Race Against Waste Program: Kick Off + Investigation

These materials and activities help students to generate questions and organize notes as they use MISO (media, interview, survey, and observation) to conduct research on their selected issue.

Click on the links to create a copy of the material that can be saved into your Google Drive and shared with students in Google Classroom. 

• Media Research Note Catcher [Google Doc] 
  Note catcher for students to record research notes (source details, one thing learned, and one question
• Media Research Note Catcher [Google Slides]
  Note catcher for students to record research notes (source details, one thing learned, and one question)
• Four Corners with Modifications [Google Slides]
  Activity guide with option to have students use digital "post-its" on slide 2 to contribute questions
  Note: Jamboard is a great tool for conducting the 4 Corners activity! It is ideal for synchronous, small group (break out room) student collaboration.
• Four Corners Complete Activity Guide [PDF]
  Teacher instructions and visuals for facilitating complete 4 Corners activity with MISO
• Root Causes Tree [Google Doc]
  Activity for synchronous instruction to help students identify the root causes of an issue
• Root Causes Tree [Google Slides]
  Activity for synchronous instruction to help students identify the root causes of an issue
• Community Mapping with City Planning Data [Google Doc]
  Guided activity for middle/high school students to explore community assets and needs through city data
• Roots & Shoots Community Mapping 101 [PDF]
  Guide for a community walk to make observations and create a map of community assets
  Note: This can be adapted for students who are learning remotely to do a community walk near their home and report back observations 
• Survey Template [Google Forms]
  Survey template with question types and stems for students to edit and send out to their school/local community 
• Surveys for Service-Learning [PDF]
  Guidance on helping students develop surveys to gather information on their topic for service

How to Brainstorm and Collaborate with Students Online

• Check out this Art of Education University article with information on four free tools for online brainstorming (Answer Garden, Padlet, Google, and Stormboard) and choose one to start collecting students' ideas for service and areas of need in their community.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• Explore the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which can be used as a framework for your service-learning project or have students make connections between their topic for service and the goals.

World of Service Activity

• View this brief guide to a fun brainstorming activity that can be completed by students in small groups or adapted using the above online collaboration tools.

Take some time before and during your first session to get to know your students and prompt their thinking around helping their community. 

• This personal inventory includes questions about students interests, skills, and talents that can guide in the creation of your service-learning project in the coming weeks.
• These icebreaker questions include engaging topics that can help a group of students get to know each other 
• Other questions for service: 
  • Describe a time you helped someone. What was the problem? How did you help? How did it feel to help?
  • Who are the people who help in your community? What places and organizations exist to help people?

Spark students' interest in the topic for service! Facilitate an engaging, inspiring, and thought provoking experience before diving into deeper research. Some ideas for kick-off include:

• Media that inspires
• Virtual field trips
• Community/school walk

After kicking off service-learning and building student interest and investment in the topic for service, it's time to gather information! Among the goals of the investigation/research phase is to build background knowledge, collect data, and identify specific areas of need within the issue. Use a variety of MISO approaches, resources, and experiences to get to the root cause of the issue before planning for action + advocacy.

• Media Analysis* - newspapers, journals, videos, PSAs, books
  *We're going to dig into media at PL session 2 on February 15!
• Interviews/Field Trips - interviewing experts, colleagues
• Survey - surveying constituents, peers
• Observation - community walks/mapping, field trips
• Root Cause Analysis (identifying symptoms and root causes)

Have students view videos on their topic before or during the first session. Check out the video below on your topic, visit your topic resource page for more options, and use The Story of Stuff as an overview and intro to waste.

Each deck below includes background information and vocabulary, a brief video (5-15 minutes), poll, and a link to an additional resource. 

Instruct students to select full screen for the best viewing experience. Then they can use the arrows to advance through the deck and press "play" to watch the video.

Fashion Waste

Plastic Waste

Food Waste

The Rotten Truth: Landfills