Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Whole systems, Integrated Site design for Education (WISE) Website: An Interactive Website for Educators and Students
EPA Grant Number: SU832489Title: Whole systems, Integrated Site design for Education (WISE) Website: An Interactive Website for Educators and Students
Investigators: Parajuli, Pramod , Lans, Kristen , Guthrie, Michelle , Hemenway, Toby
Institution: Portland State University
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: September 1, 2005 through August 30, 2006
Project Amount: $10,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2005) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Challenge Area - Air Quality , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
The central purpose of this project is to effectively deliver applicable information about sustainable systems to schools, and to facilitate hands on implementation of these ideas by students and their teachers. In order for to make the WISE website accessible, we designed it to be multi-sensory, flexible, fun, factual, as well as design-oriented. We did so because the future of maintaining complex and thriving sustainable human societies and institutions such as schools depends on the transmission of the body of knowledge about sustainability early on in our lives. By learning and working with whole systems design principles early in their lives, children and youth will become equipped to be the best technological and ecological citizens that they can be.
The WISE website was created to effectively deliver applicable information about sustainable systems to schools and to facilitate bands-on implementation of these ideas by students.
The WISE tool: The WISE website is an interactive, place-based, interdisciplinary tool that educates teachers and students how to implement the principles of Whole Systems Sustainable Design at their schools. Students learn a series of design skills while analyzing the resource flows at their schools, and are led to forty-one sustainable design project 'systems' from compost to photovoltaics. These systems can be linked together and adapted to their specific locale.
Our target audience was 6th grade students. The key steps of the website arc outlined below with corresponding activities carried out in one of our four WISE classroom tests.
Orientation : Students get a background on Whole systems by watching a "WISE story". The story outlines the resource use and systems involved in a school. As shown in table I below, next students make a base map of their school. They add elements they can remember from their school and grounds. Students in WISE Test Classroom #3 located elements like their sports fields, school building and parking lot. This map is used throughout the WISE program. It reflects student understanding of topics presented.
Observation: In order to make informed change students must sec what exists on their site. Each student plays the role of a scientist and in scavenger hunt style they are sent out to explore their school with a checklist. Among other things, WISE Test Classroom #3 found 7 different signs of animals, 5 dumpsters, and clay type soil on their school grounds. They added these elements to their school maps.
Findings: ECO, the WISE OWL, is interested in what the student found and asks students questions. As student answer these questions Eco begins to explain what finding certain elements and resources means. Students see their findings tum into points in certain sustainable systems. WISE Test Classroom #3 found 13 garbage cans in their cafeteria; Eco says this may be a great resource for a compost pile.
Sustainable Systems Categories: After students have entered their school-specific information into the computer, they are directed to one of five major sustainable system categories: Energy Systems, Plant and Garden Systems, Built Systems, Pollution Prevention (P2) Systems, Habitat Systems. Each of these system categories has a group of systems underneath it for further research and related actions. (See Appendix l for the Website map including WISE systems)
Sustainable Systems and Actions: WISE Test Classroom 3 was directed to the Plant and Garden Systems Category and looked into the Compost system. Here students evaluate inflows to the compost system like water, organic waste, and time. They learn about composting as they work through the system inputs by clicking on each one. Once they check that they have the inputs needed to make the system work they head to the actions associated with compost:
Action One: What Can I do? This action relates to an action students ca n take to change how they think or act about the system. For example: develop a poster campaign in your lunch room to educate students on what is compostable and what is not.
Action Two: On Site Action: This action involves changing how resources flow through the school site. WISE Test Classroom 3 created a system for starting compost with their class' lunchroom scraps. They developed a list of compost ingredients and located a spot on their school site for the pile.
Action Three: Community Action: This category explores what students can do for or learn from their community about compost. For example: invite a composting expert into your classroom to talk about compost and look over your plan.
Through this process of steps students gain a connection to their specific site, learn about a sustainable system, do research to see if they can implement an action, and carry out an action on their school site. This sequence of activities is unique in the way it shows students why they are carrying out an action and gives them the skills to do the critical thinking for themselves in the future. Students are also instilled with a sense of ownership of the project they create.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
In the P3 Phase I proposal, potential project success would be gauged by the input of participating schools and community partners during Educational and Content Evaluation activities in the research and development process (See appendix TI for the list of partners and evaluators). Criteria for evaluation focused on the following areas:
Educational Evaluation- i.) Site Appropriateness: ease of use, applicability to a wide range of sites ii.) Overall Relevance as an Educational Tool: is WISE optimized to be integrated into the school system?, and iii.) Ability to Communicate and Teach Principles of Sustainability, as they relate to People, Prosperity and the Planet: effectiveness of WISE as a teaching tool for sustainability, and
Content Evaluation- i.) Real World Applicability: feasibility, accuracy of information, and P3 benefits, and ii). Civic Applicability: civic engagement necessary to implement P3 concepts, and diverse community applications.
Educational Evaluation: The project was considered overwhelmingly successful in the research and design phase in all of the above areas. Part of the success of Phase I can be attributed to the fact that the evaluation format and project schedule allowed the design process to be dynamic and tailored to the real needs of educators, students, and communities. The excellent reception of WISE in relevant educational arenas assures its continued success.
Content Evaluation: Evaluation of content was carried out through workshops, questionnaires and partner reviews that looked closely at WISE content. Overall, reviewers agreed that the information contained in WISE was applicable, accurate, and current. For example the systems evaluator and permaculture consultant suggested including social systems into the actions, bringing about the birth of Action Option 1: What can I do?. Evaluators said that WISE actions created a strong link to real world applicability. One evaluator stated, when you do an on site project in the school, "kids can take those ideas home with them."
WISE Test |
Sample |
Activities Covered |
Evaluation |
Findings Summary |
1-1217/05 |
6Ln Grade, |
WISE initial review |
Field Notes, |
Students enjoyed WISE interface; |
2-2/06 |
6th Grade, |
3 visits: |
Teacher Interviews, Teacher Questionnaires, Student Evaluations (verbal and |
Vision- impaired students showed strong participation due to multisensory research in WISE Herb Garden System (smelling herbs while learning); English language learners were strongly engaged due to multicultural applications of subject matter (cultural uses of herbs). All students were interested in the design process and exploring system inputs. WISE is appropriate for a range of physical and learning abilities |
3-2/06 |
6th-8th |
3 visits: |
Teacher |
Students were able to quantify |
4-3/06 |
6th Grade |
3 visits: |
Teacher |
WISE helped students learn about and |
Conclusions:
The WISE program is education and knowledge-based, leading to a wealth of qualitative data. The knowledge shared and spread through the next generation cannot be easily quantified. The impact of WISE is based on the ability of the project to be implemented and put into action by teachers and students. Receiving the Phase II funding will be vital to keep the project moving and getting the word out.
One aspect that can be quantified is the impact of the WISE actions on local resource flows, for example the gallons of water diverted by disconnecting down spouts. To calculate the impact of this action over the entire Portland Public School District, we multiply our findings for one WISE test classroom by the 91 schools i n the District. We can predict that there are 509,693,184 gallons of rain that fall on Portland Public School buildings every year. This assumes our test school was an average size that the entire school district gets the same average annual rainfall and that students calculations in the test school were correct. This number can be accepted as a rough calculation of stormwater that could be redirected or intercepted.
The technical challenges to sustainability can be overwhelming and frightening, especially for young people. WISE addresses the issues raised in sustainability education by helping students to understand that they can create smart designs that have impacts that are beneficial to the sustainability of people, prosperity, and the planet. Empowering students in this way not only provides measurable benefits to the environment and human health, but also improves quality of life. WISE has infinite potential to bring about positive impacts in the movement toward sustainability. It fills distinct needs in the intertwined worlds of both sustainability and education by providing a technologically advanced forum for dissemination of sustainability initiatives and projects sustainability.
Supplemental Keywords:
Water, soil, land, ecological effects, human health, children ecosystem, restoration, life cycle analysis, sustainable development, waste reduction, surveys, northwest, RFA, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, TREATMENT/CONTROL, Sustainable Industry/Business, POLLUTION PREVENTION, Sustainable Environment, Energy, Technology, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Technical Assistance, Ecology and Ecosystems, environmental accounting, clean technologies, green design, sustainable development, computer models, decision making, ecological design, education, environmental sustainability, alternative materials, design optimization, interactive web-based education, collaborative urban planning, computer generated alternatives, energy efficiency, environmentally friendly green products, ecosystem assessment tool, Design for Environment, environmental education, sustainable design suite, technology transferP3 Phase II:
WISE Website – Whole Systems Integrated Sustainable Design for Education: An Interactive Website for Educators and StudentsThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.