We started off the day by tying up loose ends from the week before and, after a series of questions about ecosystems, we did a K-W-L chart: we asked the students what they thought they knew about Mason's ecosystems and what they wanted to know about them. In the meantime, our "Cyber SEA agents" intercepted an email about the water quality of Mason Pond. One of the emails gave data on various tests and the other told a "supervisor" that because the computer had crashed the night before, the data may not be correct.
The kids were astonished and wanted to test the water right away! They asked questions about the water quality and testing and then formulated a method of how to do testing. And we went to the pond, collected data and water samples and headed back to the lab to continue testing. The kids loved it and totally took charge of it. It was awesome to see them go the extra mile to figure out this "mission".
After lunch, we headed to the fitness center (RAC) to talk about water consumption. We took the kids into a team room and talked about what water consumption is, why it's important, and how could we test that? We had 5 gallon buckets and gallon measuring buckets for them to use. Each group chose a shower and tested how much water came out of the nozzle in a minute. My group did 3 trials, manipulating the placement of the bucket each time, to see what method was most effective in catching the greatest amount of water. Little scientists in action!
We then used that data, in addition to our group's average shower time, to figure out how much water Mason students use during a shower and then for their showers over 1 year. They were surprised and were more than ready to make recommendations as to how to lower water consumption on campus.
Something I never thought students could be invested in, was something I saw that they cared about and wanted to find a solution for. These kids were face to face with a relevant problem and, as Secret Ecological Agents, the accountability was on them to help solve it. They were completely invested in their own learning, and the results of this was greater than I ever could have imagined.
Consider me a member of the Problem-Based Learning Cheer Squad. :)
(SIDE NOTE: I will blog about the rest of the camp festivities this weekend. I'm not part of the dirty work for the rest of this week; I'm an extra set of hands for now, and by Saturday I will have had time to process everyone else's lessons and the culminating activity and will be able to write a slammin' entry! :) )
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