Solve a World Problem
For this project we were given the task of solving a world problem. We first had to brainstorm major or minor problems we have in our world today and try, in some small way, to solve them, or take actions to attempt to solve them. After much research and brainstorming we came to one main problem, overpopulation. This is a problem that if not controlled could affect us directly in the very near future.
Our first idea was to encourage people to use more reusable water bottles. We had a couple ideas about how we were going to spread the word. First we were thinking about posting some kind of quiz in the school newspaper that would display multiple water bottles and would match one to the personality to the person taking the quiz. That fell through because of many reasons, first we were unable to actually get anything in the newspaper because it was full. The other issue that we were thinking about was the fact that many people would take the quiz, then do nothing, they might get a match for their personal water bottle and just say "Ok, cool" and move on with their day.
We decided to focus more on the main problem that overpopulation was causes, pollution and trash productivity. We thought, how could we make a change in the amount of trash our school produces? We had a great idea, put recycling cans out and see what we got! After rolling the cans out one morning before break we collected data from the amount of trash in the trash cans versus the amount of recycling, and sadly trash, in the recycling cans. Our discovery was very disheartening, there was almost nothing in the recycling bins, and of what was in there, almost none of it was actually recycling.
This made us realize that the issue was not on the amount of trash the school population produces but how the waste was being actually disposed of. After some thinking we came to the conclusion that what really needs to happen is more education. In some ways it's not the kids fault for putting recycling in the trash, or vice versa, if they've never been taught not to! Kids, starting from a young age, need to be taught how to take care of the planet.
Here below is our group presentation.
Our first idea was to encourage people to use more reusable water bottles. We had a couple ideas about how we were going to spread the word. First we were thinking about posting some kind of quiz in the school newspaper that would display multiple water bottles and would match one to the personality to the person taking the quiz. That fell through because of many reasons, first we were unable to actually get anything in the newspaper because it was full. The other issue that we were thinking about was the fact that many people would take the quiz, then do nothing, they might get a match for their personal water bottle and just say "Ok, cool" and move on with their day.
We decided to focus more on the main problem that overpopulation was causes, pollution and trash productivity. We thought, how could we make a change in the amount of trash our school produces? We had a great idea, put recycling cans out and see what we got! After rolling the cans out one morning before break we collected data from the amount of trash in the trash cans versus the amount of recycling, and sadly trash, in the recycling cans. Our discovery was very disheartening, there was almost nothing in the recycling bins, and of what was in there, almost none of it was actually recycling.
This made us realize that the issue was not on the amount of trash the school population produces but how the waste was being actually disposed of. After some thinking we came to the conclusion that what really needs to happen is more education. In some ways it's not the kids fault for putting recycling in the trash, or vice versa, if they've never been taught not to! Kids, starting from a young age, need to be taught how to take care of the planet.
Here below is our group presentation.
What I Learned
Our group was fortunate enough to have a great group of people that were able to bring many different schools of thought and ideas. Unfortunately, one of our group members was sick for more than half of the project, so it was difficult to fill her in on what she had missed. For those of us who weren't ill, we worked great together. We were able to have great brainstorming sessions and were able to look at realistic goals. Personally, I tried my best to really be accepting of all ideas, even if I didn't think it would work out in the end. I think that overall that made this group a little more pleasant to work with. We, as a group learned that when it comes to trying to solve a world problem, things are not as easy as just creating a solution. When it comes to something more broad like overpopulation. which we chose, it's almost impossible to create one major solution. There will always be complications and there will always be people who don't agree. One way to minimize issues is to narrow down your goal, which we were able to do successfully. We also learned that simple, and sort of unoriginal, isn't bad, you can add to anything, and try to improve. For us, we realized that education on recycling could be much better, many students clearly had no clue when confronted with an option on where to put their trash. So, many were lazy and just threw their trash wherever was closest, this is a major issue. Of course everyone has heard about recycling education, but obviously, these students had forgotten or just didn't care. Another part about keeping it simple was shown in our presentation, when using something familiar like a Powerpoint we were able to do our best because we knew what to do and didn't have to worry about working with a new program. Overall this was a great project and I feel that we have learned a lot about how conservation, and the people who practice it work.
Our group was fortunate enough to have a great group of people that were able to bring many different schools of thought and ideas. Unfortunately, one of our group members was sick for more than half of the project, so it was difficult to fill her in on what she had missed. For those of us who weren't ill, we worked great together. We were able to have great brainstorming sessions and were able to look at realistic goals. Personally, I tried my best to really be accepting of all ideas, even if I didn't think it would work out in the end. I think that overall that made this group a little more pleasant to work with. We, as a group learned that when it comes to trying to solve a world problem, things are not as easy as just creating a solution. When it comes to something more broad like overpopulation. which we chose, it's almost impossible to create one major solution. There will always be complications and there will always be people who don't agree. One way to minimize issues is to narrow down your goal, which we were able to do successfully. We also learned that simple, and sort of unoriginal, isn't bad, you can add to anything, and try to improve. For us, we realized that education on recycling could be much better, many students clearly had no clue when confronted with an option on where to put their trash. So, many were lazy and just threw their trash wherever was closest, this is a major issue. Of course everyone has heard about recycling education, but obviously, these students had forgotten or just didn't care. Another part about keeping it simple was shown in our presentation, when using something familiar like a Powerpoint we were able to do our best because we knew what to do and didn't have to worry about working with a new program. Overall this was a great project and I feel that we have learned a lot about how conservation, and the people who practice it work.