Community Service: Education is the Key to Preserving Our Environment For our community service, we wanted to educate SOAR students and teachers about the dangers of pollutants on our planet. We arranged to have Mr. Robert Wood, Division Chief for Environmental Management at Edwards Air Force Base, come and speak to a group of our students and teachers at SOAR High School, located on 3041 West Avenue K, Lancaster, CA 93536. We contacted Mr. Wood through the Mojave Environmental Educational Consortium (MEEC). Mr. Wood informed students about career fields that would help detect water pollution, the many pollutants that are present in different bodies of water and land, and the affects pollutants can have on our lives. Mr. Wood’s job is to observe the bio-physical environment, which includes living and non-living things. He has to look for how much a certain action or change will affect the environment and whether that action or change is a positive or a negative one to see how humans actually pose a threat to Earth. By educating us about the numerous scientific fields that contribute to the analysis of our environment and providing us with prerequisites for these careers, Mr. Wood has empowered students and teachers with the knowledge to obtain a career that can protect our environment and our future. |
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Reasearch Proposal and Environmental SolutionOur Pictures to USC. |
On the day we did the lesson plan,there was a lot of pressure and excitement in the room, even before we started teaching. Before class, we literally ran around trying to fill out cups with the appropriate amount of detergent and oil, while also filling more than 36 bottles of with a certain amount of water in less than 1 hour. As the first class started rolling in, we were just making the last adjustments to have the classroom set up. Completely unexpected, the first reign of students, who were just expecting the usual notes and lecture from Ms. Campos instead got a different taste from Team OCEANITS-GW. Students came in to find an article about 'Declining Male Fertility in Fish' on their desks. To encourage class participation, we had each student read 1 line of the article row by row. We then asked the students, while they were reading and following along to jot down 20 of the most important words in the article which they then were to make a summary from those 20 words. We then asked the students to share some of their summaries and asked specific questions about the article for a prize of handful of Swedish Fish candies. After we awarded the winners, we moved onto our lecture part of our lesson plan. We actively engaged the entire class in a colorful, semi-pictorial, PowerPoint about the basis generality of water pollution. We only listed the key-points in vague statements and went in-depth with graphs, charts, pictures and expert information that we all had researched ahead of time. Even though the public is quite-informed about water pollutants, many were surprised today that water pollution isn't just debris that is floating visibly on top of the surface. When we designed the PowerPoint, we tried to think of the best way of getting the message out without making it mundane to the student. We even got an encore for our wondrous and entertaining presentation and hosts. Last but not least, was the most exciting part of any lesson plan- the experiment. We each split off the entire class into partners with two teams per lab station (4 people per table). At the table, there was 2 cups of oil and 2 cups of detergent. There were also 3 bottles per team (or 6 total per table). Th goal was to mix the oil and water in one bottle, soap and water in another, and both into the last bottle. As the students perused the experiment they also had questions on a worksheet of observation and conveying analysis which they wrapped up with a conclusion. Our team walked around the lab tables to make sure each group had enough oil and detergent and if they needed any help. |
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