Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 5)

Sonia Sheryr

Reflection 1

What I will do in the water fair is compare the soil from normal ground and rain garden ground. I will focus on how the  rain garden catches water when it rains, at what rate, and how the water soaks into the ground. The lessons would also give me the opportunity to 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. 

Some obstacles that I may encounter while working to execute my implementation plan is finding out how exactly I will gather the materials and make the activity or lesson plan work. This is a crucial part of my implementation plan because I want to find a lesson that will keep the kids at Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center engaged and interested. Regarding water infrastructure, constructing awareness about the importance of conserving water is vital, especially for youth. Eventually, we will put the importance of water infrastructure in the hands of a new generation. Therefore, we must teach them the reasons behind water conservation and practical usage. Water infrastructure is complex; if one factor changes slightly, the rest of the system can easily be thrown off. This is why we need to aid in introducing water infrastructure to youth, and this must be done in interactive ways. Interactive activities will keep students engaged and active in the topic of conversation. 

My group and our partners are absolutely thrilled to get us started with conducting our water fair to the kids of Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center. We have met and interviewed Zach at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center multiple times and that is what gave us a better idea of what to work toward in the coming semesters. We have definitely built trust both ways with our community partner; and we did that by meeting often, coming prepared, asking questions, and meeting deadlines. In addition, everytime we would reach out we would imply that we are here to help you guys, so tell us what weight we can take off your shoulders, and we can work on that. A combination of all these factors is how we gained trust both ways with our community partner.

In our most recent meeting we discussed how the water fair would actually be conducted, the total number of tables, a possible specific date, and timings. Things are going smoothly for the most part and we all are over excited to carry out each part to our implementation plan.

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Youth Education

Dr. Martinez

CODE 122

22 April 2025

Mixed Methods

After meeting with and interviewing Zach at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Academy, we have a better idea of what we are working toward in the coming semesters. We asked questions regarding how the kids at the academy learn and what changes are feasible to their after-school program. There were many themes that emerged, but a few outshone the others. For example, technological advancement was one recurring theme. Zach said on multiple occasions that he’d like to utilize technology and potentially drones to help kids visualize these water conservation issues, “Drones! That’s what I’m trying to get right now. We have a good drone program, it’s probably one of my favorite ones. And I’ve been trying, begging and begging for a thermal imaging drone. And just no luck, no funding… I think stuff like that, that’s easy for kids to understand, where they can automatically pull up a chart, I think is great.” Another theme is activity characteristics for the after-school program. He wants these activities to be hands-on and science-forward. “I think water conservation hits a lot, and science. They’re not the focus kind of test scores. It’s really math and reading, right? So a lot of science and geography teachers are like, well, we need to read more. Or, you know, we need to get these terms so your reading scores go up, or we’ll do the science that deals with more math so your math scores go up. I think science and social studies should go away from that.“ The last theme is what is important to these kids and what they take away when they go home. When thinking about what kinds of activities we’d want to incorporate, Zach wants us to make sure kids are learning about water but also how they can make a difference and improve things in their own community. “Just from my office, I see deer, coyotes, skunks, foxes, turkeys, hawks, eagles, all around here. just necessarily. If you go outside, you can hear chus frogs right now throughout the summer, you love frogs, 24/7 because we’re in the swamplands, right? We’re in America’s floodplains with the Mississippi, right? So that would be one thing, is theology, but that goes back to water conservation as well, because it’s all part of it.” This was important to us and was something we didn’t consider when sifting through potential activities. 

Our results relate to our survey because they reflect the responses that we received in our survey and compare to the opinions written by our survey participants. We do believe that the qualitative study aided in filling in various gaps that we expected. The qualitative data added a level of perspective that provided further context to our topics. It also provided a different view on multiple different experiences to elaborate on.

The results supported our initial conclusion that JJK wanted lesson plans that were interactive for students and could be used in afterschool programs or during class. The interview provided us with information regarding what type of activities we could do. JJK specifically wanted activities that involved students being outside and activities that involved urban ecology.

The interview did not reveal any tension or complexity, we believe this to be an important stepstone in our information gathering to help aid. They provided us with information on how we can best help them with finding lesson plans, what they do to keep students engaged, and activities they’ve done in the past. 

We communicated well with the teacher we interviewed, however we believe that in order to get more quality information we could have interacted with multiple different teachers. Doing so would provide us with more teachers with more perspectives, and more people to give their opinion on the interview questions. The answers we would have received would be more diverse in nature. We could organize the information and compare it with a number of other previous responses, and possibly averaging out the responses to see if there was a common theme in the transcribing process.

This semester, we conducted our research using various mixed methods, including interviews, discussions, site visits, FaceTime with partners, and lesson research. Doing an interview provided us with a personal point of view from an after-school educator in JJKFan, with which we could better understand what they do and how we can add more activities, as we now have a visual view of what they do and the materials they use. The site visit gave us a physical view of their space, giving us a better idea of what we could do in the school, making it feel more real. The face time we have had over the past few months has helped us build a better understanding as we get deeper into our research on specific topics and activities that our partner JJKFan is looking to incorporate into their after-school program. 

Overall, the different methods we have used in research have taught us how to interview and get involved with our partners, and visiting their school has given us new ideas that can work for their after-school program. Now, what we want to know for the future is to review our research and see if what we have gathered will work with our new ideas of a fun, interactive after-school program.

Youth Education 

Dr. Martinez

CODE 122

18 March 2025

Lab #2 – Water Conservation Curriculum

One theme emerging in the project is the concept of water conservation. It’s the central theme because water conservation can fall into other facets of water, such as the cleanliness of water, water security, and how water affects human health. One example says that some people have limited access to clean water. One activity regarding aquifers is interactive and talks about things that filter water from underground. Another theme is water usage, which puts into perspective how much water they use, which is what the matching activity is based on.

One group split we saw while researching lesson plans was the split of water topics. In the early grade levels, lessons were mainly focused on the water cycle and planning with fun graphics. Meanwhile, lesson plans for grades 9-12 included water sustainability and water pollution. This was done because water pollution and sustainability are topics that can be easily expanded on and applied at a higher education level. In comparison, the water cycle is a topic that is more applicable to younger age groups since it uses more straightforward concepts that students can understand.

Using the websites provided by Dr. Dexheimer, we were able to find lesson plan one, which was called Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers. The website gives different lesson plans for K-12. Based on the information, they don’t show or provide the type of interactive activities that we and our partners are looking for. They are missing out on fun outdoor activities where the children interact with nature, giving them a more open understanding of nature waters’ importance in the specific water infrastructure and not so much of the water cycle. 

The activities we have looked at thus far are helpful. Most of them are games and things we would have enjoyed when we were younger. JJK wants more hands-on activities, which we need to look for more. Many activities are either online games or simple word searches/worksheets. JJK wants students to interact together and with water, plants, etc. For example, the EPA has good resources on watershed education, which would be helpful in terms of community engagement. We may have to consider altering these activities to be more hands-on or looking for new and more engaging activities altogether. It won’t be as easy as going on the EPA website and selecting activities from there. We will have to dive deeper, especially since we need the most hands-on help we can find. 

Works Cited

“Drinking Water & Ground Water Kids’ Stuff.” Epa.gov, 2025, www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/kids_k-3.html. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.

“Exploring Your Watershed | US EPA.” US EPA, 7 Dec. 2017, www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/exploring-your-watershed. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025.

US EPA, OW. “Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers.” US EPA, 21 Mar. 2016, www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/drinking-water-activities-students-and-teachers.