Grace Dodge Vocational High School

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Department of Sanitation have kept New York City’s SANITATION program in a state of constant change over the last few years. Many Attempts have been made to address the social problem of over abundance of waste in New York City. Legislation aimed at cleaning up metals, paper, and glass has been mandatory in New York City since 1989. Last year in an attempt to save money, Michael Bloomberg removed glass and plastics from the list of recycling and this led to massive problems that still exist today. Recently plastics were returned to the list, but the weekly pick-up schedule that had been in place for fourteen years was switched to an alternating week schedule. Over abundance of waste in New York has led to a myriad of problems ranging from childhood illness, rodent, unsanitary food supplies and the spread of serious diseases.

Many New Yorkers find themselves confused about what they can do to solve this problem. When will an effective public policy be put into place? Recycling has been one alternative but it seems too inconsistent. Your parents have grown tired of seeing your street covered with garbage left out by neighbors who are confused about the current policies. You have been asked by your parents to get up off the couch, turn off your Playstation2, and get out there and tell people how they can solve this serious problem. The consequences for not addressing this social problem are catastrophic. Your action in this web quest could save the lives of thousands; possibly your loved ones.

In order to make your streets and your living room more livable, you must accomplish the following goals:

v Become knowledgeable about the policies of waste management in New York City, both past and present. This includes how recycling of materials

v Understand current concerns and misunderstandings felt by New Yorkers regarding waste cleanup

v Develop a community education/awareness program that will help guide your community through the recent changes in New York City’s waste removal policies.

Your program must include:

v A How-To-Guide for waste management in new York City-focus on recycling

v A list of frequently asked questions about waste management and the answers to these questions

v A flyer and poster that will help inform your community about waste management policies, please).

Implement your waste management awareness policy in your neighborhood and submit a photo journal of its progress. Include before and after pictures and other pictures that document the work you did. Place the photos in an album, on a display board, or in any other creative format, such as a power point presentation.

Work will be done in groups of two (2) or three (3) students to complete the three parts of the task and the following steps. Groups will consist of members who live in the same neighborhood or part of the city so that they may customize their public policy solution to their specific community. Students will place identifying tacks into a map so that the teacher can see which students to group together.

Descriptions and examples of the following steps can be found at the TIPS Public Policy Analyst Site.

Step One: Define and describe the problems created by the shifting waste management programs in New York City (i.e. recycling). Consider both the physical appearance of the problem on the streets of your neighborhood and public opinion about what caused the current recycling situation. Use information you find through online research online and evidence you see on your neighborhood streets to complete Worksheet One as a group. Print out Worksheet One and hand it in as a group.

Step Two: Gather evidence to help guide you through accomplishing the three tasks. Use the resources and search engines listed below to gather information. Look for articles, case studies, and statistics. Complete Worksheet Two as a group, print it out, and hand it in.

Step Three: Sort through your research like it was a dumpster full of re-usable trash to determine what Causes and Factors have created waste management problems in New York City and your Neighborhood. Complete Worksheet Three.

Step Four: Evaluate the existing policies that govern the handling of recycling and other policies for cleanup. Compare them to the past policies that have recently been changed. For example: What people supposed to do to clean up the over abundance of waste in New York and how have the policies changed over the years? How are people supposed to prepare waste material? Has this changed as well? Is it voluntary or is it the law? Complete Worksheet Four as a group and hand it in.

Step Five: As a group, develop several approaches to educating your community about New York City’s waste management policies. What information do you need to include and how are you going to pass the information on to the people in your neighborhood. You need to develop a public policy solution that will develop your community’s awareness about recycling and other waste management policies. Complete Worksheet Five as a group and hand it in.

Step Six: Use all the information you have gathered to design what you feel is the best public policy solution to educate your community about solving this problem in New York City (Example). Complete Worksheet Six as a group and hand it in.

Step Seven: Apply the public policy your group developed and decided on in Step Six to the public awareness campaign you will conduct in your neighbor hood. All the materials you create must include and reflect the policy you have designed.

New York City Department of Sanitation

New York City Recycles

What You Need to Know About Manhattan

Natural Resources Defense Council

New York City Recycling Violations

United States Environmental Protection Agency

NYC 2003 Environmental Questionnaire

You may also find information on your own using the following search engines:

www.yahoo.com

www.msn.com

www.google.com

www.altavista.com

www.askjeeves.com

You can check recent articles in local newspapers if you do a very specific search using one of these search engines. In the search window, type “New York Daily News”, “New York City Waste Management” and “Recycling” (make sure you include the quotation marks). You will be able to read the articles retrieved by the search in their entirety. If you search a newspaper’s website for an article, the newspaper will provide an abstract of an article and make you pay for the rest of it. Performing a specific search that includes the exact name of a newspaper is the only way to get an entire article for free.

Objectives	Could Have Been a Lot Better	Could Have Been Better	Getting Better	Good	Great	Earned Points
Group Organization	2 points Students work independently within their groups, with little to no collaboration on completing the assigned tasks.	4 points Students primarily work on their own, with occasional instances of collaboration between group members.	6 points Students divide up the assigned tasks and decide as a group who will be responsible for a particular task.	8 points Students work as a group, collaborating on a majority of the tasks assigned.	10 points Students work as a group, collaborating on all of the tasks assigned
Worksheets and Use of the Public Policy Analysis process	1 points Students submit one or two of the worksheets that exhibit a visible lack of effort. PPA practices are ignored.	2 points Students submit three to five of the worksheets with a visible lack of effort. PPA practices are generally ignored.	3 points Students complete all of the worksheets with a minimal amount of effort. PPA practices are generally followed.	4 points Students complete all of the worksheets with complete and well-constructed responses. PPA steps are completed and apparent in the completed tasks.	5 points Students complete all of the worksheets with complete and well constructed that synthesize their ideas with the research they have performed. PPA steps are followed and enhance the production of the completed tasks.
Grammar and Organization of Student Generated Materials	2 point More than ten grammatical errors; information is incoherent.	4 points Work contains numerous grammatical errors (nine or ten); information is not organized in a logical manner and is difficult to understand.	6 points Work contains several grammatical errors (six to eight); Information is coherent, but requires effort to understand.	8 points Work contains a few grammatical errors (three to five); information is organized in a logical manner.	10 points Work contains a minimal amount of grammatical errors (one or two); information is organized in a logical, coherent manner.
Style and Content of Student Generated Materials.	1 point Work exhibits no creativity and is absent of researched information.	2 points Work exhibits some creativity and is contains some researched information.	3 points Work is creative with a somewhat original use of researched material.	4 points Work is creative and original, blending both student ideas and researched information.	5 points Amazingly original, overflowing with creativity and information.
					Score:

Students completing this project will meet the following New York State Standards:

English Language Arts

Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding

Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction

Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design

Standard 2: Information Systems

Standard 5: Technology

Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Languages Other Than English

Standard 1: Communication Skills

Standard 2: Cultural Understanding

After completing this assignment, students should realize that the problems that exist in their communities and neighbors are not just things people can sit on their stoops and complain about. The issues and problems can be addressed through public policies that are generated and implemented by the public affected by the problem. Students should realize through completing this project that they could become active members of their communities if they take the time to explore an issue and design an effective way to address it that takes into consideration the people involved, the problem at hand, the over-all goal, and the steps that need to be taken to reach that goal. Students also have gained awareness of the importance of public policy in creating change and have become proficient in using the Internet as a resource for research.