Ms. Aoukar

Palisade Preparatory School

paoukar@palisade.ypschools.org

Introduction

Piles of unused paper spill out of the garbage pails of classrooms. Cartons of milk and plastic bottles are causally tossed into pails of trash with half eaten sandwiches, candy wrappers and chewed gum. Recyclable materials are bagged with the rest of the trash and piled high to fill the garbage bins outside of the school building. Where does all of this trash go? Do you ever ask if we will run out of room for it? Have you ever thought about how you could be the one to make a difference and cut the waste in your school?

Task

You are assigned the task of becoming campaign leaders for our school recycling project. There are laws and policies that require the community outside of your school to recycle and individuals are charged fines if they do not follow these policies. As school recycling campaign leaders, you will research current recycling policies that should be enforced in your school and put together a presentation that will inform the rest of your school members of what should be happening and what policies can be put in place to make them happen and reduce the waste.

Process

For this project, you will be working in groups of four.

To lead this campaign, you will have to:

1. Research the existing New York State and City of Yonkers policy for school recycling.

2. Gather information and document what your school is currently doing to enforce those policies.

3. Develop a campaign that outlines the steps your school can take to begin to implement the recycling policy.

4. Once your information has been gathered and you have developed your plan, you will work together to make a PowerPoint presentation will then present as a group to other members of your school.

* Follow the six steps of the PPA to define your problem, and develop an approach to a solution.

Six Steps of the PPA

Step 1: Define the Problem

Step 2: Gather the Evidence

Step 3: Determine the Causes

Step 4: Examine an Existing Policy

Step 5: Develop Solutions

Step 6: Select the Best Solutions

Resources

The links below will take you to websites that contain relevant information pertaining to your topic. Use these websites to begin your research.

· NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

· City of Yonkers Recycling Center

· Recycling at School

· Westchester’s Wastewise Schools

· Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities

· Recycling in Schools

· New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling

Evaluation

The Rubric below will be used to evaluate your presentation.

CATEGORY	Excellent-4	Good-3	Satisfactory-2	Needs Improvement-1
Content - Accuracy	All content throughout the presentation is accurate. There are no factual errors.	Most of the content is accurate but there is one piece of information that seems inaccurate.	The content is generally accurate, but one piece of information is clearly inaccurate.	Content confusing or contains more than one factual error.
Sequencing of Information	Information is organized in a clear, logical way. It is easy to anticipate the next slide.	Most information is organized in a clear, logical way. One slide or piece of information seems out of place.	Some information is logically sequenced. An occasional slide or piece of information seems out of place.	There is no clear plan for the organization of information.
Effectiveness	Project includes all material needed to give a good understanding of the topic. The project is consistent with the driving question.	Project is lacking one or two key elements. Project is consistent with driving question most of the time.	Project is missing more than two key elements. It is rarely consistent with the driving question.	Project is lacking several key elements and has inaccuracies. .Project is completely inconsistent with driving question.
Use of Graphics	All graphics are attractive (size and colors) and support the topic of the presentation.	A few graphics are not attractive but all support the topic of the presentation.	All graphics are attractive but a few do not support the topic of the presentation.	Several graphics are unattractive AND detract from the content of the presentation.
Text - Font Choice & Formatting	Font formats (color, bold, italic) have been carefully planned to enhance readability and content.	Font formats have been carefully planned to enhance readability.	Font formatting has been carefully planned to complement the content. It may be a little hard to read.	Font formatting makes it very difficult to read the material.
Spelling and Grammar	Presentation has no misspellings or grammatical errors.	Presentation has 1-2 misspellings, but no grammatical errors.	Presentation has 1-2 grammatical errors but no misspellings.	Presentation has more than 2 grammatical and/or spelling errors.
Cooperation	Group shares tasks and all performed responsibly all of the time.	Group shares tasks and performed responsibly most of the time.	Group shares tasks and performs responsibly some of the time.	Group often is not effective in sharing tasks and/or sharing responsibility.

Delivery

Members spoke at a good rate, volume and with good grammar.  They maintained eye-contact while using, but not reading their notes.

Members spoke a little faster or slower than necessary, or too quietly or loudly.  They used acceptable grammar.  They maintained eye-contact, but relied too much on their notes.

Members spoke at a good rate and volume, but used poor grammar.  They  relied heavily on their notes.

Members demonstrated having paid little attention to rate, volume or grammar.  They read nearly word for word from notes.

The rubric above is from the following link: http://research.education.purdue.edu/challenge/PBL/2002_2003/ENL_Progress/PPPrubric.htm

Conclusion

Congratulations on successfully completing the PPA steps to implement the recycling policy in your school and educating your student body on the importance of reusing materials. Your work will help to reduce the waste in our school and our environment!

NYS ELA Standards

Standard 1

Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding.

Standard 2

Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression.

Standard 3

Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

Standard 4

Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction.