Animal Ethics: perspectives from 5 religions
Animal Ethics is part of the BBC’s Ethics website. It provides detailed and comprehensive coverage of the main areas of study required by the exam boards e.g. legislation; moral status of animals; experimentation; eating animals; pets; hunting; animal activism. Perspectives from five religions are covered: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
The material is text-based. It is suitable as a reference point for students, particularly more able ones, and is a readily accessible source from anywhere with internet access.
Classroom suggestions:
a) Use ‘Animal Welfare Act 2007 (found in ‘Overview’ section) - to prepare a short True/False Quiz. Ask students complete this quiz, and then to log on to check their answers to the questions. Discuss briefly.
b) Identify a relevant topic, and clarify with students what they need to understand. Ask them to complete a KWL table about the chosen topic. In the ‘Know’ column they write down what they know already. In the ‘Want’ column they identify what they want to learn, expressed in response to the questions Who? Why? What? Where? When? How? In the ‘Learned’ column they record what they have learned after the period of study.
Direct students to two sections of this resource - the section on the religion they are studying, and the section on the chosen topic. Give students a specific amount of time (e.g. 15 minutes) to ‘research’ the answers to their questions and produce a summary of them in a format of their choice (e.g. prose, diagram, list). Answer are shared with the class and understandings clarified.
