The River Speaks...How garbage points out the guilty ones.

About

This project is trying to make our school community aware that the main cause of pollution of the river that passes in front of our school is the garbage that students and the surrounding community throws into it. At the same time we want involve our community into solving this problem by making them aware of the importance of our water resources and participate on a cleanup and orientation program.
The overall plan will involve 5 phases.
On the first phase students will make a poll to know how aware the community is of the pollution problem or if they think there is a pollution problem at all.
On the second phase we will involve the school community into a cleanup project where we will collect data on the type and amount of garbage collected to pinpoint where that garbage might come from and who could be the main responsible. Then we will chart our data and show our findings to our community.
Third phase will be educating the community and look for solutions. Students will draw and write environmental messages on containers we will use as trashcans. These will be placed on specific places where people gather and garbage is thrown into the river.
Phase four includes designing, preparing and handout brochures to the community about the importance of our rivers and watersheds so we can become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Finally, phase five will include showing to the whole community our findings and solutions to the problem by giving lectures about the importance of our rivers, watersheds and to make them aware how we all can become part of the solution an become part of our school environmental organization call "The River Watchers".
The plan to evaluate student's work will be divided in two groups. First the five students involved in developing the project page will be given milestones they must complete according to a structured timeline. During the whole process skills such as teamwork, responsibility and communication will be assessed. As responsible for developing the project pages their ability to use visuals aids and text to express ideas and information will also be evaluated, Specially their effort and ability to use effectively English as a second language(ESL)with the less grammatical mistakes possible will be evaluated.
The other group of students who will participate on the project are the ones collaborating on "Debates", "Votes" and "Message Boards" but are not responsible for creation of the project page itself. These students work will be evaluated as extracurricular activities and extra points will be awarded for their effort and help during the cleanups, and integration into the project activities. Students will be ask to express their ideas in English as best as they can when answering the "Debates" and "Message Boards", but since English is not their main language their use of(ESL)will be evaluated according to how understandable are the ideas they want to express. For that reason either fellow students or the five students responsible for the design of the page are allowed to edit or correct these students’ entries.
The expected students learning outcomes are the use of English to effectively to express their ideas, the understanding of how human activities can affect the environment (both positive and negative) and the importance of teamwork and hard work to reach their goals.
The main curriculum goals covered are the use of investigation techniques to solve problems by the Scientific Method, while helping the student develop skills such as problem solving, analysis, synthesis and critical thinking.
The 21st century skills students will apply in the project are: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Teamwork, Communication, Technology and Self direction.
This project will impact our community by letting them understand how our daily activities can affect both positive and negatively and that trough education we can become part of the solution to this or any problem.

The project's essential Problem, Question or Issue
How can we make our school and surrounding community aware that at the same time we are the main cause of pollution to our rivers and watershed we can be part of the solution to that problem?

Category: Science & Technology > Life Science > Ecology > Pollution

Timeline: Aug. 25, 2010 - Apr. 27, 2011