Mitmachen.

Target Level: A1 – B1 (beginning to lower intermediate, can be made more or less difficult, designed with junior high to high school, German beginners and after school programs in…

Leben wir in einer Wegwerfgesellschaft?

Target Level: B1 (lower intermediate, can be made more or less difficult) Description: The “Wegwerfgesellschaft” worksheet is designed to help students consider how they interact with the environment both consciously…

Baumhäuser & Aktivismus im Hambacher Forst

Target Level: A2-B1 Description: The appended worksheet helps second or third-semester university students of German understand and apply multiple perspectives of and avenues for environmental activism in Germany and the…

Natur in der Stadt

Level: A2-B1 Description: This activity was included in a chapter on free time and where people live. After using just the Deutsche Welle video on rooftop gardens for many years,…

Teaching Environments: Workshop on German Ecological Thought in the Classroom

Teaching Environments: Workshop on German Ecological Thought in the Classroom On April 11, 2022, the German and Dutch Graduate Students Association of the University of Wisconsin–Madison hosted a virtual workshop…

University of Chicago Undergraduate Germanic Studies Conference 2022: Klimapolitik und die Koalition

The University of Chicago is hosting an online undergraduate Germanic Studies Conference where students will discuss public policy in the context of the new German government’s climate agenda. Students are…

Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German Special Section on “Sustainability and Community Engagement in German Studies”

Kiley Kost, Dan Nolan, and Seth Peabody served as co-curators for a section of essays entitled “Sustainability and Community Engagement in German Studies” in the Fall 2021 issue of the…

Schnitzeljagd: Nachhaltigkeit auf dem Campus

Description For this small project students are given a sustainability map of campus, featuring between 4 – 6 stations. Using the German language map, students navigate to each station, where…

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s “Der Tunnel”

Wir bewegen uns auf Schienen, der Tunnel muss also irgendwo hinführen. Friedrich Dürrenmatt Target Level: B1-B2, C1-C2 Description: Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s short story “Der Tunnel” lends itself well to textual analysis…

Diigo social bookmarking site for German environmental topics

This site, maintained by Beth Kautz at the University of Minnesota, provides a continually updated set of links to topics of interest for environmental issues in German-speaking countries.

Denkanstoß – Nachhaltigkeit

Level: A1 – C2 Description: ‘Denkanstoß – Nachhaltigkeit’ can be part of a daily classroom routine. Students are asked to write a definition of the term ‘Nachhaltigkeit’ and afterwards they…

Schmutzige Wäsche / Dirty Laundry

Adapted from the film Schmutzige Wäsche – Umweltkiller Mode, and re-adapted from the Doku So zerstören unsere Klamotten die Umwelt. WDR 2019, Das Erste, Doku

EDEWA: Postcolonial Supermarket

How might instructors address issues of both racial and environmental justice in the classroom?

Heatwave: Comparatives and Superlatives

How might instructors incorporate information about increasing global temperatures into German lessons?

Recycling im Unterricht

In this short exercise students engage with their immediate everyday environment to learn about recycling.

Green German Project from the University of Minnesota

Target Level: B1-B2 Description: The Green German Project, completed by faculty and students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, offers a wide range of materials for teaching environmental topics…

Syllabus for Green Germany Course with ACE component

Target Level: B2-C1 Description The syllabus linked below describes a course called “Green Germany” centered around an Academic Civic Engagement project in which students met with local partners near their…

Creative environmental communication project

Target Level: B2 Description: This project first guides students to examine a number of creative videos dealing with environmental topics. Then, in a small-group project, students create their own videos.…

Wie wird Papier gemacht?

This set of exercises combines hands-on and situated learning with structured practice with the passive voice.

Wackersdorf – der Film und die Wirklichkeit

With the following worksheet students gain a first glimpse into the film Wackersdorf (2018) and research the historical background of it.

Schnitzeljagd: Nachhaltigkeit auf dem Campus

In this small class project, students learn about sustainability-related practices on campus through German activities posted at stations across your university.

Woher kommt der Kaffee?

How can students in first-year language courses learn about the complex systems behind everyday consumption?

Müll und Mülltrennung

With the linked worksheet students learn about Germany’s recycling practices and reflect on their own recycling habits while learning/reviewing vocab.

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