GO GREEN!
Marcia Crader-Streeter
MarciaC-S@twcny.rr.com
Introduction:
Mission Impossible- There is too much waste at St. Margaret’s
School. Our principal, Ms. Donze, is looking for a few good fourth graders to
help solve this problem! Have you ever wondered what happens to your water
bottles after you toss them out? Down in the cafeteria is all that Styrofoam
necessary? Look around your classroom, how much of the trash in your waste
baskets is really trash? We need to take a good look at these problems and find
some solutions. What can you as individuals do to improve the environment at
St. Margaret’s School?
Task:
Your mission, should you wish to accept it, will be to
establish a Green Team to analyze this problem
and research some solutions Go
Green! Being Green begins with you. Your
teams are invited to enter a contest in which you are asked to create a cartoon
which will address these problems and provide some solutions. Winning cartoons
will appear in our school newspaper.
Process/Resources:
1.
You will be assigned
to groups of 4 or 5 students
2.
You will be using the 6 steps of the PPA Process as
discussed in class
Define
the Problem- The problem is found in the introduction
Gather
Evidence To gather evidence interview our custodian, Mr. Sellers. Ask
questions about how much trash is collected on a
daily basis and what happens to it after it is collected. Use the worksheet
provided. Using the Internet and the search
engines provided, find out if other schools around the country are experiencing
or have experienced the same issues.
Save a list of these schools for later.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Setting
up a School Recycling Program
Identify Causes Make some observations around our school, our
classroom, the cafeteria, the hallways etc. How do these observations compare
to those you discovered on your internet search? On your worksheet record some of the causes
of too much waste.
Evaluate Existing
Policy Ask Ms. Donze about our school’s policy on
waste. Discuss within your group as to
how effective it is and what students are doing to follow this policy. What
parts of the policy should be kept, what should be added or changed? What are
other schools’ policies on waste? Record
on your worksheet.
Develop Solutions
Using
the list you developed in the “Gathering Evidence” step, research how other
schools addressed this problem. With your group look back at the
changes you would make in our policy. Choose at least two. Discuss whether your
changes are reasonable and would they make a difference in how we take care of
our waste problem. What specific actions could students take to improve our
waste problem? Record your actions on
your worksheet.
Select
Best Solutions Using your new policy
alternatives, discuss with your group the likelihood that these policies could
be enacted by our students in our school. Also discuss the likelihood that your
policies will reduce the waste problem in our school. Record on your worksheet.
3. After gathering
and recording information with your group, create a comic strip which will
describe the waste problem and present a solution using the cartoon template
provided. The first frame should contain
your title and authors. The second and third
frames should describe the problems that you identified earlier. The next two frames (four and five) should
present the solution that the group members have developed. The final frame should state “The End.” Use crayons, markers and pencils. For help with drawing cartoons, you might try
the following link: Cartooning Lessons
for Children, or discover other online resources on your own. Make sure your cartoon uses correct spelling,
punctuation and grammar. Be creative and
have fun!
Here are some search engines that will aid you in your
research:
google search;
bing ;
excite;
www.ask.com
Evaluation:
|
Task |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Clearly
Identified and presented problem |
Problem was
poorly identified and/or presented. |
Problem was
not clearly identified and/or presented. |
Problem was
adequately identified and presented. |
Problem was
clearly identified and presented. |
|
Creativity/Artwork |
Artwork was
sloppy, unorganized and unoriginal. |
Artwork was
somewhat neat, organized and original. |
Artwork was
fairly neat, organized and original. |
Artwork was
very neat, well organized and creative. |
|
Grammar/Spelling |
Grammar and
spelling were poor. |
Grammar and
spelling was mostly incorrect. |
Grammar and
spelling were mostly correct. |
Grammar and
spelling were exemplary. |
|
Use of PPA
Worksheets |
Only one PPA
step was used |
Two to three of the PPA steps were used. |
Four to five
of the PPA steps were used. |
All six steps
of the PPA were used. |
Scoring:
A: 16 points
B: 12 to 15
points
C: 9 to 11
points
D: 8 points
or below
Conclusion:
Congratulations, you accepted your mission and completed your
task. Your comic strips will be
submitted to our school newspaper, “Panther Pages,” and will appear in the next
few issues. Ms. Donze
has informed me that your creative solutions to St. Margaret’s waste problem
will be used to change our school’s policy on how we reduce, reuse and recycle
at our school. Perhaps a new “Go Green”
policy will be included in our September 2011 handbook. Wow!
Go Green!
Standards:
Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences:
Standard 2: A Safe and Healthy Environment
Students will acquire the knowledge and ability necessary to create and maintain a safe and healthy environment.
Standard 3: Resource Management
Students will
understand and be able to manage their personal and community resources.
Mathematics,
Science, and Technology:
Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students
will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as
appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard
4: Science
Students
will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories
pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the
historical development of ideas in science.
Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Students
will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and
technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions.
Social
Studies
Standard
5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students
will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the
English Language Arts:
Students
will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As
listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover
relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from
oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they
will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the
English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.