Environmental Issue Investigation

As we go through life, we are constantly faced with issues. Should I go to college or just hang out on the street corner? Should I go out with Dave or Jim Bob? Should I watch this rerun of Survivor or help save the tropical rainforests? These are just a few of the issues you may face. You may have strong feelings regarding certain issues, but without a strategy, those feelings may never be expressed. We live in a country of sheep where the masses follow the few with little resistance. We need to learn to ask questions and demand answers or solutions which are reasonable and sustainable. Our reasons for doing things need to go beyond, “ That’s the way Grandpa did it.” It just might be possible that Grandpa was doing things wrong or that situations have changed. Hopefully this project will introduce some methods you can use to expressing your feelings on issues and getting action started at a grassroots level. Here is a brief description of what you will need to do for your action project.

Survey and Results: You will develop a survey to determine what opinions and knowledge exist within the people of our community regarding your particular issue. You will then survey a representative sample of differing age groups within the community, not just the junior class. Survey results will then be put in table and graph form to be analyzed for any trends among gender, age, etc.

Letter to Editor: You will be responsible for writing a letter to the editor of a local or regional newspaper. Hopefully the topic of your letter can be about your issue, but if you do not have enough passion about your topic, please pick a issue you do have strong feelings about. Your letter should sound as though you care about what you are writing about and not like its just another assignment for school.

Letter to Representative: Our political system works the best when people communicate their feelings and ideas with elected officials so they can hopefully make decisions which reflect the wishes of the voters. You will write a letter to a local representative regarding an issue and hopefully will get a response.

Informational Public Service: Your group will develop some form of strategy for getting information to people within the community regarding your issue. This may be a table display and presentation at a sporting event or parent-teacher conferences, a brochure, a posting on the school web page, or any other means you can think of of getting your information to people.

Presentation to Grade School Class: Your group will make a presentation to a class in grades 1-6 regarding your issue. Your information will need to be tailored to the grade level of students to which you are presenting. All members of your group need to take an active role in your presentation. Your presentation must include graphics, illustrations and an activity. Presentation to Ecology Class: Your group will make a presentation to our Ecology class so you may share your information with us and make each of us more aware of your issue. This will be a PowerPoint presentation, again with some form of activity appropriate for junior/senior level.

ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE POINTS

Survey and results March 2 20

Letter to Editor March 17 20

Letter to Representative March 31 20

Informational Public Service April 21 20

Presentation to Class April 28 20

Presentation to Grade School Class May 5 20

The letter to the editor and to the representative are done by each group member and graded individually. The other assignments are group assignments and will be graded accordingly.