A collaborative, hands-on way to use technology to solve real world problems.

 An opportunity to use the technology in your daily life to solve real world problems.  Collaborative  Hands-on  Working with peers, teachers, parents, experts in your community and around the world.  Asking “Good” questions.  Developing deeper understandings.  Accepting and solving challenges.  Taking action.  Sharing your experience.

 A Big Idea  An Essential (necessary, important) Question  A Challenge  Guiding Questions  Activities  Resources  A Solution  A way to put your plan into action.  A way to judge if your plan worked.  Reflection on the process.  Assessment.  Publishing your results for others to read.

 Resilience  Separation  Creativity  Health  Sustainability  Democracy

 Sustainability - Water

 You will probably think of many questions, eventually narrowing in on one.  This should reflect your interests and the needs of those around you.

 How does my water consumption impact my world?

 Here you are to develop a specific solution that will result in concrete, meaningful action. I think if I do “this,” the result will be “this.”

 I want to improve my home, school, or community’s use of water.

 What are some smaller, guiding questions that come to mind?  Now identify lessons, activities, and resources to answer your smaller, guiding questions from above.

 How do we use water?  How much do we use?  How is water wasted?

 Brainstorm everything you know about water.  Google water.  Determine how much water you and your families use with the H 2 O water calculator available from the USGS.  Use the Surf Your Watershed site provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to locate my communities watershed. If possible, interview local groups or experts about the watershed.

 EPA Statistical information about water use.  U.S. Geological Survey site.  USGS water calculator.

 There might be many solutions at first.  Once you choose yours, it should be thoughtful, concrete, clear, and able to be carried out.

researched and recorded looked explored  We researched and recorded how much water was being used in our school. We looked at student and teacher use, and explored how water was used for landscaping. determined  After considerable research, we determined that one of the largest sources of water use was the school landscaping. We then went about determining the amount of water necessary to sustain the current landscaping, the source of that water, and alternative landscaping options. making A plan  We decided on the solution of making the landscaping more water efficient. A plan for changing the school landscaping that included a plant palette, a forecast for the amount of water saved, and a budget and prediction of the district’s return on their investment.

 Test your solution out. This can be a full on implementation, or even in a test group.

 To explain our plan, we created public service announcements as well as brochures. All of this information was then presented to the school board. With board approval and support from the community we worked to implement the solution.  Plant palettes allow us to pair certain plants with our specific climate. It also allows us to provide the exact amount of watering, and to avoid overwatering.

 Was your solution successful?  How can you test it?  Surveys, interviews, videos.  What are the next steps?

 We were able to use plants better suited to our climate, plants that are hardy and do not require as much watering as the previous plants.  We compared the amount of water used previously to the amount of water used now, and there was a considerate drop in usage.  In saving water, we also saved the School District money, although it was not significant.  For our next step, we would like to attempt to harvest water from the water spouts of the school buildings, to use for future watering.

 Document each step of the challenge in a journal, or online blog, or video journal.  Create a portfolio along the way.  All of this information will make your publishing easier.  Without it, you will forget much of what you did.

 Think about what worked, what didn’t.  Think about what problems you had.  Think about the interactions you had with others.  Think about your learning.

 Prompts Prompts

 Sustainability – Food, Energy, Air  Climate Change  Public Health  Economy  Conflict  Personal, group, or cultural identity  Health and wellness  What about Business opportunities?  What else can we add? Let’s look in the major news stories.

 Challenge Based Learning Website Challenge Based Learning Website  Challenge Based Learning Video Challenge Based Learning Video