Throughout this project, students will be taking a closer look at the world around them, identifying problems they see, and coming up with ways they can help! The Gates Foundation field trip was the perfect place to start thinking about this. Students were able to think about what problems our world faces, how people around the world go about trying to solve those problems, and what our role in this problem solving might be. This week we have been brainstorming a class list of problems that we see in the world. I can't believe all that they came up with! We dove into a couple of those problems this week to learn more. |
The global water crisisThis week we started taking a closer look at one specific world problem; the global water crisis. We learned a little about the water cycle to help us understand that all the water we have now is all the water we will ever have and how we are all connected! How we treat water here effects water in other areas. We read some great books that helped us understand what it is like for people to have to walk for water and how people have come up with creative solutions to help this problem. Our 2nd graders a few years ago, now 5th graders (can't believe that!) made a video tied to their PBL project about the global water crisis to help raise awareness of this global problem. We will keep this learning going throughout the project as well as dive into other world problems as a class. | Littering/GarbageOne problem that kids can really wrap their minds around is garbage. We see it in our own neighborhood and there is lots we can do to help! We learned that it is not enough to just pick up the litter we see on the ground and put it in the garbage. Where does that garbage really go? We watched a few videos that showed how garbage transfer centers are using that trash to create energy or how we can have landfills that later become parks. They key to all this though is reducing the amount of trash that we actually throw away and separating our the helpful trash from things that really don't have a use. |