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12th Grade  Project 1 week

Systems Sleuths: Mapping Problems, Designing Solutions

Andrea A
Updated
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Collaboration
Content Expertise
Self Directed Learning
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Purpose

Students investigate a case from their immediate environment to understand how relationships among people, systems, resources, and social, ethical, technological, and economic factors shape a complex community issue. Using case folders, stakeholder and systems maps, interviews, surveys, research summaries, data displays, and academic discussion, teams evaluate multiple perspectives and design a research-based solution. Daily peer critique, teacher conferences, and revision strengthen their structured arguments and culminate in a portfolio, neighborhood impact proposal package, and public-facing poster set. Students present their work to another C1 class and school leaders in a Neighborhood Impact Gallery, then reflect together on their academic and socio-emotional growth and future improvements.

Learning goals

Students will analyze a community case by identifying stakeholders, mapping relationships among people, systems, and resources, and comparing social, ethical, technological, and economic factors. They will gather and synthesize evidence from interviews, surveys, research summaries, and data displays to evaluate multiple perspectives and design a research-justified solution. Teams will use academic discussion, structured argumentation, shared decision-making, and daily feedback to revise a neighborhood impact proposal, stakeholder map, and public-facing poster set. Students will present their work in a Neighborhood Impact Gallery, submit a curated portfolio documenting how their solution evolved, and reflect on their academic and socio-emotional growth.

Competencies
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Teams will create empathy-centered interview notes, community surveys, research summaries, data displays, a stakeholder systems map, and a four-part analysis of social, ethical, technological, and economic factors. They will develop and revise solution concepts through peer feedback, teacher conferences, and evidence-review checkpoints. Each team will produce an impact proposal package containing an evidence summary, stakeholder map, and a research-justified solution plan for the Neighborhood Impact Gallery. Each student will submit a curated portfolio with key artifacts and a written explanation of how the proposed solution changed over time.

Launch

Teams open sealed case folders containing local headlines, photos, brief data sets, stakeholder quotes, and a community map. They conduct a silent evidence walk, recording patterns, tensions, missing voices, and questions before assigning initial evidence-based roles to stakeholders. Teams then begin a systems map and develop empathy-centered questions about how people, resources, and institutions interact within the issue. Each team shares one emerging connection and one question linked to designing a research-based solution that addresses multiple stakeholder needs.

Exhibition

Teams display their public-facing posters, stakeholder maps, research summaries, data visualizations, and research-based solution plans, then explain how multiple perspectives shaped their proposals. Visitors ask questions and leave feedback on each solution’s feasibility, evidence, and responsiveness to community needs. Afterward, students submit their curated portfolios and join a reflection circle to discuss academic and socio-emotional growth and future improvements.