Project Theme
The theme of our project involves students researching the causes and consequences of environmental degradation and the misinformation surrounding the subject that enables some people to believe it is not a serious issue, and then to create innovative ways to educate the public about this issue in non-divisive ways. Helping those who do not understand the seriousness of environmental challenges to unify around goals of restoring the environment and transitioning to a sustainable society are central to this project.
Goals
1. SWBAT (Students will be able to) research causes and consequences of environmental degradation.
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2. SWBAT discuss causes and consequences of people's misunderstanding of these issues, and create ways to educate the public about these issues, including an educational method utilizing technology.
2. To include 4/5 STEAM components to the project.
3. Students will incorporate 21st-century skill development in the project especially problem-solving in multiple contexts, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and especially information, media and technology skills. ​
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4. Interdisciplinary and cross-curricular
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S.M.A.R.T. Goals:
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Specific: The Environmental issues project will allow students to research environmental issues and public perception of them. They will decide on a 2-3 issues to focus on. For these issues, they will create 2-3 products meant for educating the public, using different mediums. As least one product will use data analysis, at least one product will incorporate art, and at least one product will incorporate writing. All of the products will incorporate technology, as the finished products will be incorporated into a website for public dissemination. Thus the ultimate goal of the project is to facilitate STEAM learning in a student-centered, project-based way, while also helping solve one of the biggest problems facing the environment, namely, that people do not believe there are problems.
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Measurable: It will be apparent that the goal has been reached when the final products are assessed for achieving their intended purpose on the web-based learning portfolio, and include the various STEAM components and 21st century skills.
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Achievable: In order to achieve this goal, we will differentiate the project for students who appear to have challenges, as needed. We'll make sure to enable students for success by pointing them toward a number of resources on the various types of environmental issues which might be candidates for them to use for their project through things like Chasing Coral, Kiss the Earth, and other documentaries and types of sources. We will also check up on student progress as the project proceeds and ensure everyone is on track, implementing differentiation as needed.
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Relevant: This goal is highly relevant to our roles as educators, in that it not only connects the content of the curriculum and standards to the students perception of the world, but it also empowers the students to become educators themselves, a passing of the torch and paying it forward which could be seen as the greatest success of an educator.
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Timebound: The project would be a long term, deep dive project which could take 5-6 weeks to complete.
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