Environmental Awareness Project

Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12  (for use as a 4H project)

Academic Areas: Science, Technology

Duration of service: Year-long

Character Virtues: Respect, Caring, Responsibility, Civic Virtue and Citizenship

Technology: GIS, GPS

Service Areas: Education/Tutoring, Environmental, Human Services             

 

Service Learning Project:

For a full school year, 4-H Participants will be involved in an Environmental Awareness Project utilizing GIS and GPS technology.  The students will begin with classroom instruction about their environment and people’s effect on it. Then participants will photograph and GPS the unsightly areas (e.g. areas in need of yard care, tree planting, general cleaning, or minor repair) within their own communities.  Students will then plan a service project focused on cleaning up the unsightly areas.  Each student will create a GIS map of his community with the GPS points hot linked to photos of the unsightly areas before and after each clean-up project is completed during the year. Once the projects are completed, maps will be posted to the following websites: ESRI K-12 projects, Sumter Citizens Coalition, and The City of Sumter.  Students will host a C.L.E.A.N Celebration Day to which they will invite the community.

Goals and Objectives

Academic

Learning Goal:  Students will learn about environmental awareness and their role and responsibility in taking care of their community.

Standard:  Math, Science and Technology

            4.  Science -- Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles,              and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and             recognize the historical development of ideas in science.

Learning Goal: Students will be trained in the use of ArcView GIS 3.3 and GPS technology.

Standard: Math, Science and Technology

             2.  Information Systems -- Students will access, generate, process, and

             transfer information using appropriate technologies.

 

Service

Community need targeted for improvement: Lack of environmental awareness and

knowledge of how to care for our local surroundings. Lack of strategic community planning.

Possible Community Partners: 4-H, The Item Newspaper, Sumter Citizens’ Coalition,

and the City of Sumter.

 

Objective: 4-H Participants will provide Sumter Citizens’ Coalition and the City of

Sumter with a hard copy of a map they developed.

 

Objective: 4-H participants will provide Sumter Citizens’ Coalition and the City of

Sumter with a digital map to be posted on their website.

 

Objective: 4-H participants will provide Sumter’s newspaper, The Item, with articles chronicling the year-long project.

 

Technology

Learning Goal: Participants will understand how to use a GPS receiver to record x,y coordinate locations of blighted areas of environmental impact in their community.

Objective: Participants will know how to record point location with a GPS receiver.

 

Learning Goal: Participants will understand how to create a basic map ArcView GIS (open view, add themes, create layout with title, arrow, scale, and legend).

Objective: Participants will know how to create a basic map with ArcView GIS.

Objective2: Participants will know how to hot link photos to the GPS points added to the ArcView GIS maps.

 

Character

 

Virtue: Civic Virtue and Citizenship

Objective: Participants will get involved with their local government and

businesses.  Participants will also realize that their involvement affects the community.

 

Virtue: Respect, Caring, and Responsibility

Objective: Participants will learn how everyday living affects the environment.  They

will also learn to respect and care for their environment.

 

Key Activities

Key Planning Activities

  1. Participants will design and write up a plan for a clean-up project in their community.
  2. The 4-H group will ask permission from The Item newspaper to submit for publication articles about their projects.
  3. Students will be trained in the basics of using GIS technology.
  4. 4-H students will plan the program events and final C.L.E.A.N. (Community Learning Environmental Awareness) Celebration Day.

 

Key Service Activities

1.      Using a GPS unit, participants will collect locations of community blight that affect the environment.

  1. Each participant will plan and participate in his own clean-up project, as well as participating in the clean-up projects of at least five other students.
  2. Participants will create a map of their community, add their GPS points, and hot link the photos utilizing ArcView GIS 3.3.

 

Key Reflection Activities

1.      Participants will describe through writing or music how important caring for the environment is to the community.  They will discuss the role of respect, caring, responsibility and civic virtue and citizenship in doing so. (performance/written)

2.      After completing their clean-up projects, participants will brainstorm ideas for further improvement by looking at what they’ve learned so far.  They will discuss caring for the local environment and how civic virtue, caring, and respect are part of the process. (oral)

3.      Participants will present a summary analysis of their project to other participants.  They will consider the character virtues of responsibility and citizenship in evaluating how well they completed the project. (performance)

 

Celebration Activity

Participants will host a final C.L.E.A.N (Community Learning Environmental Awareness) day of celebration barbecue. Parents, program sponsors, participants, and city officials will be invited. Students will also be recognized in The Item for their hard work and dedication.