Project Clean & Green

Imagine all of the ways we use land... and all of the chemicals and materials we use to make our lives easier... and what happens with all of that stuff when we are done using them.

What could possibly go wrong?

Task Overview

For the project, you can select any three challenges that interest you, combining scientific investigation with practical, real-world applications. This approach will allow you to engage deeply in areas you find compelling. Two of the challenges will require attendance to pre-scheduled opportunity days. If you are unable to attend those opportunity days, then you will not be permitted to complete those challenges.

All due dates found in Google Classroom are the final dates including your "5-day extension". Failure to meet the deadlines may result in a permanent "0" for benchmarks for the summative challenge(s).

Assessment Criteria

Summative Option Summary

Eco-Footprint Tracker

Create an "Eco-Footprint Tracker" for your daily habits, focusing on factors like transportation, energy usage, waste generation, and diet. Document your environmental impact over three days, then propose three lifestyle changes to reduce your footprint.

Color me a Watershed

Recognize that population growth and settlement cause changes in land use, and analyze how land use variations in a watershed affect the runoff of water.

Everglades in Peril!

This case examines the impacts of human activities on the Florida Everglades, a once-expansive wetland system now significantly reduced due to drainage for agriculture, urban development, and the construction of canals and levees. The case is intended to help students connect how these activities lead to physical, chemical, and biological consequences for ecosystems.

Time Lapse

Describe successional changes in an ecosystem and the factors that affect these changes, and relate species diversity to successional habitat changes.

A Plume Problem

Analyze data to trace the flow of contaminants in groundwater, and conclude that past solutions, developed with the best of intentions, may create contemporary problems.

Zero Waste Challenge

Develop a "Zero Waste Challenge" plan for three days. List five simple waste reduction methods and implement at least three of them. Track your results and reflections on how each action affected your daily routine.

Sewage Treatment Challenge

Using household materials, students will construct and test a model, with financial constraints, that simulates key stages of a sewage treatment plant to achieve a turbidity of "0". Challenge

*Must attend opportunity day to complete this challenge

Landfill Action Plan

Use materials that landfill engineers would use at scale to contain waste and protect a community and their groundwater supply from contamination. Challenge

*Must attend opportunity day to complete this challenge

Tuna for lunch?

This case examines mercury bioaccumulation and biomagnification within the context of the human health impacts of ingesting fish contaminated with mercury. The case is intended to help students make the connection between an environmental contaminant (mercury, a neurotoxin) and the food they eat. Case Study