A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Audience Approved PEP for students in grades 7 and 8. It has also been used with students in grades 5-6.

Description Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions consists of a series of six "modules" designed to introduce students to environmental issues, the skills needed to critically analyze and investigate issues, the skills needed for information processing, and those skills needed to evaluate and act responsibly on local issues. The curriculum can be infused into existing science, social studies, or language arts classes. In addition, it can be adopted for use in team-teaching and interdisciplinary situations. It is normally completed during one semester. Instructional activities involve students in problem-solving through a variety of interdisciplinary methods, including analyzing issues, utilizing questionnaires to collect and record data, producing and interpreting graphs, drawing conclusions and inferences, formulating and evaluating action decisions, and developing issue resolution plans.

This program directly addresses Goals 3 and 5 of the National Goals for Education. Students learn and apply problem solving, decision making, and citizen participation skills which demonstrably contribute to good citizenship, community involvement, and personal responsibility. Similarly, science education is strengthened as students learn and apply science concepts and principles to real life problems and issues.

Evidence of Effectiveness Students of all ability levels participating in the program show significantly greater gains in knowledge of responsible citizen action skills. Students identify more categories of citizenship action and report undertaking more actions and more types of citizenship behaviors on program-developed and validated instruments. Parents of students in the program report observing more overt citizenship behaviors on the part of their sons and daughters.

Requirements Materials include student edition and teacher edition worktexts. The development of a small library of issue-related videotapes, news articles, magazine articles and books is recommended, if not already available.

Two options for staff development include: (1) two three-day academic year inservices scheduled from one to four weeks apart or (2) a five-day summer inservice workshop. Both training formats allow participants to complete a small group issue-related assignment. During the staff development, teachers acquire and apply skills, participate in an issue investigation, prepare and communicate an implementation plan, and learn to function as consultants and facilitators to students.

Costs Start-up costs are $13-$15 per student. A training manual ($16) must be purchased for each participating teacher. Continued operational costs are $9-$10 per year, per student, if the consumable worktext is purchased each year. All training costs are negotiable with the exception of materials.

Services In addition to training and materials, follow-up consultation is available. Graduate credit may be available.

Contact

Stephanie Hendee, Director, National Training Network, P.O. Box 8057, Longmont, CO 80501. (303) 651-0833. Trudi Volk, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901. (618) 453-4214. John M. Ramsey, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204. (713) 743-4966.

Developmental Funding: National Science Foundation, Illinois Title II Grant.
PEP No. 90-19R (3/29/91)

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[Informal Science Study (IFSS)]

[Iowa Chautauqua Program (ICP)]