Project+Statement

PROJECT STATEMENT
Title: To Waste or Not to Waste...That is the Question? Question: How much trash is accumulated in a school week by your school? What categories does the trash fall in? What kind of problems do you uncover and can you propose a solution?
 * 1. Briefly describe your proposed project.**

In this project students will collect data on the amount of trash that is created during their particular lunch period. Students will also interview cafeteria workers to establish a connection between lunch counts and actual food consumed. This information will be shared electronically and discussed in an online forum to reach possible solutions to the problem, if one is discovered.

Students will be engaged by actively participating in hands-on activities during the project. Students will assist in weighing/counting the trash at the end of each day for a week. Students will design posters and collect data for graphs to display the amount trash on the cafeteria projector screen. Students will collaborate with other schools to develop a plan to reduce the amount of trash and share results.
 * 2. How will you improve learner performance by engaging learners in authentic experiences?**

Students at each of the four schools will work together via ooVoo and Skype to work on a solution to the problem, share results, and give various ideas for graphics. The classroom will be student-centered as they lead this project and the teacher takes a step back as facilitator. Through this project, students will be engaged in an authentic real-world problem that includes many schools across our country and ultimately affects the world. Students will draw upon their own experiences of trash at school, home, restaurant, etc. to help them interpret the results of the project.
 * 3. How will you facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences?**

We will create a wiki as a collaboration tool, online surveys as a tool for gathering data, and/or graphic organizers to display the results of our findings. Using these methods of instruction will allow for differentiated lessons. The varying tools for collecting data will be decided by individual teachers in order to meet the diverse population in classes today. Students will be able to decide on the tools that relate to their learning strengths and weaknesses thus providing for a well balanced learning experience.
 * 4. How will you create sound instructional materials and learning environments that are based on solid research and** **learning theory?**

Students will post findings on a wiki that can be shared by the various groups. Students will have the option to post photos and interviews of other students and cafeteria staff in order to get a clear portrayal of how lunch programs are run in various geographic locations.
 * 5. How will you facilitate the use of innovations through the diffusion and integration of new technologies and** **technological experiences for your learners?**

The extensive use of Skype and ooVoo will allow for management to be efficient and timely during this project. All schools working on this project should have their own wikis to place their results. The wiki addresses will be shared through the skype connections so that students at all schools can keep up with what other schools are doing and wasting. Schools will determine a working period for this project ﻿Data will be updated on the school wikis on a weekly basis (they can be updated more frequently but once a week should be a goal). Students will keep an individual account for their lunch waste by counting their non eaten food. Servings will be tracked. A piece of pizza will be one serving, a serving of carrots will be one serving. Students will keep track of how many servings they waste to the half level of accuracy. This means if a student eats half of their carrots they will consider that to be one half of a serving. The individual students will bring their data back to the room and add all of the servings wasted to generate data for the class total waste. This class waste in servings will be posted to the wiki for other schools and classes to see.
 * 6 How will you most effectively manage this process?**

The biggest concern from an ethical standpoint is to keep the students anonymous. The data also must be presented in a way that minimizes blame placing on the cafeteria workers. This is a multi faceted problem that we need to analyze in such a manner. This is not a student problem or a worker problem it is larger problem that will require a complex solution. Research must be done on the federal and state mandates that must be followed by the cafeteria so that any solutions presented can be carried out.
 * 7. What ethical considerations will you make to ensure sound decisions are made?**


 * 8. What processes and resources will you include?**
 * Processes**-students will collect data via paper and pencil or other means as each individual class determines based on their technology equipment on a daily basis on the amount of trash that has been acquired in a school day and record data in a table created in Word. This information will be added to the group wiki once a week (TBD) and a discussion question initiated about the individual school results.


 * Resources**-paper/pencil, hand-held device (if available), laptops/desktops, internet, Microsoft Word, wiki and/or blog, peers, and cafeteria workers.


 * 9. Describe the learning environment and population that will be engaged in your project:**


 * Audience- Students from grades 2-9.
 * Learner characteristics: 118 in grades 2 and 5; 33 in grade 9.
 * Anticipated entry level skills of audience: ﻿basic computer skills to include: desktop navigation, internet browsing, and use of software applications such as Kidspiration or Webspiratio; teachers will need to be comfortable navigating a wiki

School Environments- School A: located in Henderson, NV and is one of 261 elementary schools in Clark County School District. It is a public school that serves 1035 students in grades PK, K-5

School B: My school is a high school grades 9-12 in Philadelphia, PA

School C: South Effingham High School, one of two high schools in a susuburban community outside of Savannah, Georgia. South Effingham houses 1522 students in grades 9-12.

Support for project by community, parents, or administrators-a letter explaining the project may be sent to invoke more outside participation. The school PTO can help as well as school administrators.