Proposals for Positive Change in the Real World
By:  JIm Warren

Project at a Glance :

During this project groups of students will choose a Current Event issue, they will research the problem and develop solutions to benefit the people affected.

Driving Question:

How can we research a Current Event, in the news, that needs a solution and propose a well-researched answer?          

Standards:

• 9.3 Policy Debates 9.3.1 Make a persuasive argument on a public policy issue, and justify the position with evidence from historical antecedents and precedents, and Democratic Values or Constitutional Principles. 
• Dimension 3: Dimension 3 includes the skills students need to analyze information and come to conclusions in an inquiry. 

Team / Culture Building:

• Hopes, Fears, & Norms

​Entry Event:

• Students read several articles to 'peak' their interest in potential topics for the project.       
• The U.S. Needs 1.5M More Homes To Ease the Crisis Housing Shortage                      ​

• The Growing Discontent with American Education

Stakeholders:

• People currently impacted by the Current Event students choose to explore. 

​Empathy Building:

• Stakeholder Map
• Empathy Map

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

•  Using The Five Whys protocol will help students to think through causes which will then push them to identify what information and background they Need to Know to be set up for a great solution.
• Use  QFT protocol is a very valuable tool to help the students identify what categories of information need to be researched and generate Need to Know questions for further research.

Incubation:

• The Brainwriting Protocol is a great way to have students take an idea from a group member and try to go further with it. Students learn how they can play off of each other to make ideas grow and blossom.
  
• The Idea Quota Protocol is always an amazing exercise that pushes people to explore their own creativity and come up with a great list of options that can be narrowed down later.​

Checking in:

• Fireside Chat protocol works really well so the teacher can talk to each student individually to get a sense of how they are doing by hearing their description of the current status of the group and of their own work.

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Solution Building:

• Students will use the Poster Session protocol to organize their possible solutions and thought in a public way that others can see and give feedback on.
  
• Followed by Dot Voting for classmates to vote on the BEST solution ideas.

Critique and Revision: 

• The NUF test is a crucial to examine if a solution is NEW, USEFUL, and FEASIBLE.
  
• Critical Friends is a great way for groups to hear feedback about the current draft of their solution.​

Authentic Audience:

• Tim Carigon 
  

 Final Presentation:

• ​Students presented their solution ideas via a Google presentation.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

•  A rubric will given to the authentic audience to feedback.
• Students will fill out a form reviewing what went well and what could be improved.​

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Jim Warren teaches Social Studies and Current Events at Spring Lake High School.

     “Being a teacher using PBL is a process that is makes you improve each time you take kids through the whole Creative Sequence. It’s nice to see things that I am better at then previous projects because of constant evaluation and new learning by me.”