Module+Review+3+-+Talking+Trash

Derek Ford Module 3 review 02/28/13

http://www.need.org/needpdf/Talking%20Trash.pdf

What Organization developed the curriculum module?

The National Energy Education Development Project developed this curriculum. This organization has developed several educational modules for a variety of topics ranging from Energy sources to energy flows and transportation.

What is the mission of the organization?

NEEDs mission statement is as follows: “The mission of The NEED Project is to promote an energy conscious and educated society by creating effective networks of students, educators, business, government and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multisided energy education programs.”

What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization?

The educational mission of NEED is in line with their mission statement. However they also state in many of their curriculum NEED includes this following statement.

“NEED believes in providing the most recently reported energy data available to our teachers and students. Most statistics and data are derived from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s annual Energy Review that is published in June of each year. Working in partnership with EIA, NEED includes easy to understand data in our curriculum materials. To do further research, visit the EIA web site at www.eia.gov. EIA’s Energy Kids site has great lessons and activities for students www.eia.gov/kids.”

What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: What are the learning outcomes supposed to be?

This curriculum that I am reviewing today is about trash and teaching trash to students K‐8. The curriculum aims to teach several outcomes and correlations to National Science Education Standards have been drawn; these standards are different for the different age groups. Grades K‐4: Physical Science Observable properties of objects, including size, weight, color temperature and the ability to measure these factors using rulers, balances, and thermometer. Objects are made of materials, and can be describes by the properties of the material from which they are made. Life Science Humans depend on the natural and constructed environment, and humans change their environments in ways that can be beneficial for themselves. Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Resources have limited supply, this source can be extended through recycling or decreasing their use

There are several other outcomes listed for grades K‐4. Learning outcomes are different for grades 5‐8. They are more refined and specialized looking at teaching a deeper understanding to the older students. A few examples of these are as follows:

Grades 5‐8: Science and technology Scientific inquiry and technological design are similar. Science proposes explanations for questions about the natural world and engineering propose solutions human problems. Perfect solutions do not exist. All technological solutions have positives and negatives. Technology also has limitations these limitations could be due to material properties or design limitations i.e. human safety.

Do you think the curriculum is appropriated designed to produce the intended learning outcomes?

The curriculum is a 5 day lesson plan that aims at having students put together an exhibit, by having students work in groups to build these exhibits. The 5 day lesson plan includes a brief overview America’s trash problem and other pertinent background information, student collaboration on exhibit building and ending with the presentation of each exhibit. Each exhibit looks at a single portion of the big picture, of trash. Example categories for exhibits include, Introduction to Trash, waste reduction, into to recycling, recycling of individual materials, landfills, and burning trash. I think this curriculum is designed appropriate, for a research project as it involves students to collaborate and involve them in research. The lesson plan also provides information for on each exhibit proposed, although I feel that this information should be used as a starting point rather than the basis for the entirety of the project. Also provided is a student guide, which outlines project instructions step by step, they even give example question for the student s to ask. Again, I caution the exclusive use of these sheets as it limits a student’s opportunity to formulate these questions for themselves. Among the cautionary information provided I feel that these instruction sheets would be useful as they also guide students to think of how to present their information in their exhibit, such as the use of a game, which is what we are trying to develop in this class.

Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates?

I think that this project curriculum does well at addressing a few key areas of the EcoEd Research Group Literacy goals. Chief among which is the understanding of global impact of personal actions. This curriculum also presents the challenges and values of cooperative action, through collaboration and fosters info‐seeking practices.

What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes that EcoEd Group advocates? Trash is an amazing complex issue with a wide array of problems and solutions. I would like to add another exhibit that talked about water pollution/ocean trash as this is a large issue in and of itself. I think including this in an exhibit will help students to recognize the global impact that they have, and how trash that they generate can end up half way around the world. Also adding an exhibit on E‐waste and the complexities that go along with this particular waste, would be an eye opening experience for most middle school students, as I didn’t learn about what happened to E‐waste until I came to college.