The German Animal Welfare Federation has developed selected animal welfare aspects from the subject area of “Agriculture” as independent 90-minute lesson suggestions for the school subjects of ethics and philosophy in lower, middle and upper secondary schools. Teachers who would like to use this focus in their own lessons can download the documents free of charge from www.jugendtierschutz.de.
“We chose the topic of agriculture for our lesson suggestions because it is highly relevant to animal welfare and affects us all directly through our diet - the consumption of meat, milk or eggs. There are many points of contact here in the subject areas of ethics and philosophy. The aim is for young people to question existing social concepts and develop their own point of view,” says Irmina Theuß, project manager at the German Animal Welfare Federation.
Three teaching suggestions are already freely available on the website www.jugendtierschutz.de. These include materials on the topics of “Comparing pets and animals in agriculture” for the lower school, “Our treatment of cattle” for the middle school and “Dilemmas of the dairy cattle industry” for the upper school. Three further material downloads on the topic of laying hens are due to follow in fall 2022.
The teaching material is based on the grammar school curriculum and can be used nationwide. The concepts and elaborations have been reviewed by teachers and subject-related methods have been selected for a fully prepared double lesson. The materials each contain a short introduction, a tabular overview of the lesson plan with methods, social forms and lesson objectives. Background knowledge for the teacher is briefly and concisely focused on the respective animal welfare topic, a detailed description of the lesson plan, the methods used, worksheets and suggestions for differentiation or digital implementation round off the package. Adaptations for a different age or performance level are possible.
ABOUT THE GERMAN ANIMAL WELFARE FEDERATION
The German Animal Welfare Federation is the largest animal welfare umbrella organization in Germany. The association uses its scientific expertise to promote the value and need for protection of animals in a variety of ways. Education is a central component of this. For over ten years, the Youth Animal Welfare Department of the German Animal Welfare Federation has been developing and testing handouts for open youth work and for working groups, training interested people to become animal welfare teachers and developing educational material for teachers.
