Community Clean Up 
                                              By:  TJ Klumpel & Kari Stranberg 

Project at a Glance :

​This STEM project introduces upper elementary students to innovative ways that everyday products are made from reused and recycled material in an effort to reduce the negative impact that pollution (littering) has on our local beaches and other public spaces. (Upper Elementary- 2-3 week project).       
 
Driving Question:

How can we clean up our community and create a usable product out of the recycled/repurposed items? ​             

Standards:

• Skills4Success - Problem Solving, Ethical Citizenship, & Communication

Team / Culture Building:

• Creative DNA protocol
• Lions, Eagles activity 

Entry Event:

• Engage students in a clean up activity 
• Invite an organization to speak about concerns around pollution.
• Show products made from recycled materials.​

Stakeholders:

• Animals
• Park Employees
• Park Users (surfers, volleyball players, elderly, kids, public safety)

Empathy Building:

• Empathy Mapping from a variety of perspectives (beach goers, birds/fish/wildlife)
• Love Letters/Break up Letters (things they LOVE about the beach and things they don’t like at the beach) (K-2 with pictures)

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

•  Answer the following questions - How can pollution harm people or animals that use/come to the beach? How does pollution affect the environment? How are materials already recycled/reused? How do people benefit from repurposed items? 
• Investigate what areas need to be cleaned up in our community. 
• Interview stakeholders
• Artifact Analysis, See, Think,
• Videos to share : Birds 
• Share  Video of Birds with plastic in them ​

Incubation:

• Introduce Famous Failures to encourage risk taking ​

• What if . . . Were . . .?
• Idea Quota
• The Anti-Problem
• Yes, and can it..?
• Brain Writing
• Fast Verb ​​

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Solution Building:

• Following the Idea Quota protocol students will use Dot Voting to choose their favorite ideas. 
•  Then, students will test their ideas using the  NUF and $100 Test.
• Bracketology
• Students will be encouraged to merge several solution ideas

Critique and Revision: 

• Check In Circles
• Fireside Chats
• Glow & Grow
• Pluses and Deltas​​

• Critical Friends
• ​Stakeholder Interviews
• Practice Pitch with Peers​​

Authentic Audience:

• Local DNR Park Managers
• City and Township Managers
• Local business owners
• County recycling manager

Final Presentation:

• Students will be able to present their solutions in a number of different ways including prototypes or or infographics.  As well as pitches can be in person or video medium.
• Students will be able to create prototypes that they will be able to pitch in a “Market Days” setting 
• Pitches may also be done using video presentations such as Flipgrid​

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• Students will use a rubric to assess themselves and each other, as well as, a rubric to assess other teams prototypes.  ​

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

Meet the Educator:
Kari Stranberg is an elementary STEM teacher at Griffin and Lake Hills Elementaries, Grand Haven Public Schools.  TJ Klumpel is a Y5's-4th grade STEM Teacher at Rosy Mound and Mary A. White, Grand Haven Public Schools. 

     "We are passionate about PBL and Design Thinking because it gives the students an opportunity to develop and improve their use of 21st century skills (i.e. teamwork, problem solving, communicating, research gathering, time management, information synthesizing, and utilizing technology) to solve real world problems through hands-on projects."  ~ K. Stranberg & TJ Klumpel