Congratulations-You Got the Job!
You have recently been hired as an agent for the Environmental Protection Agency. (You can read more about what they do here.) For your first task, your supervisor throws the following newspaper article on your desk.
Your supervisor tells you that you need to investigate the environmental impact of these floods in the town of Engelbrechtville and recommend solutions to clean up any environmental hazards that have occurred to surface or groundwater. You also to need to make recommendations to the EPA and the Mayor of Engelbrechtville concerning how to prevent future flooding and prevent any damage to the environment from any potential pollutant source present in the town in the future. You will create a written proposal to the EPA and to the Mayor of Engelbrechtville to submit to the Mayor of Engelbrechtville and to the EPA by Friday, January 23rd. You will also present your proposal in a formal presentation to the Mayor and the EPA on that day as well.
The Mayor will be hearing a lot of solutions and recommendations, and, if he chooses your proposal, this could possibly get you a raise and a promotion! This could really make or break your career with the EPA!
The Mayor will be hearing a lot of solutions and recommendations, and, if he chooses your proposal, this could possibly get you a raise and a promotion! This could really make or break your career with the EPA!
About those presentations....
The EPA and the Mayor of Engelbrechtville are really tired of being bored to tears by PowerPoint presentations where people just read things to them off the screen. Plus, it makes you look like a real knucklehead, and that won't help you launch your career with the EPA at all. They are looking for professional, quality presentations along with great solutions and recommendations concerning the environmental problems caused by the flood. This means that the presentations should:
You will be scored on the I can statements below:
5a. I can create an original solution to a given problem.
5b.I can apply and integrate what I have learned in all of the objectives about Freshwater in my solutions to the given problem.
5c.I can create a professional presentation to communicate a solution to a problem.
This is your level 10 opportunity, so show me you can apply and synthesize the information you learned about freshwater in your solutions!
- be innovative
- engage the audience
- be powerful and informative
- use an online presentation tool such as WeVideo, Prezi, Haiku Deck, PowToon, and Projeqt.
You will be scored on the I can statements below:
5a. I can create an original solution to a given problem.
5b.I can apply and integrate what I have learned in all of the objectives about Freshwater in my solutions to the given problem.
5c.I can create a professional presentation to communicate a solution to a problem.
This is your level 10 opportunity, so show me you can apply and synthesize the information you learned about freshwater in your solutions!
So what's the first step?
The first step is defining the problem. You should, on your own, try and fill in the following statement:
How can we _____________________________________ in such a way that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
After everyone has tried this on their own, we will compile them to make a problem statement for the class.
How can we _____________________________________ in such a way that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
After everyone has tried this on their own, we will compile them to make a problem statement for the class.
We know what the problem is...now what?
We need to figure out what we know and don't know about this problem, and then do some research. Then, we'll nail down the exact nature of this problem, and then work on knowing what we need to know in order to give the Mayor and the EPA the best proposal they've ever seen! But first, we need to get everyone set up with their own school Google accounts (if you haven't done it already).
- Go to Google classroom.
- Click on the Know/Need to Know list assignment. Then click on Create, and create a Google Doc. This document will appear in your Google Drive in the folder labeled "classroom."
- Create a table in your document with two rows and three columns.
- Put the following headings in your table, in this order: KNOW, NEED TO KNOW, WHAT I LEARNED.
- In the "Know" column, write down everything we know now about the problem from the information you've been given and from what is in your brain.
- In the "Need to Know" column, write down questions about things we would need to know in order to give the Mayor and the EPA good recommendations and solutions to their problem.
- Turn in the link to your document to the correct assignment in Google Classroom. Mrs. E will show everyone how to do that.
- Mrs. E will compile all of the questions into one large Know/Need to Know list for everyone and link it on this website and put it out in our group in Google Classroom.
- Once the Group Know/Need to Know list is reviewed in class, you are to research your assigned question(s) and summarize the answers. The answers to these questions should be put in a Google Doc, and you should provide links to ALL sources! Everyone's answers will be compiled into one document for everyone to use when compiling their report for the Mayor and the EPA.
But what about the science stuff we need to know to solve this problem?
Never fear, Mrs. E is here! You will be doing activities in class to help you learn the science stuff you need to solve this problem. You'll use your science knowledge and what everyone researched to come up with solutions and recommendations for the Mayor and the EPA. Can't have you making solutions and recommendations without some knowledge of freshwater and the environmental problems associated with it, now can we? You'll find those activities in the drop-down menus under "Freshwater" at the top of this page. They'll be posted when you're ready for them!