Examples of schools that have started community projects
Community based projects address topics of a local nature. Their primary focus is the development and execution of activities that benefit their community. The following examples include school initiatives from a broad range of place-based activities. They include building community trails, monitoring local environments, recording waste management processes, and surveying community decisions.
The Yukon Envirothon (www.yukonenvirothon.com) The Yukon Envirothon is biannual challenge in which students study and analyze one of 4 biomes that have been the source of community concern. They have a week to analyze their data and prepare a presentation outlining their findings and proposed solutions. This activity involves large numbers of students for fairly short periods of time, biannually. The following is taken the website that outlines the general problems and the data collection tasks.
This high school activity, conducted since 2005, is loosely based on the Canon Envirothon. The Yukon Competition focuses on four locations within Whitehorse that have been areas of public concern. The site of the challenge is revealed a week prior to the challenge day and instructors provide training sessions and a walk through to bring focus to key elements of these complex problems. The web site provides extensive background information and recommendations for effective organisation for the teams of five to six students.
Prepration The first task is for teams to read over the Student Challenge which describes the tasks involved in the Envirothon within five categories, all organized around a topic of local concern. Team are encouraged to decide on who will specialize on each major category of study and how the team members will divide the taks and bring their work together. Team members should look over the supporting maps and reports and divide up the related readings and studies. The web site provides instruction on how to conduct the field studies within all five broad topics. On the day of the Envirothon, teams need a clear plan of the tasks. Each member will need to have printed copies of the data forms related to their respective tasks. Students are advised to keep detailed records, take photos and/or videos and arrange a way in which their team can bring this information together for their presentation the following week.
Students present for 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute period in which judges can pose questions. The two winning teams, one from each of semester, are offered the opportunity to be the Yukon team that participates in the International Cannon Envirothon.
Analysis of highway litter. This example details a fairly straightforward study that grew into something of greater community value.
This high school activity took place over 6 semesters in Whitehorse, Yukon.
A letter to the editor in the Yukon News blamed tourists for the litter along the highways around Whitehorse. The Experiential Science class discussed this and decided to test this argument. The class selected four study sites: two along the Alaska Highway and two along the Klondike Highway. Sites were selected on both sides of Whitehorse, along relatively straight sections of highway in urban and rural settings. Students conducted the surveys in late September, before snow was on the ground but at the end of the bulk of the tourist season and again in the early spring just after the snow melted and for a third time in the following September. The goal was to see if there was a significant increase in highway litter when tourists were visiting the Yukon compared to times when they were not visiting the Yukon.
One hundred meter lines were laid along both sides of the highway and students were asked map the location of each piece of litter in relation to the base line and distance from the base line. They were also asked to identify the kind of litter, its source if possible, and pick up the litter as part of a highway clean-up.
We found it was we, the locals, who contributed most of the litter, most of it closest to Whitehorse and most of the identifiable litter had a McDonalds logo.
As a result, some students wanted to explore how this was happening. They visited the local MacDonalds and asked if they could do something about the litter problem they observed in their survey. The manager said that this was outside his control. The students then went through the "drive through" and ordered one cup of black coffee. They got the cup, cap and coffee in a bag with napkins, cream, sugar, stirstick: thirteen items that could become litter. When they took this information back to the manager, the local McDonalds changed the way they serve a cup of coffee. This appears to have led to a decrease in the litter from the McDonalds, a source which originally accounted for more than 50% of the identifiable litter in the highway surveys. Furthermore, the manager shared this change at a franchise meeting and the adjustment has become common practice.
Forestry Growth Rate Studies are examples of studies conducted over a period of many years. The information collected was given to the local renewable resource council to help in decision making in forestry management. This Whitehorse high school activity has taken place since 1995 to the present. Applying the principle "Cut the forest no faster than it grows" to local forest ecology prompted two key questions: how fast does the forest grow and what factors affect forest growth rates? These two questions are the foundation to many of our forestry analysis that cover a wide range of factors. Students use the forest structure analysis plots developed by Foothills Model Forest because this system links tree growth data with location, aspect, slope, species composition, soils, stand density, ground cover, course and fine woody debris, seedling growth and local climatic features. The forestry plots were numbered and the growth rates of more than 400 trees in the Haines Junction and Whitehorse areas have been recorded throughout this period. This information helped the Alsek Renewable Resource Council determine allowable annual cuts for the region. In addition, the dendrochronology labs contribute specific details to school studies. Each increment bore core sample was counted independently at least three times by different students. The age/volume data has been combined to produce a table showing the volume of growth/hector.
The Yukon Envirothon (www.yukonenvirothon.com) The Yukon Envirothon is biannual challenge in which students study and analyze one of 4 biomes that have been the source of community concern. They have a week to analyze their data and prepare a presentation outlining their findings and proposed solutions. This activity involves large numbers of students for fairly short periods of time, biannually. The following is taken the website that outlines the general problems and the data collection tasks.
This high school activity, conducted since 2005, is loosely based on the Canon Envirothon. The Yukon Competition focuses on four locations within Whitehorse that have been areas of public concern. The site of the challenge is revealed a week prior to the challenge day and instructors provide training sessions and a walk through to bring focus to key elements of these complex problems. The web site provides extensive background information and recommendations for effective organisation for the teams of five to six students.
Prepration The first task is for teams to read over the Student Challenge which describes the tasks involved in the Envirothon within five categories, all organized around a topic of local concern. Team are encouraged to decide on who will specialize on each major category of study and how the team members will divide the taks and bring their work together. Team members should look over the supporting maps and reports and divide up the related readings and studies. The web site provides instruction on how to conduct the field studies within all five broad topics. On the day of the Envirothon, teams need a clear plan of the tasks. Each member will need to have printed copies of the data forms related to their respective tasks. Students are advised to keep detailed records, take photos and/or videos and arrange a way in which their team can bring this information together for their presentation the following week.
Students present for 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute period in which judges can pose questions. The two winning teams, one from each of semester, are offered the opportunity to be the Yukon team that participates in the International Cannon Envirothon.
Analysis of highway litter. This example details a fairly straightforward study that grew into something of greater community value.
This high school activity took place over 6 semesters in Whitehorse, Yukon.
A letter to the editor in the Yukon News blamed tourists for the litter along the highways around Whitehorse. The Experiential Science class discussed this and decided to test this argument. The class selected four study sites: two along the Alaska Highway and two along the Klondike Highway. Sites were selected on both sides of Whitehorse, along relatively straight sections of highway in urban and rural settings. Students conducted the surveys in late September, before snow was on the ground but at the end of the bulk of the tourist season and again in the early spring just after the snow melted and for a third time in the following September. The goal was to see if there was a significant increase in highway litter when tourists were visiting the Yukon compared to times when they were not visiting the Yukon.
One hundred meter lines were laid along both sides of the highway and students were asked map the location of each piece of litter in relation to the base line and distance from the base line. They were also asked to identify the kind of litter, its source if possible, and pick up the litter as part of a highway clean-up.
We found it was we, the locals, who contributed most of the litter, most of it closest to Whitehorse and most of the identifiable litter had a McDonalds logo.
As a result, some students wanted to explore how this was happening. They visited the local MacDonalds and asked if they could do something about the litter problem they observed in their survey. The manager said that this was outside his control. The students then went through the "drive through" and ordered one cup of black coffee. They got the cup, cap and coffee in a bag with napkins, cream, sugar, stirstick: thirteen items that could become litter. When they took this information back to the manager, the local McDonalds changed the way they serve a cup of coffee. This appears to have led to a decrease in the litter from the McDonalds, a source which originally accounted for more than 50% of the identifiable litter in the highway surveys. Furthermore, the manager shared this change at a franchise meeting and the adjustment has become common practice.
Forestry Growth Rate Studies are examples of studies conducted over a period of many years. The information collected was given to the local renewable resource council to help in decision making in forestry management. This Whitehorse high school activity has taken place since 1995 to the present. Applying the principle "Cut the forest no faster than it grows" to local forest ecology prompted two key questions: how fast does the forest grow and what factors affect forest growth rates? These two questions are the foundation to many of our forestry analysis that cover a wide range of factors. Students use the forest structure analysis plots developed by Foothills Model Forest because this system links tree growth data with location, aspect, slope, species composition, soils, stand density, ground cover, course and fine woody debris, seedling growth and local climatic features. The forestry plots were numbered and the growth rates of more than 400 trees in the Haines Junction and Whitehorse areas have been recorded throughout this period. This information helped the Alsek Renewable Resource Council determine allowable annual cuts for the region. In addition, the dendrochronology labs contribute specific details to school studies. Each increment bore core sample was counted independently at least three times by different students. The age/volume data has been combined to produce a table showing the volume of growth/hector.