January

Environmental Projects:

Lowell Community Awareness Project

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”. What do those words mean to you? Every day we walk past things in our community that may bother us. Things that may make us think to ourselves “that needs to change”. How many of us take that first step toward change? One inspired elementary class took that first step and it led to a wonderful environmental project that impacted a whole community!

The fifth grade Expanded Learning Program class at Lowell Community Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa, led by ELP teacher Stacey Jambura, designed and carried out a plastic bag community environmental project. The students brainstormed ideas, and decided to focus on plastic grocery bag litter. They conducted research to develop their project. They learned that not only do plastic bags look bad along the roadways and in ditches; but that they cause multiple problems once they enter our waterways.

The project expanded and eventually grew so big that the fifth grade class decided to ask the third and fourth grade classes to join them on the project. During the process the students wrote and published their own book “The Day I Got Thrown Away: A Diary of a Plastic Bag”. They held a community-wide event that showcased their project, it included displays, and demonstrations. The students sold reusable t-shirt bags made from old t-shirts that they had gathered from donations (and sewn themselves!). All of the proceeds from the sale went to organizations that they chose.

The students also have plans to expand their project in the future!

Watch this inspiring environmental project story on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZNFARWBBiI&list=PLP_s_GPHuWDfGCoD4E-1ax9n-mf-10lx1&index=7

January

Project-Based Learning: Environmental Projects

Articles, Examples, & Inspiration
Student created projects about the environment
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/wue/studentprojects.html#water

Goin’ With the Flow…Involving Students in Hands-on Stream Improvement Projects
http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/education/goflow.pdf?amp;tabid=905

EPA - Service Learning: Education Beyond the Classroom – Highlights environmental projects done by students throughout the country
http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/svclearn.pdf

Experience-Based Environmental Projects - Experience-based environmental learning is an opportunity to learn through one's own lifestyle and actions.
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/enviroprojects/index.html

Kids Honored for Green Projects - Project Reservoir was designed, implemented, and maintained by the students. It's focused on the student's efforts to help revitalize and transform an abandoned local reservoir into a first class, state-recognized recreation and education center.
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3757171

Classroom Management for Project-Based Learning Work
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/11/classroom-management-project-based-learning-work

Another Take on Earth Day – Project-Based Learning
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/classroom-solutions/2010/04/another-take-earth-day

Books – For Educators and Students
Archer, J. 1998. To Save the Earth. Penguin Group (USA).
Arthus-Bertrand, Y., et al. 2004. Future of the Earth: An Introduction to Sustainable Development for Young Readers. HNA Books.
Berry, J.W. 2001. Every Kid's Guide to Saving the Earth. Warehousing & Fulfillment Specialists, LLC.
Byrnes, P. 1997. Environmental Pioneers. Oliver Press, Inc.
Cherry, L. 2002. River Ran Wild: An Environmental History. Harcourt Children's Books.
Clare, P. 2009. Living Green: Saving Our Earth. Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
Collard, S.B. 2000. Acting for Nature: What Young People around the World Have Done to Protect the Environment. Heyday Books.
Dr. Seuss. 1971. The Lorax. Random House, Incorporated.
Doherty, B. 2002. Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement. Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Elkington, J., D. Hill, J. Hailes, and J. Mekower.1990. Going Green: A Kid's Handbook to Saving the Planet. Viking Children's Books.
Gay, K. 1993. Caretakers of the Earth. Enslow Publishers, Incorporated.
Graham, K. 1996. Contemporary Environmentalists. Facts on File, Inc.
Graham, K. and G. Chandler. 1996. Environmental Hereos: Success Stories of People at Work for the Earth. Pruett Publishing Company.
Halpin, M. 2004. It's Your World - If You Don't Like It, Change It: Activism for Teens. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Holmes, A. 1993. I Can Save the Earth: A Kid's Handbook for Keeping Earth Healthy and Green. Silver Burdett Press.
Jakobson, C. 1992. Think About: The Environment. Walker & Company.
McKay, K., J. Bonnin, and D. de Rothschild. 2008. True Green Kids: 100 Things You Can Do to Save the Planet. Natl Geographic Soc Childrens Boks.
Riley, T. 2007. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living. Alpha Books.
Rooney, F. 2007. Exceptional Women Environmentalists. Orca Book Publishers.
Schwartz, L. and B. Armstrong. 1990. Earth Book for Kids: Activities to Help Heal the Environment. Creative Teaching Press, Inc.
Sivertsen, L. and T. Sivertsen. 2008. Generation Green: The Ultimate Teen Guide to Living an Eco-Friendly Life. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
Sonneborn, L. 2007. The Environmental Movement: Protecting Our Natural Resources. Facts on File.
Stille, D.R. 2005. Natural Resources: Using and Protecting Earth’s Supplies. Capstone Press, Inc.
Suzuki, D. 1992. Looking at the Environment. Jossey-Bass.
The Earthworks Group. 1990. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Wadsworth. G. 1992. Rachel Carson: Voice for the Earth. Lerner Publishing Group.
Wall, D. 1993. Green History: An Anthology of Environmental Literature, Philosophy and Politics. Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Whitman, S. 1994. This Land is Your Land: The American Conservation Movement. Lerner Publishing Group.

January

Project-Based Learning

What is project-based learning?
Project-based learning is the use of in-depth and rigorous classroom projects to facilitate learning and assess student competence. Project-based learning is an instructional method that provides students with complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve the students' problem solving, decision making, investigative skills, and reflection that includes teacher facilitation, but not direction.

Project-Based Learning is focused on questions that drive students to encounter the central concepts and principles of a subject hands-on. Students form their own investigation of a guiding question, allowing students to develop valuable research skills as students engage in design, problem solving, decision making, and investigative activities. Through Project-Based learning, students learn from these experiences and take them into account and apply them to the world outside their classroom. Project-Based Learning is a different teaching technique that promotes and practices new learning habits, emphasizing creative thinking skills by allowing students to find that there are many ways to solve a problem.

What every good project-based learning project needs:
A project is meaningful if it fulfills two criteria. First, students must per¬ceive the work as personally mean¬ingful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well. Second, a mean¬ingful project fulfills an educational purpose. Well-designed and well-implemented project-based learning is meaningful in both ways.

1. A Need to Know - launching a project with an “entry event” that engages interest and ini¬tiates questioning. An entry event can be almost anything: a video, a lively discussion, a guest speaker, a field trip, or a piece of mock correspondence that sets up a scenario. With a compelling student project, the reason for learning relevant material becomes clear: I need to know this to meet the challenge I’ve accepted.

2. A Driving Question - A good driving question captures the heart of the project in clear, compelling language, which gives students a sense of purpose and challenge. The question should be provocative, open-ended, complex, and linked to the core of what you want students to learn. Without a driving question, students may not understand why they are undertaking a project.

3. Student Voice and Choice - In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better. However, teachers should design projects with the extent of student choice that fits their own style and students.

4. 21st Century Skills - A project should give students oppor¬tunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of tech¬nology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life.

5. Inquiry and Innovation - Students find project work more meaningful if they conduct real inquiry, which does not mean finding infor¬mation in books or websites and pasting it onto a poster. In real inquiry, students follow a trail that begins with their own questions, leads to a search for resources and the discovery of answers, and often ultimately leads to generating new ques¬tions, testing ideas, and drawing their own conclusions. With real inquiry comes innovation—a new answer to a driving question, a new product, or an individually generated solution to a problem.

6. Feedback and Revision - Formalizing a process for feedback and revision during a project makes learning meaningful because it empha¬sizes that creating high-quality products and performances is an important purpose of the endeavor. Teachers can arrange for experts or adult mentors to provide feedback, which is especially meaningful to stu¬dents because of the source.

7. A Publicly Presented Product - Schoolwork is more meaningful when it’s not done only for the teacher or the test. When students present their work to a real audience, they care more about its quality.

(Project needs from “7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning” by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller)