Creative Solutions for Tulip Time Waste
                                                                          By:  Avril Wiers

Project at a Glance : 

Students explore the issue of waste disposal during the annual Tulip Time Festival; with an emphasis on Natural Resource Management and Ecological impact.
       
 
Driving Question:

How can Tulip Time create a more sustainable festival?             

Standards:

• 1: Natural Resources Management & Products - plan for the production, harvesting, processing, and/or use of natural resources in a responsible and sustainable manner.
• 2: Scientific & Career Readiness - obtain and analyze data by monitoring natural resource status.  Examine natural resource topics using science concepts, processes, and research techniques. Identify, organize alternatives, and evaluate public policy issues related to AFNR.
• 3: Ecology:  apply ecological concepts and principles to natural resource systems.

Team / Culture Building:

• ​Students watched the Simon Sinek Golden Circle video - focusing on the Why, then the What, then the How.

Entry Event:

• Introduced The Clean Bin Project documentary.
• Share a Video about Tulip Time - 500,000 people visited Tulip Time in 2022, each person produces 4.40 lbs. of trash a day.  How much waste is produced during Tulip Time?
• Showed the TEDx Puget Sound video
  Focus on the Why, then the What, then the How.

Stakeholders:

• Tulip Time Staff

Empathy Building:

• Artifact Analysis: Students had a selection of to-go ware from various local restaurants on their tables. They were asked to investigate each of the items and evaluate the sustainability of each product. 
• Students looked at outside Inspiration: Look at different festivals and how they’re managing to be zero
  waste.
• The class reviewed Ottawa County Solid Waste Management Plan.

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students first engaged in a brain dump capturing everything they knew about the driving question onto sticky notes. 
• Students discussed with their  groups and compiled this information to the “K” column of a KWL chart.  Then, they brainstormed things they still needed to figure out, met as a group, and recorded those ideas in the “W” column of the KWL chart. Finally, students spent 10 minutes searching out the answers to some of their questions–the questions they could not find answers to in a quick Google search became the questions we will ask our community partners. 

Incubation:

• Rip, Slap, Pass: Brainstorming solutions that Tulip Time should explore.
• SCAMPER: What can you substitute, combine, adapt, modify, purpose, eliminate, rearrange?

Checking in:

• Love Letter/Break-Up Letter:  Midway through the PBL, some students were NOT feeling it. The teacher had students write a Love Letter to the things they were liking about class and a Break-Up Letter to the things they didn’t like. It was a great way to reset and refocus for the rest of the PBL.

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Solution Building:

• Saturate & Group: Students group all of the data they’ve collected to see any themes to use as a point of reference when developing solutions.
• 6 Thinking Hats: To narrow down potential solutions, students will get into groups and put on different hats to investigate each solution. (Combine with criteria grid to determine which solutions are worth pursuing.)​
• NUF Test: Is the solution New, Useful, and Feasible? If not, how can we change the
  solution to score higher?
• Prototyping: Students develop a plan for how they might prototype their proposed solution.
  

Critique & Revision:

• Critical Friends: The class invited people from throughout Careerline Tech Center to listen to The Pitch before presenting to Tulip Time staff. This helped because the audience was people who were somewhat familiar (but not too familiar) to students, so they had a healthy dose of stress without being overwhelmed. Students opted to receive the cool feedback before the warm feedback so they could be left with the “warm fuzzies” at the end.​

Authentic Audience:

• Chad Mesbergen, Tulip Time
  
• Kelly Goward, Outdoor Discovery Center
  
• Joe Sikma, Outdoor Discovery Center
  
• Kimberly Wolters, Ottawa County Environmental Sustainability
  
• Dan Broersma, City of Holland Sustainability
  
• Russ Boersma, Arrowaste
  
• Kent County Recycling Facility
  

Final Presentation:

• The Pitch: Students prepared a slideshow presentation to share their solution with the Tulip Time staff. It was a challenge to get students comfortable with all the intricacies of public speaking, but they managed to put together presentations that were informative and engaging.

Click here for Project Outline.

Reflection and Feedback:

• Pluses & Deltas: Opportunity to reflect during the process on what’s going well and what needs to change–start week 2 with a check-in to calibrate for pitch week.​

• Retrospective Board: Have students create a quadrant with these prompts:
• Things we will continue to do in the same way, things we will do differently next time, things we want to try out, and things that are not relevant.​

Meet the Educator:
Avril Wiers teachers the Environmental Field Studies program at the OAISD Careerline Tech Center.

     “Project-based learning empowers students to make real-world connections and advocate for change in their communities.”