Is it a MWEE? Student Action Summer 2021 by Chesapeake Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c Use the resources provided you and information from the MWEE Guide and BayBackPack to evaluate each scenario. Select at least one to respond to, answering the discussion questions by writing a comment under the scenario. https://baybackpack.com/mwee/what-is-a-mwee en-us 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC 2022-08-17 22:30:40 UTC hello@padlet.com Scenario 2: I’m a middle school teacher. I’m excited about my project and I know you will be too! My students love our annual trip to the National Zoo. Every year, the star animal is the giant panda. Students are frustrated with their endangered status and want to do something about raising awareness for panda conservation. We would like to continue to use the project the students did last year. Our driving question last year was: How can the students at Wildlife Middle School advocate for giant panda conservation? What human actions threaten the panda? What can we do here in (insert your town) to get the word out about the pandas? I saw my student’s enthusiasm as an opportunity to cover the standards and curriculum I needed to as well as follow the student’s curiosity and passion for wildlife. I have taught all about biomes and habitats. Because I love pandas, we focus specifically on their habitat, diet, life cycle and conservation status. For our outdoor field experience, we will travel to the National Zoo! Visiting the pandas at the National Zoo is the highlight of my student’s year! When we get back to school, we learn about the panda’s endangered status and the ways in which zoos are on the forefront of conservation efforts. After students investigate and learn all about these amazing creatures, we will work with the art teacher to create a panda habitat. I got approval from the principal and am excited to implement this MWEE in the fall. What do you think??!? Is this a complete MWEE? What makes this a good MWEE? What is missing? What could be improved upon? Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512017 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512017 Scenario 4: I’m a middle school teacher the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Our curriculum has a unit on watersheds and our connection to everything downstream. It is the unit that the kids love the most because they have all heard from their older brothers and sisters that we go out on canoes on a local waterway. Many of my students have never been in a canoe, so that is really exciting for them. We have to get a bus and go all the way down to the river. We are only able to take 25 kids at once so that means it takes over 5 full days to get the entire sixth grade through the field trip. Our school system is growing faster than we can handle and I worry that eventually, we won’t be able to take the students on this trip because of the cost. Before we go on the field trip, we do two different labs in the classroom talking about the impacts of weathering and erosion on our local waterway and building a good filter. I love the lab work because you can walk around and really get a good feeling of who is learning what. Even though they don’t understand what it all means until we get on the water! They read articles and do online searches for Chesapeake Bay Watershed issues including freshwater mussels and pollution. The kids then split up into groups and do presentations on the biggest issues that are impacting the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Then we go on a field trip to the river and students get in canoes and paddle, looking for wildlife. We eat a picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery. It’s a great way to conclude the unit and the kids love getting on the water and a chance to get more experiences in the world, I love doing that for my kids. Is this a complete MWEE? What makes this a good MWEE? What is missing? What could be improved upon? Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512019 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512019 Scenario 6: I’m a high school life science teacher and I need to find a grant to make an outdoor classroom. I hate being inside. This is my second-year teaching and I am just convinced that the kids need more time outside. They really walk around like zombies. So a lot of times I just take my kids outside and have them walk around and observe things – like weathering and erosion and some work with tree identification, but there aren’t a lot of trees or flowers to identify. We do what we can. Sometimes if the plan is just to read or lecture, we sit in the bleachers at the stadium. It’s better than being indoors, but it’s not a great place to really learn. I know an outdoor classroom would be just what we need. There actually are a lot of connections I can make in the curriculum to support going outside. There is even a stream way back in the back corner of the schoolyard. The principal didn’t even know about it. Last year all my kids did a great stream survey out there. My principal is a little worried, she doesn’t want me to be seen as the ‘easy teacher’ that just lets the kids play outside. I know if we had a nice outdoor classroom everyone would be cool with things. I’ve even started a share folder on the faculty share drive called “Outdoor Study Lessons” so more teachers will see all the cool things we can do. My MWEE is going to be “Build an Outdoor Classroom” Also I’ve started asking around to see what we can get donated and started talking to the maintenance department on where we could put it. Is this a complete MWEE? What makes this a good MWEE? What is missing? What could be improved upon? Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512023 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512023 Scenario 3: Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512025 I am a biology teacher at my high school. Over the summer, I was really interested  in learning about the how legacies of industry have affected air and water quality  and how in various government organizations and NPOs have worked to mitigate  

these lasting issues. I was very enthusiastic to flush out the details of my ELM  project to address these topics with my students and am eager to implement my  ELM plan to complete a MWEE this school year!  

For our field experience, I took my students to a nature center where we  investigated rain gardens and the benefits of native plants as habitats and natural  filters. My students were really interested in our unit on pollinators and wanted  to plant a native pollinator garden on the school property. However, I applied for  a grant before the school year started and was awarded money to purchase trees  from a local nursery. Afterall, street trees would help slow down stormwater  runoff and purify air around the school!  

I worked with the principal and the maintenance crew at my school to come up  with a plan to develop short- and long-term maintenance plans for the street  trees. The whole process was a little rushed because the end of the school year  was approaching—and so was the deadline to spend the grant money— so we  didn’t have a whole lot of class time available to have the students plan out every  detail. 

On the day of the scheduled planting, only a handful of my students showed up. I  was disappointed but ultimately satisfied that the trees made it onto the school  property.  

Is this a complete MWEE? What makes this a good MWEE? What is  missing? What could be improved upon? 
]]> 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512025 Scenario 5 Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512028 I teach 7th grade and I have a courtyard monarch station that I started  10 years ago. I love gardening and this garden has led to one of my kids’ favorite lessons. Every Fall when I know the monarchs are migrating, I  go out every day until I find 9 or 10 monarch caterpillars ready to  pupate into the chrysalis and I bring them into the classroom in my  butterfly enclosure. Every day for those two weeks the kids watch and  make observations about the Monarch as it continues its transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. Then my kids will go online to Monarch Watch and register ours and track all the Monarch migrations. The kids do research and make posters explaining the  migration and all about the life cycle of the Monarch and we hang the  posters all over the school. Once they have all hatched I let them all go  in the courtyard and they always come back the next year. I love that!  It’s like Magic. My MWEE is all about Monarchs! 

The only problem is maintenance and my administration! The  courtyard… every year in the spring gets so weedy. I must admit it does  get a little out of hand – I must come out and weed it after school but  that is right when testing is. This summer the principal says that she is  going to rip out the entire garden and fill it with rocks and a few  evergreen shrubs. You can see the courtyard from most of the school – the whole school wraps around it and many of the classes and other  teachers have been complaining about it. I must spend my entire  summer weeding and taking care of this garden or the principal will rip  it all out! She doesn’t care about the kids or how much they love the  butterflies! 
]]> 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512028 Scenario 1: I am currently teaching science in grades 4-8 at a small, private school. My students were frustrated that every time it rains the playground is closed so they have to be inside for recess… our question came from the question they all asked me, “Why does the playground have water on it every time it rains? They cancel recess even when it’s not raining because the playground has big puddles. Why is that happening?” I saw this as an opportunity to cover the standards and curriculum I needed to as well as follow the student’s curiosity. I have done some teaching about storm water run-off, the Chesapeake Bay and issues that can come about because of construction (our building had recently undergone renovations). As a result of the group’s use of the School Yard Report Card, and research about run-off and how to remediate run-off, the students decided that they wanted to plant a rain garden. As part of our investigation we explored and evaluated the schoolyard and went to a local stream where we did a stream survey and talked about erosion. Our MWEE was titled: How can our schoolyard help save the bay! Different groups of students wrote letters about the project to the principal and the local newspaper. We contacted a local expert about native plants, because my kids wanted to make sure the rain garden supported pollinators. The expert came to the class and presented about plants and helped us secure the plants we needed. I had some money in my budget to purchase the needed materials, the students who helped with the planning will do the planting in the fall. I will also help with the planting. Is this a complete MWEE? What makes this a good MWEE? What is missing? What could be improved upon? Chesapeake_Classrooms https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512031 2021-06-03 13:47:58 UTC https://padlet.com/Chesapeake_Classrooms/1pq50b36nvjaxh7c/wish/1582512031