Learning Goals
Students will be able to explain how local plastic waste and water use connect to watersheds, ocean currents, gyres, microplastics, and marine food webs through interconnected environmental systems
Students will be able to analyze how supply chains, waste infrastructure, laws, economics, and cultural or historical conditions shape water scarcity and plastic pollution in Eastern Hemisphere communities through multiple disciplinary perspectives
Students will be able to investigate local water use or plastic waste using an audit, several credible sources, expert input, and focused follow-up questions through disciplined evidence gathering
Students will be able to synthesize audit findings, research evidence, stakeholder needs, and root-cause analysis into an evidence-based definition of a school or community water challenge through systems thinking and empathy
Students will be able to design and justify a method for monitoring and minimizing water waste or plastic pollution through scientific principles, stakeholder evidence, and comparison of multiple solution ideas
Students will be able to refine and communicate a sustainable water-use solution using test results, peer and expert feedback, equitable collaboration, and reflection on setbacks through iterative improvement
Products
Water Systems Research and Solution Design Portfolio
Each student independently produces a portfolio containing a watershed-and-gyre systems explanation, Eastern Hemisphere case analysis, credibility-checked research notes, audit evidence, stakeholder insights, root-cause analysis, multiple solution concepts, and a justified prototype or monitoring-method plan. Journal entries, feedback records, and revisions document how evidence and setbacks changed the student's thinking.
School Sustainable Water-Use Prototype and Community Expo Presentation
Teams use members' research to design, test, and revise a feasible monitoring method, waste-reduction prototype, policy proposal, or community action system, then present its evidence, global connections, trade-offs, and call to action at the Water Solutions Expo. The presentation includes a PSA or poster and responds to feedback from peers, families, teachers, water employees, and biologists.
No rubric has been generated yet.