Step-by-Step+Instructional+Strategies

= FOOD WASTE IN SCHOOL CAFETERIAS =

Step-by-Step Instructional Strategies


= GOALS AND OBJECTIVES = ===Taken from the NCTE (National Council of teachers of English) web site. The numbers indicate the specific standard strand as provided by the site. Please feel free to adjust and amend your own state standards.===

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

This unit correlates with the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) NETS standards. These can be viewed at: @http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

= ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS =
 * How much waste is accumulated in a school day in your school?
 * This question is authentic for the learners because most of them will not have realized how much trash is generated in a school day. By showing students a novel problem and asking them to find solutions we will be creating an authentic assessment.
 * What can you do to create less trash in the lunchroom?
 * This question allows the learners to apply the information gleaned in research of the first essential question and provide their own solutions.
 * How much trash do you generate?
 * This question requires the learners to apply the information and data to their own experiences and behavior.


 * **Three Classrooms' Collaboration Activity**:
 * The classes involved will be acquiring data daily and submitting their results to the project wiki. There will also be driving questions for the classes to respond to, debate, and elaborate. Through this interaction students will be able to see any connections to the problem of school waste. Together a solution activity can be formulated and then acted upon with the three classes. This problem based learning activity will provide an engaging learning activity with real world applications for all classes.
 * High School Class: Students will work in groups to write and illustrate childrens' stories on the impact of food and trash waste on the environment. They will research the problem of waste in school cafeterias and come up with possible solutions to the problem. They will share their findings with younger students through writing and art.
 * These stories should make use of the data that is created to make the stories more factual and relevant to the lesson.
 * The High school students will then use their created stories to share the information back with the Elementary classrooms. High school students will be able to create other media to present their information and story. You-tube videos, graphic novels, story books etc.
 * **Each Classrooms Collaboration**:
 * The lower elementary students will be responsible for calculating and reporting the data that they receive. The teacher will work with the students to input this information into the wiki. Upper grade students will then be responsible for creating charts and graphs that turn the data into more meaningful results which will then be shared through the wiki back with the lower grade students. Some suggestions for results would be to divide the amount of trash into the amount per student or per classroom. Percentage of trash per student/grade, fraction of trash (food vs plastic from student trash count sheets)
 * **Equipment**:
 * classroom computer, internet connection, wiki account, excel spreadsheet (suggested)
 * computers with Internet access for research and presentations, video cameras, drawing paper, pencils, coloring materials (markers, colored pencils, crayons, watercolors, etc,),cardboard or card stock for book covers, materials for bookbinding

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

 * Math Connections: place value, addition skills, data/graphing, averaging, greater than/less than, and calculator skills.
 * A school lunch tray will be shown in its entirety and students will be asked to determine the amount of trash if the entire tray was thrown away. 1 pizza serving, 1 milk, one fruit, one side of corn.
 * Elementary students will be shown how to determine the trash generated on their plate before they go to lunch. Students will be explained to account for everything that they were going to throw away to an accuracy of 1/2.
 * Other lunch pictures will also be shown to determine that students understand the concept.
 * **Social Studies Connections:** These ideas will help the students to see how they personally are contributing to the problem.

[[image:nm_school_cafeteria_090813_mn.jpg width="288" height="216" align="right"]]Day before project is to begin:
1. Read The Berenstein Bears, Don't Pollute or Stuart J. Murphy's Earth Day, Hooray! While reading the story discuss the problems that the characters encounter and then stop reading prior to revealing the solutions that are presented in the story. Ask students to devise their own solutions to the problems in the stories and respond in journals, writing paper, or draw/write. If applicable utilize a graphic organizer worksheet or program/site (such as Kidspiration or Webspiration). Ask for students to share their ideas with the class.

2. Continue reading the book and let the class discover if any of their ideas were used in the story. Then ask students if they feel that the problems encountered are real life problems. Are there any problems similar in our school? (Probing question to lead students to the activity).

3. Using the project wiki, go over the project objectives and assessment opportunities with the class. A parent letter should be sent home to explain the project and the directions for students to log in to the wiki from home. Students will be sent with a for each lunch period. The teacher will also carry the to the lunch room.The teacher can carry a laptop computer to the lunch table for the students to fill in the information or they can print out a paper copy for the students to write on. One student should enter this information into the wiki when they return to class. This means that students will walk to the teacher at lunch and fill in their total trash counts on the form for themselves. Then this page will be taken back to the classroom and entered into the Class count sheet.

4. Each day beginning with Day 2, individual students (or whole class) should check the project wiki to interact with the discussion questions, review all data, and formulate their own questions for the other classes.

5. As data is collected, classroom discussions should lead to questions about where is all garbage coming from (ie. office, lunch room, class rooms) and what steps can be taken to reduce the amount of trash. Assign students into problem solving groups and have them devise a plan to reduce the garbage in those areas identified. Students will then present their ideas to the class and then post them to the project wiki. After completion of this task, arrange for a Skype call with the other schools to share their results (to date) and their proposed solutions.

6. Students will finalize their project chosen earlier in the week and complete any needed work. Using all aspects of the project students can create a commercial, brochure, Power Point, paper, etc. promoting the importance of reducing waste in their school. The week long data would serve as support for their ideas and opinions. Students will have this aspect of the project introduced in the beginning of the project and then reminded along the week to ensure that proper data is collected and tabulated. This can be modified for individuals for multiple grade levels and learning adaptations.




 * = ** Day 1 ** ||= ** Day 2 ** ||= ** Day 3 ** ||= ** Day 4 ** ||= **Day5** ||
 * = Whole class ||= Whole class ||= Selected Helpers ||= Selected Helpers ||= Selected Helpers ||
 * At a predetermined time, visit the custodian and/or dumpster area to receive daily total of bags of waste from the school.

**Students can take photos and interview school workers as an added assignment. This can then be posted to the wiki. || At a predetermined time, visit the custodian and/or dumpster area to receive daily total of bags of waste from the school. || At a predetermined time, visit the custodian and/or dumpster area to receive daily total of bags of waste from the school. || At a predetermined time, visit the custodian and/or dumpster area to receive daily total of bags of waste from the school. || At a predetermined time, visit the custodian and/or dumpster area to receive daily total of bags of waste from the school. || This task can be made an individual assignment for higher grades
 * Students will record data and as a whole group post school data on the project wiki.

Guiding Question: How much trash do you think you throw away in a day? || Students will record data and as a whole group post school data on the project wiki.

Guiding question: How much of your trash could you keep out of the landfill by reducing? || Students will record data and as a whole group post school data on the project wiki.

Guiding question: How much of your own trash could you keep out of landfill by reusing? || Students will record data and as a whole group post school data on the project wiki.

Guiding question: How much of your own trash could keep out of the landfill by recycling? || Students will record data and as a whole group post school data on the project wiki. Guiding Question: Now that we have looked at the trash data for our school what conclusions can be made? ||
 * Assessments: || Assessments: || Assessments: || Assessments || =====**Assessments:**===== ||
 * Formative:Daily trash count and wiki post

Summative: pass out guidelines and expectations for summative project || Formative: Daily trash count and wiki post

Summative: give time for students to look at wiki, deliver printout of data or make sure that students can access wiki from home, have students review summative rubric information and choose a final project || Formative: Daily trash count and wiki post

Summative: allow students to spend time looking at the information and begin their rough draft of their project || Formative: Daily trash count and wiki post

Summative: students will have rough draft approved and assign jobs for the final project || Formative:Share and discuss results with class

Summative: students will complete all work for project and present information to the class ||
 * If photos are to be included be sure to obtain consent from individuals included

Collaborative Work Skills Rubric.pdf Journal Rubric.pdf


 * High school students will use the information given on the class count sheet to create graphs and charts to show the amount of trash created by the class and individual students.**

= HIGH SCHOOL CLASS =



>> In each group there should be an editor, an illustrator, and a media specialist. >> Writing/Editing: Each member of the group should contribute to the creation of the story. The editor will be responsible for making sure the format, spelling, and grammar are correct. food waste video eco-friendly lunch video
 * Art/Literacy
 * Research: Students will work in groups of 3. The group can choose to base their research on either the effects of food waste or the effects of garbage waste on the environment
 * Brainstorming: Once the students have gathers information on their topic, they will decide how to creatively explain their findings to elementary school aged students through the creation of a children's story.
 * Illustration: The illustrator will be responsible to the artwork in the story. Other members may help color or enhance the project, but the illustrator will do the majority of the drawing.
 * Binding: Each of the stories will be bound together to make a book. The teacher will assist with this process.
 * Presenting: Each group will creatively present their story. They can choose to read, create a skit, song, or rap. Each group's presentation will be videotaped by the media specialist. If the media specialist plays a performing role in the presentation, the group can use another group's media specialist to do their recording.
 * Sharing: Each group's presentations will be uploaded to the Internet and shared on the project wiki in order for the elementary students to be able to view their presentations.
 * Resources
 * = **Day 1** ||= **Day 2** ||= **Day 3** ||= **Day 4** ||= ** Day 5 ** ||
 * **Research**

Students will watch videos on food waste and eco-friendly lunch. Students will do web search to gather facts about food waste and get inspiration for their stories.

Students will have at least 2 pages of notes completed. || **Writing**
 * Formative Assessment:**

Students will work in groups to develop stories based on the data generated by the 2nd grade students on food waste and describe ways children can help solve the problem. Some students will write and type while others will work on illustrations. Students will use the data gathered by the elementary school students in their stories. They will also make stories relevant by incorporating the name and city of the elementary school and using the names of the students and teacher from the elementary school in their stories.

Students should have stories and illustrations 50% complete by teacher observation. Teacher will circulate between groups to track student participation. || **Binding**
 * Formative Assessment:**

Students will complete stories and bind stories into a book.

Students will be assessed on the writing process, originality, creativity, and neatness of their stories. See Rubric || **Presentations**
 * Summative Assessment:**

Groups will work together to prepare creative presentations of their stories that will appeal to 2nd grade students. They can choose to read, sing, rap, dramatic presentation, etc.

Students have made decision on which type of presentation they will create. || **Sharing**
 * Formative Assessment:**

Groups will videotape their presentations and upload their presentations to the wiki.

Students will be assessed on the creativity, relevance, and quality of their video presentations. See Rubric || Children's Story Rubric.pdf Video Presentation Rubric
 * Summative Assessment:**
 * Students can utilize the web survey tool, Zoomerang, to get pre-project data about student understanding of topic