Litter in our School

Ashley Goldman

C.S. 111Q Jacob Blackwell

AGoldman13@schools.nyc.gov

Introduction

How do you feel when you walk in the hallway, staircase, and courtyard when there is garbage on the floor? You and your group will explore one source of litter and one possible solution. This will help us clean up our school and our community!

Task

At the end of this WebQuest you and your group will track how much garbage is thrown on the ground at our school.

1. You will collect the trash that you find throughout the day in your “litter bag’ to help clean up our school.

2. You will conduct a survey to find out who does the littering and why.

3. You will create a poster presentation that will be displayed in the hallway to share findings and propose solutions to litter.

Process

Follow the Six Steps of PPA to analyze this problem

Step 1: Define the Problem

Step 2: Gather the Evidence

Step 3: What Causes the Problem?

Step 4: What is the Existing Policy?

Step 5: Develop Solutions

Step 6: Select the Best Solution

Day 1:

-With gloves and your “litter bag” go on a walk with your teachers and pick up any trash you see on the ground and place it in your bag.

-As a class, discuss what you have noticed about the trash in the staircase, hallway, and courtyard. How did you feel helping clean up the school? Was it simple to do? What were some things you picked up?

-Review the teacher made survey with your classmates. Discuss who you will be surveying and what questions you will be asking.

Day2:

-Survey students and teachers in your school.

-Analyze the survey responses. Discuss with your group what you are noticing about who is causing all the litter and why.

-Work with your group and teachers to complete a graph on the survey findings.

Day 3:

-Log into your MyOn account. Read the book I Can Pick Up Litter by Mari Schuh.

-With your group discuss some of the things that happen to people and animals when you litter and complete the activity. (List 5 things)

Day 4:

-Make a plan! With your group create a possible solution to this problem.

-Choose one of the solutions. Write about how you can show love for our school and help end littering.

Day 5:

-With your group create a poster that includes an explanation of your solution. Your poster must include: Title, Names, Problem, Data, Solution, Pictures.

Evaluation

You will be graded on group work, the presentation and information that you collected and included in your poster presentation using the following rubric:

Task	0-1	2	3
Group Work	Is not able to engage in collaborative discussions and express ideas clearly	Able to engage in collaborative discussions and express ideas clearly	Is able to effectively engage in collaborative discussions and express ideas clearly
Display (poster)	Work is unorganized and difficult to understand. Poster is missing three or more elements: title, illustrations, data, solution	Work is somewhat organized. Poster is missing two elements: title, illustrations, data, solution	Work is displayed neatly and includes all elements: title, illustrations, data, solution
Content	Is not able to demonstrate the understanding and did not provide evidence of the research	Is able to demonstrate the understanding and provides evidence of the research	Is able to effectively demonstrate the understanding and provides evidence of the research

Conclusion

You have worked together to create a plan that will help make our school an even better place to learn, grow, and succeed!

You have worked hard to collect trash to help clean up our school, conduct a survey to find out who is doing the littering and why, and create a poster presentation to share your findings and propose solutions to litter. Your poster including all that you have learned will be displayed in the hallway to help our school community members solve this problem in our school. This will help community members apply solutions in the school and hopefully expand within our community!

Standards

ELA:

NY-1.W6: Develop questions and participate in shared research and explorations to answer questions and to build knowledge.

NY-1.SL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults (e.g., in small and large groups and during play).

1NY-1.SL5: Create or utilize existing visual displays to support descriptions to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Math:

NY-1.MD4: Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.

Social Studies:

NY-1.6c: People interact with their physical environment in ways that may have a positive or negative effect

-Students will identify positive and negative effects that human interaction can have on the physical environment.