Learning Goals
Students will be able to analyze how population growth, per-capita resource consumption, and waste-management systems contribute to ocean plastic pollution through interconnected impacts on Earth’s systems.
Students will be able to trace plastic products from production and consumer use in the Eastern Hemisphere to waste movement and ocean accumulation in order to identify systemic root causes.
Students will be able to evaluate evidence about ocean plastic pollution from scientific, historical, geographic, ethnic, and cultural perspectives by considering credibility, relevance, and competing interpretations.
Students will be able to construct an argument about responsibility for ocean plastic pollution and the most effective response using a clear claim, credible evidence, explicit reasoning, and a fair counterargument with rebuttal.
Students will be able to generate context-appropriate solutions for reducing ocean plastic pollution in a specific Eastern Hemisphere community by addressing identified root causes and stakeholder needs.
Students will be able to justify and refine a recommended ocean-plastic solution by comparing feasibility, likely impact, trade-offs, limitations, and feedback from competing perspectives.
Products
Ocean Plastic Responsibility and Solutions Argumentative Essay
Each student will independently write an argumentative essay that traces systemic causes of ocean plastic pollution, evaluates multidisciplinary evidence, addresses a counterargument, and defends a context-appropriate solution for an Eastern Hemisphere community. A brief evidence and revision appendix will document source-credibility checks, alternative solutions, feedback, and resulting refinements.
Ocean Solutions Summit Systems Map and Public Defense
Teams will combine members’ research into an evidence-based systems map and publicly defend a refined solution for a specific Eastern Hemisphere context, explaining root causes, stakeholder perspectives, feasibility, trade-offs, and limitations. The defense will include responses to audience challenges and a synthesis identifying which evidence most strongly supports the team’s recommendation.
No rubric has been generated yet.