ICSE Environmental Science Class
10 Syllabus
There is one paper of two hours duration carrying 80 marks
and Internal Assessment of 20 marks. The paper has two Sections: Section A
(Compulsory) contains short answer questions covering the entire syllabus.
Section B contains six questions. You are required to answer any four questions
from this section.
1. Controlling Air
Pollution
(a) From domestic combustion.
Reducing pollution from domestic cooking; clean cooking -
kerosene as a desirable cooking fuel in rural areas.
(b) From industries.
Measures for controlling industrial air pollution -
technological measures (energy efficient devices, clean technologies),
meteorological controls; zoning strategy; penalties and subsidies; Case Study:
the Taj Trapezium.
(c) From vehicles.
Vehicle emission control - modify engine design (catalytic
converters, four stroke engines), clean fuels, public transport options,
traffic management, economic policy measures.
2. Addressing Population
(a) The link between growing population and
environmental degradation.
UN’s population projections for 2050, the climate link, the
choice of alternative futures. Growing population in the developing countries
and rising consumption in the developed countries.
(b) The demographic transition.
Stages of transition, transition stages of certain developed
nations and developing nations (such as India, China, Korea, Malaysia). Not to
be tested, for knowledge and understanding only.
(c) Strategies for controlling growth of
population.
Strategies to include family planning and birth control, health
care, education, economic development; women-centered human development.
(d) Development framework for poverty
alleviation.
Social mobilisation, agricultural development, small-scale
industries, human development. Not to be tested, for knowledge and understanding
only.
3. Managing the Urban environment
(a) Urbanisation - a challenge to the future.
Sustainable cities: the need of the hour.
(b) Planning environmental improvement.
Efficient land use, planning energy, shelter and transport;
water supply management, wastewater and sanitary waste management, construction
activities.
(c) Rural development to counter migration.
Self-explanatory.
(d) Development of secondary cities to counter
migration.
Self-explanatory.
(e) Community participation and contribution
of private enterprises.
Community participation in keeping surroundings clean,
participation of private enterprises in city improvement, measures to increase
private enterprise participation.
4. Managing Soil and
Land
(a) Conserving soil.
Erosion control techniques - terracing, contour ploughing, dry
farming, tree planting, bunds, gullies, wind-breaks, use of organic
fertilizers.
Soil conservation techniques - land-use management, vegetative
and mechanical practices, conserving soil and water together; appropriate
cropping systems – cropping patterns (strip cropping), tree crops, foliage
crops.
(b) Land reforms.
Meaning, measures enforced in India to give land to the
landless.
(c) Integrated rural development.
Objectives, self-help schemes like social and community
forestry.
(d) Role of women and community in
conservation.
Self-explanatory.
(e) Combating deforestation.
Reforestation, energy plantations, forest harvesting of
non-timber forest products, exploring alternative sources of livelihood, change
in consumption patterns.
(f) Managing forest grazing.
Causes and consequences of overgrazing, controlled forest
grazing as in National Forest Policy, 1988.
(g) Alternatives to timber.
Recycling of timber and paper.
5.
Food
(a) Sustainable agriculture.
Integrated pest management – understanding the term, aims,
advantages, disadvantages.
Genetically modified organisms, application in plants and
animals and environmental risks.
New crop strains – high yielding varieties and their viability,
hybrid varieties.
Mixed cropping – advantages and disadvantages; regenerative
farming techniques - intercropping, crop rotation, agro forestry, polyvarietal
cultivation and polyculture.
Conservation tillage farming - meaning of conservation tillage,
advantages and disadvantages.
Trickle drip irrigation – need for a trickle drip irrigation
system; operation of a drip irrigation system; advantages and disadvantages.
New organic fertilizers – integrated nutrient supply programme,
organic fertilizers - bulky organic manures, green manures, bio-fertilizers,
and sewage sludge.
Gene banks – what are gene banks; objectives of maintaining gene
banks.
(b) Problem of global food security, food aid.
Global food imbalance, distributional inequality; role of food
aid in achieving global food security.
6.
Biodiversity
(a) Biodiversity at risk due to human actions.
Reasons for loss of biodiversity; Man - the super consumer:
impact of his actions on the earth’s resources; reasons for concern: economic,
ecological and aesthetic.
(b) Conserving our genetic resource: in-situ and ex-situ; harvesting
wildlife.
In-situ - wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and biosphere
reserves.
Ex-situ – zoological parks, botanical gardens, gene banks in
agricultural research centres and forestry institutions.
Harvesting wildlife to meet commercial needs.
(c) Conservation strategies at national and
international levels.
Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, Project Tiger 1973, IUCN, The
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 1971, CITES, The Convention on Biological
Diversity.
7. Energy
(a) Fossil fuels used to produce electricity.
Electricity: energy on demand; dwindling supplies of fossil
fuels; renewable and nonrenewable energy resources. Not to be tested, for
knowledge and understanding only.
(b) Nuclear energy.
Nuclear fission, advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy;
safety concerns (the Chernobyl disaster); nuclear fusion.
(c) A sustainable energy future.
Energy conservation; alternative energy sources - solar energy,
wind energy, hydroelectricity, geothermal energy, biomass, liquid fuels from
biomass- methanol, ethanol, gasohol, CNG, hydrogen.
8. Waste
(a) Solid waste: the throwaway society.
Solid waste, biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials;
where does the trash go - landfills and incinerators.
(b) Solid waste: options for the future.
Producing less waste, reusing, recycling, composting,
vermiculture, biotechnology; finding alternatives to materials we use.
9. Environment and Development
(a) Global environmental pollution.
Who is responsible - developed or developing countries? Need for
mutual cooperation.
(b) Economic development and environmental
degradation.
Role of developed and developing countries; contrasting views of
developed and developing countries; debt trap.
(c) International trade.
Its link to environmental deterioration – unfair trade
practices.
(d) Role of multinational corporations.
Definition of MNCs, their contribution to development and
debatable contribution to environment; case study - Bhopal gas tragedy;
measures to regulate activities of MNCs in developing countries.
10. Towards a Sustainable Future
(a) Global interdependence – economic and
environmental.
Concept of economic and environmental global interdependence;
global environmental health – the shared responsibility of nations; trade and
aid as ways of reducing world inequalities.
(b) International cooperation.
The Montreal Protocol; the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
support; the Earth Summit, UN’s International Conference on Population and Development
(Cairo); the Kyoto Treaty.
(c) Sustainable development.
The concept of sustainable development, sustainable development
and developed countries; sustainable development and developing countries.
(d) Role of non-governmental organisations.
Self-explanatory.
(e) Technology that sustains.
Satellite imagery as a means of monitoring the global
environment: satellite remote sensing, advantages in collecting environmental
data, applying data in areas of environmental damage as deforestation,
desertification, land degradation, wastelands, mining, ozone layer depletion
and predicting droughts and floods.
The concept of alternate technology, adopting alternate
technology to create self-sustaining societies in the developed and developing
world.
Role of biotechnology in achieving global food security.
No comments:
Post a Comment