Project Planning with Students
🦸♀️️🦸♂️️--->PBSE Effort Alert!
👥 ---> Community Partner Connection!
📚--->Supplemental Resource!
🔔 ---> Environmental Justice Connection!
Emojis Have Meanings to Guide you >>> 🤔➡️📝🧮️🧭️
The above photo is students testing abiotic water quality in the Thunder Bay River.
Engineering a Solution
Solutions come in all sizes and shapes - each uniquely suited to a particular community, group of students, and community partners. Solutions are one step forward in address an issue but it is not likely to completely fix the problem. PBSE is one way for your students to see how collectively they have the power to change their world one action at a time.
Remember: while your PBSE project might not be focused in science, the process of engaging youth in brainstorming and evaluating potential solutions is a key component of Engineering Design (NGSS).
"We use the term “engineering” in a very broad sense to mean any engagement in a systematic practice of design to achieve solutions to particular human problems. (NRC 2012, p. 11-12)
#1 Research and Brainstorm Solutions
The issue you identified should be broad and have room for multiple solutions.
Issue: invasive spotted knapweed needs to be pulled at a local park (this issue is too narrow, but this action item could be incorporated into your solution)
Issue: a lack of native plant biodiversity at a local park (this issue is broad and several action items can be identified)
Give students time to research potential solutions with a reminder to evaluate the source of the information and to cite their sources. Wikipedia is a compilation of information that can be a useful starting point but not an ending point and a reminder for them that....
Not everything you read on internet is real. 🧐
As a class, develop a list of possible solutions for the issue you IDed.
All ideas are good ideas!
#2 Evaluate Solution Feasability
<-- Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals will ensure that all possible solutions take into account the budget, timeline, community and partner considerations. Unique circumstances (COVID-19) should also be considered when determining the feasability of a project.
Using the above criteria and a tool like the 📚Yoder Stoplight Evaluation Tool , determine which solutions get the "green light" for further consideration.
👥Allow community partners the opportunity to share their priorities, funding potential, and other information they have that might impact the projects. You will want a solution that meet both your needs and the needs of the community.
#3 Choose Your Solution(s)
Allowing your students to determine the democratic process (anonymous vote, debating, etc.) by which they will select their solution(s) gives them agency and ownership of the project. 👥If voting, consider including your community partners in the process.
<--A SWOT analysis is another great tool for students to use to determine if their solutions are strong and relevant.
Each solution may include multiple action items. If the issue is a lack of plant biodiversity at the park, as part of the solution some actions items could include:
Growing native plants from seed in the classroom/greenhouse
Removing invasive by hand or herbicide application by community partner
Planting native plants at the park
Creating interpretive signage about native plants and their importance
Installing bee hotels to encourage pollinators
Below are four aspects of project planning that we ask you to consider in your project planning form. Each aspect holds the opportunity to be student-created and student-led.
👥NEMIGLSI partners are available to help facilitate brainstorming and project planning with students
Planning a Budget 💲
Planning and sticking to a budget is an essential skill and what better way to practice than through PBSE!
Budget considerations: Can project partners contribute any supplies or equipment? What are the project priorities? Are there any maintenance costs once the project is complete?
📚The Watershed Game is a great tool for practicing budget/prioritization skills. To request a game for your classroom, fill out this resource order form (a "Do" from Week 2, Great Lakes Literacy Principles.)
📚Google Sheets and its formula capabilities lends itself well as a budget tooling. How to use Google Sheets to make a budget.
🦸♀️️🦸♂️️ Student-generated timeline for rain garden project at Au Gres - Sims High School
Creating a Timeline 🕛
By creating a timeline with tasks and deadlines, students will feel a sense of ownership of their project.
For each action item on the timeline students need to consider: WHEN it is happening, HOW it is happening and WHO is responsible.
Do any actions need to happen sequentially? Is it realistic? Is it for one school year or does it go beyond that?
📚Mindomo is a great mindmapping tool to generate action items and organize or group tasks.
Communication Plan 🗣
How do you plan to share your project findings? Google Site, video, pamphlet, presentation, newsletter
Who is your target audience? Community leaders/decision makers, fellow students, general public
What kinds of communication products would benefit your partners and how can partners provide support?
📚Resource reminder: COMPASS and the Message Box Workbook are tools for effective science communication. Learn more here!
📚Canva is a free, intuitive graphic design tool with templates for pamphlets, infographics and more!
🦸♀️️🦸♂️️ Explore the student-created Au Gres Sims Rain Garden Google Site
Planning Your Project's Legacy 📜
Have students consider the impact their project will have on their community and classes that come after them.
Legacy considerations: Is there a "final chapter" to your project or is it something your students can expand over the years?
Does your project have any maintenance or annual costs? Consider consulting with community partners or your school maintenance workers about sharing responsibilities.
Could monitoring be incorporated into this project for students to share and maintain data from year to year?
Are there communication products that can have a lasting impact after your project is complete?
⭐️Pro tip: Help students develop the plan that YOU want to maintain
🐔Chicken or Egg? 🥚
So wait, which one of these planning components comes first? Do we create our budget, then our timeline? Or communication plan, then budget?
Answer: however best works for your class and project.
Consider dividing students into groups to manage each of the planning components. Communication among groups is KEY.
Celebrating & Reflecting on Your Stewardship Efforts
You and your students put in time and effort toward protecting the Great Lakes and natural resources, now it's time to share your success and reflect on your journey.
We encourage you to include time for your students to reflect on what they did, who/what it will impact and how it will change their community (i.e. new partnerships between schools, knowledge gained, changed attitudes and behaviors about the environment)
Do your students think people will make different choices or change their behavior due to their efforts?
📚Google Master Slides is a tool that could be used to conduct an assessment over time, like your Reflecting Over Time document. Google Forms is another tool that could be used for summative assessments.
Creating student perspective videos before, during and/or after the project can show the progression of the project, can be used a reflection tool and can be shared with future classes.
📚Supplemental Resources:
Remember some of the resources previously shared that might help you support your project planning process with students:
Yoder's Connecting Classrooms to the Community, Guide for a Community-based Approach to Education offers guidance and lessons to help lead students through a PBSE project.
This Natural Resources Stewardship Guide, produced by Michigan State University, serves to support schools and community partners when assisting 'youth with selecting and planning their own stewardship projects.'
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers a Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide; and often partner with schools to explore and implement ideas. This also includes tools for determining feasability and evaluation.
NRC (National Research Council). (2012). A framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.