CODES221 Implementation Plan

Overarching Research Question:
“How do we engage K-5 students to build curiosity regarding water conservation?”
East St. Louis has a harsh industrial history. The soil has been left sterile and full of chemicals. There are many variations of flooding issues within the community with little action steps being taken. In an aspiration to influence the new generation about good water conservation practices and educating them on water equity issues, we want to research how these students learn best and develop an interactive water fair. We plan to interact with kids at JJK Academy at their after school program to further implement good water practices that they can take home and, ultimately, influence their community.

Stakeholders:
Our key stakeholders are students and educators at the JJK Foundation. Both of these groups are key stakeholders because both have a significant ability to influence water conservation with their participation and knowledge. Educators at JJK have expressed a desire to focus on implementing interactive lessons on plants. In addition, Zach Stafford, one of the educators at JJK, recommended that we have lesson plans that target all ages, including K-8.

Individual Research Questions:

Alexandra- Community Pride Lessons
How to engage students in their community and history/ learning about their town?
For this semester’s project, we are going to have a water fair. Through my research question, I will design a table to teach students about their community and what has happened throughout the years in that area, explaining why the landscape is as it is now. I will research East St. Louis to learn about the landscape and develop a fun activity that showcases the changes over the years. I will also look at other lessons that involve students learning about their communities so that I can build my lesson. Also, I want to show kids what could happen to their town if we work hard over the years to improve the landscape, enhance the well-being of the land, and make it a healthy and loved place—one step at a time.

Justin- Natural Water Filtration
I will be participating in the water fair mentioned above. My water fair project I have decided on is water filtration, specifically an experimental water filter. This will be an activity centering on knowledge of how water filtration works at its most rudimentary form. I will collect information for this experiment with lessons found online and YouTube videos related to the topic. I will find multiple lessons to draw on and choose a lesson to do with the students. At the end, I will mention that even though the water looks clear, you probably still should boil the water as some microorganisms, not even the best water filters, can get rid of.

Marques- Fun in Gardens
During the water fair I plan to have a station educating the youth on participation in local gardens.This will be an activitiy to help maintain gardens, basic plant knowledge,water infrastructure and more. I will collect data from lesson plans found on TPT, and other credible sites to collect interactive activities. These activities will be made for ages K-8 targeting all ages in the JJK foundation. I will choose one lesson to conduct at the fair.

Sonia- How do rain gardens affect how much water soaks into the ground? How to teach them about rain gardens;
What I will do in the water fair is compare normal ground and rain garden ground. I will focus on how the garden catches water when it rains, at what rate, and how the water soaks into the ground. The lessons may also compare the different surfaces water can run off of and what environmental problems it can cause. I will research lessons that would be effective for my topic, and pick one to conduct at the fair. One that I have looked into so far is having two separate trays one with just soil and another with soil and some plants, and then pour water and proceed to make observations on how the water gets absorbed differently between the two trays. My data collection will be based on the lesson plans that I find on credible and reliable sites.

Payton- Water Fair Toolkit
A water fair toolkit looks like a digital step-by-step description of how to tailor our water fair to fit other schools in, potentially, other communities. I will be researching activities and how they tie into water equity issues, analyzing successes and frustrations in our water fair, and collaborating with Zach, Kurly, and potentially other educators in the area. This toolkit will be a collection of files that have all kinds of hands-on activities for children of all ages. Educators can pick which activities best suit their situation and plan their own water fair! Ultimately, this will be distributed to other programs so we can further influence the new generation on good water conservation practices.

Tamiria- “What are some tactics to increase engagement through lessons and interactive activities?
The process of education can be considered as one of the most powerful things that a person could attain. Education provides us with reading, writing, and critical thinking skills which all impact us in every aspect of life. When I think about the many ways that students learn, I realize that there isn’t just one method. However, it takes many strategies, data and research to come up with mechanisms that are proven to be effective. This question will target the why, as my team and I are working towards providing water ecology lessons for K-8. With this, I will be interviewing 3-4 stakeholders on their experiences with water ecology lessons for kids. Ultimately, we hope to change the narrative for students who haven’t been exposed to the idea of water ecology.