Service Learning Term 2018

Project Title: Precious Plastic SBHS

Project Description: We want to recycle bottle caps in the high school, and team up with Green team to make it not Jim reliant.

Group Goals: To create a system that allows us to collect and sort the bottle caps so that we can recycle them.

Personal Goals: To work more on leadership, use new tools, and learn more about plastic and machinery.

During SLT, we addressed the following Transferable Skills. In the section below, I describe how I addressed these skills and provide evidence to support my claims.

Clear and Effective Communication

G. Collaborate effectively and respectfully

Here is the link to the team charter where we agreed on what the norms for our groups would be:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q48senfy80G5hkKP-mi2eF8sc5eUZlQI60QuKXEFC8A/edit?usp=sharing

Journals

We did journal writing almost every day in SLT, and I have added one of my journal entries below.

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May 9th

There is a lot of cool machines to use at the generator, but there are few of which that the systems group can utilize. The laser cutter could prove to be really useful in making our collection box, and maybe the 3D printer. Other than that, though, I’m not sure what else we can use.It was nice to have our own little space there, though! We grouped together in the little opening space, where it was more quiet and easier to talk to each other. I’m looking forward to working at the generator tomorrow as well. There’s just a feeling of creativity and ingenuity in the air, and it makes it feel like anything is possible.

There hasn’t been a lot of roadblocks so far, more like potholes. I think we are doing a really good job on documenting what we are doing and thinking of every day. But I think a pothole we’ve hit is lack of work to do. We have had to wait on a lot of stuff, like making the collection boxes, because we are waiting for a response from the janitors. But things are starting to gear up again, so we shouldn’t be idle for much longer! This project has been going really well, and it’s about to really start!

I think my role in the group is almost like a secretary. I take notes down, create a lot of Google Docs, and manage the calendar. I really like this role, because it allows me to help everyone stay organized! I think my skills with computers and time management will help me in this role. Some of the impact this role has had on my group has included:

1. We all know when interviews and meetings are.
2. We have SMART Goals recorded to look back and reflect on.
3. We are organized! (Yay!)
4. We all have access to all of our documents and notes.

I look forward to working more in this role, and to help out my team by keeping us on track and motivated!

Pictures/Videos

I made this promotional video to be put up in the lobby, so people would know to put their caps in the bins!

• Staff Evaluation

Informed and Integrative Thinking

A. Apply knowledge from various disciplines and contexts to real life situations.

Here is the link to our Google Photos! https://photos.app.goo.gl/yP0LIL1kOAVXg2Nn2

Here is another one of my journals to show how I did Informed and Integrative Thinking in SLT.

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June 1st

Wow! It seems like I haven’t written in FOREVER. Filming your entries does that to you. I liked filming my journals, but I wanted to switch it up.

I think that we have been doing an AWESOME job with the learning term goals! We’ve managed files well on Google Drive, shared the load, and divided the work in a way that everyone is doing something that they want to do! I think we’ve excelled in these areas. But, there is one area where I feel we could improve: staying motivated. Right now at the end of the term I feel like the systems group is losing steam. Especially before lunch, we have a hard time getting things and actually having fun with them. I think that might be also because Fiona is gone, and thus we have no team leader. This has been a chance for me to step up, though, and that has been a really cool experience.

In this term I really applied some of my skills quiet well. For example, my computer and Adobe Illustrator skills came in handy with designing all of the posters and making the promotional video that will play in the lobby. When it came to learning new things and improving, I did better on some things than I did than others. I learned more about leadership, which was really cool, but I didn’t get to really work on building things and working with new tools. But that wasn’t so much that I didn’t do the work as much as it was the group I chose didn’t do a lot of machinery. But I did get to work with the machine and hopper twice! I got to work on it at the generator, and then again at Dynamic Landscapes. That was a lot of fun, because it was almost like a role reversal. I think I did a good job on developing skills I already have as well as learning new skills this term.

I kind of answered the second prompt above, but I can elaborate a little bit more in this paragraph. When Fiona wasn’t around, or I had something to say, I got to experience leadership in our group. Not like a dictatorship, just trying to keep everybody on track. It was nice to be a leader for a while, but not for the whole time. I tend to take on a lot of work at a time, and I was swamped without leader on my back anyways. That was a fun part of this term, shaking it up a bit with our group dynamics. As for the other things I wanted to experience and learn about, I didn’t do as much as I wanted to, but I felt like I still accomplished something. It was fun to work with the shredder and hopper on occasion, and to build up my strength with machines and my arms, carrying the shredder. I don’t think I would have anything different if we did Service Learning Term again, except maybe watch when things were happening a little more. It would have been cool to see the mold being made, but I think I might have had to go to the generator to see that, which means that I wouldn’t have helped my group out as much. Well, I guess it all evens out in the end! I am looking forward to presenting at our exhibition on June 7th, and I am excited to see how everything turns out! I have a positive feeling that everything will work out in the end.

Here are some of the Google Documents my group (The systems group) used that demonstrates Informed and Integrated Thinking. You can see our brainstorm document, daily task list, and notes from an interview with Rhonda Mace, a member of CSWD. (Chittenden Solid Waste District)

• Staff evaluation
• Student narrative

Responsible and Involved Citizenship

A. Participate in and contribute to the enhancement of community life.

• Here is the link to our final presentation! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_vjfsDBs8k2c1xccGunGnthagNKqPLccqBCup_F8uBQ/edit?usp=sharing
• Staff and self evaluation

Creative & Practical Problem Solving

C. Identify patterns, trends, and relationships that apply to solutions.

Below you can see some Google Documents that demonstrate Creative and Practical Problem Solving. Things like research and the manual the whole group participated in.

Here is my Service Learning Term narrative!