Activity 2

Social Media Campaign

Student Objectives:

Students will:

• increase in digital literacy skills

• be able to identify solutions at the individual, community, city, state, and national levels relevant to the conservation of freshwater

• work in groups

Description: This project will enhance students’ understanding of science and foster creativity, collaboration, and communication through a means they are comfortable with. By participating in a social media campaign focused on conservation of freshwater, students are forced to think of themselves as part of a larger community working together to support local and regional initiatives to address water usage.

1. Have students review the Solutions Handout below, working in groups to brainstorm as many solutions as possible. 

2. Once students have a wide variety of solutions to promote through social media, develop a list of social media outlets as a class that students could use. Some suggestions include Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Vine, and blogs. Depending on your school district's restrictions and the age of your students, school wide media projects can be substituted for social media. Suggestions include public service announcements (PSA), school websites, student-safe blogging (www.kidblog.org), and/or posters.

3. Tell the class that they will now develop a campaign to raise awareness about our need to conserve freshwater resources. Assign students to specific platforms, or have the class vote on one platform to use together. If students are not sufficiently acquainted with one or the other, show them the platform, being sure how to highlight how they are used for campaigns. For example, in the case of Twitter, you might show them how the updates work and how members of Twitter use hashtags (#). On Facebook, you might review various page elements, like the “wall” and tabs for information, photos, discussions, videos and links.

4. Each group will be in charge of creating content that reflects what they have learned, promoting community solutions. Encourage students to:

   1. think creatively and meaningfully

   2. figure out the best way to use statistics, quotes, images, questions, and links

   3. brainstorm how they will attract attention through fans and followers

   4. share with their current followers and/or students at their school

   5. use a common hashtag (#) across platforms so that campaigns can be tracked through a program such as Storify

5. Bring students together as a class after a few days to a week of their campaign to discuss any reactions they received from followers or fans, and to discuss the most popular methods and information shared with the public. 

Solutions Handout (click the link and click copy; teachers will need a Google account to be able to do this)