Data Science, Human Geography, & Environmental Justice Youth Project (DL compatible)

Data Science, Human Geography, & Environmental Justice Youth Project

Inspired by Undesign the Redline PBLs, Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City, and the intersectionality my students navigated every day, I resolved to honor their distance learning investment by making the ecosystem and data analysis about their new pandemic-era environment. My students wanted to learn how to help, instead of remaining silent and isolated from what science was wrestling with in reality, both in terms of research and outreach. Learning human geography in the context of how to define life during the pandemic and how to design metrics for answering scientifically testable questions was one way they could figure out how to cope with daily catastrophe and grief.

STEP ONE: SURFACE EXISTING KNOWLEDGE & ESTABLISH COMMUNITY CONTEXT.

First I asked students to mark on a blank map of San Francisco where they lived (or where they were willing to report) in relation to the school. Students noticed certain patterns and created questions about it said about the students or the school.


STEP TWO: INVITE SHARING SOMATIC OBSERVATIONS TO IDENTIFY LAYERS OF PATTERNS.

We used a padlet to share the 5 senses we could describe in our own separate neighborhoods across the city, and used that to create a summary of the communities and the questions they presented.

Students developed their own sense of purpose and curiosity when their sense of intersectionality was acknowledged and made explicit through formalized data.

Some possible prompts:

  • What kinds of places do you go to relax or be at peace? Any green spaces? How far away are they?

  • What kinds of people live near you? How would they describe themselves?

  • How do the people around you make a living?

  • What products do you or people around you use? What brand names do you see most often?

  • What medical or health needs do you notice in people around you?

  • What sounds do you hear around you?

  • What smells do you sense?


STEP THREE: IDENTIFY ISSUES.

Approach: Question Formulation Technique based on recent headlines. Gathered a Jamboard of recent headlines based on patterns identified in Step 2 and asked students to add questions. Students then discussed further in another Jamboard to talk further about experiences in the city. During physical classroom learning, students used post-it notes and others added to a padlet.

Preview (distance-learning Jamboards)


STEP FOUR: EXPLORE AND ANALYZE DIFFERENT LAYERS AND TYPES OF DATA TO INFORM FOCUS.

To further spark our ideas for identifying the issues our communities experienced, we then examined a slide deck I created of 30+ KWL slides of San Francisco maps (biological, historical, cultural, political).

Preview:


STEP FIVE: RESEARCH AND CRITIQUE A SPECIFIC STRATEGY

Template side for describing and evaluating the solution

Are the strategies used by adults addressing the problems identified?

How does the data support your analysis?

Gallery: examples of factors examined


STEP SIX: CREATE A NEW STRATEGY

Students choose from options below:

Examples of student projects

(Template for students choosing to use Slides)


STEP SEVEN: SELF-EVALUATE

Students complete this rubric and grade themselves.


Afterword

The following year, I used it to help bridge interdependent relationships (kelp, their own neighborhoods where they've identified a/biotic factors, etc. and carrying capacity (Rapa Nui, Keeling Curve, covid curve).

I feel like I can do a lot more with this and I will continue to update the slides, embedded links, and more in-depth maps. Feel free to copy and use for your own needs.

Unit (7wk): Musculo-skeletal - Prosthetics

Courses: Physiology, Anatomy, Engineering

I made & taught this physiology unit on musculoskeletal structure & function, via a sequence of inquiry tasks and engineering design challenges, supplemented by vocabulary, readings, videos, gallery walks, and interviews.

Hope the images, videos, & lab worksheets are useful/save time for folks using them! Lessons 3 & 5 need feedback and have poor slides. Some of it has messy highlighting, but I thought I'd share it now given now is a popular time for this subject to be taught. I will keep updating this post with version changes below. (Please supplement with your own reference docs for anatomical terms.)

Includes Do Nows, Exit Ticket, lab writeups, reading w/ checks for understanding, rubrics, and final project workbook.



1. Overview [Dissect: Chicken Wing]

Agenda

  1. Do Now - proprioception tasks

  2. Unit Overview

    1. Unit-Long Project: 3D Skull Puzzle by Joshua Harker (video tutorial) (simpler alternative)

  3. Dissection: Chicken Wing (backup link in handouts document)

  4. Notes

    1. Basic Terminology

    2. Disorders

  5. Exit Ticket - Parts of the Skull


2-3. Micro - What happens when muscles get tired? [2 labs]


NEEDS FEEDBACK

2. Agenda

  1. Do Now: Energy & Physical Activity

  2. Modeling: In/Output of Body

  3. Lab: What happens when you take oxygen (O2) out of cellular respiration?

  4. Reading: Cellular Respiration

    Alternate Lab if students have prior knowledge of cellular respiration: Skeletal Muscle Fatigue

3. Agenda

  1. Do Now: I/O Cellular Respiration

  2. Lab: What happens when you take carbon dioxide (CO2) out of cellular respiration?

  3. Watch & Discuss: Marathon Runner

  4. CER Letter to Marathon Runner

  5. Exit Ticket: Lactic Acid


4-5. Can you really build stronger bones by drinking milk? [3 labs]

4. Agenda

  1. Do Now - How much calcium do you eat? (Engage)

    1. Science Media Moment: Do you know how much calcium is in your diet?

  2. Video: Introduction to Bone Biology (Explore)

    1. Turn & Talk: What is bone made of?

  3. Lab: What is bone made of? (Explore)

  4. Reading: Bone Growth (Explain)

  5. Lab: What makes tough bones? (Explore)

  6. Video: Osteoclasts & Osteoblasts (Explain)

  7. Evidence Match: Bone Lab Explanations (Evaluate)

  8. Exit Ticket 

5. Agenda

  1. Do Now - Predict Repair & Breakage

  2. Pre-lab Videos (Engage)

    1. Bone Modeling & Remodeling

    2. Bone Broth

    3. Collagen Pills

  3. Lab: What makes tough bones? (Explore)

  4. Reading: Osteoporosis (Explain)

  5. Card Sort: Phases of Healing (Explore)

    Updated: Long Bone Strength Lab

  6. Video & Talk: Truss construction vs. Spongy bone (Elaborate)

  7. Exit Ticket - Challenges in Bioengineering Materials (Evaluate)


6-9. Macro - Fractures & Interventions [2 labs, 1 engineering challenge, 2 assessments]

6-7. Agenda

  1. Do Now -  Interview a Peer About A Broken Bone or Dislocation (Engage)

  2. Video: A Painful Point Break (Explore)

  3. Lab: Fracture (Explore)

  4. Slideshow: Types of Bone Fractures, Healing, & Interventions (Explain)

  5. 2 Exit Tickets - Natural Bone Repair & Fracture Characteristics

Assessment

  1. Practice: Assessment case study – DIAGNOSIS? (Elaborate & Evaluate)

  2. Assessment: Case Study – DIAGNOSIS? (Elaborate & Evaluate)

8-9. Agenda

  1. Do Now - Angular & Linear Motion Activities (Engage)

  2. Gallery Walk - Hard or Fast Biter? (Explore)

  3. Jeopardy! Card Match - Review Lever Terminology (Engage)

  4. Engineering Challenge: Build-A-Bicep (Elaborate)

    1. Design Approval & Prototyping

    2. Optional activity: Moveable Joints Charades

    3. Mini-Lab: Musculoskeletal Biomechanics & Levers (Explore)

    4. Reading:  What Levers Does Your Body Use?

    5. Class Calculation: Mechanics of Muscle Motion

    6. Testing, Revising, and Marketing Video for Invention

  5. Exit Ticket - Speed v. Force Advantage (Evaluate)


10-18. Final Project: Prosthetics Engineering

10-18. Agenda

  1. Do Now - Activities, Places, Risks for K-12 children

  2. Introduction to Design Engineering - Afghanistan, Land Mines, Mine Kafon

    1. What do these devices resemble? What do they look like? Has anyone had experience with these?

    2. What do we know about the children and culture in Afghanistan?

    3. Videos: Mine Kafon & Mine Kafon 2.0 (Invention, Iteration, & Entrepreneurship)

  3. Mini-Practice: Design Engineering Your Morning Routine

    1. Step: Interview Partner - Connect to the Client (Develop Empathy)

    2. Step: Confirmatory Listening - “I hear you saying…” (Define the Problem)

    3. Step: Prototype - Use recyclables to build a model of something that improves your peer’s morning

    4. Step: Present & Explain

  4. Prosthetics Handbook

    1. Team Jobs & Agreements

    2. Research - Fact Pages

    3. Lecture: History of Prostheses

    4. Review: Design Engineering Process

      1. Mini-Engineering Challenge: Notecard Tower

      2. Mini-Bioengineering Challenge: Prosthetic Hand

    5. Disability Awareness

    6. Ideas & Prototype Designs

    7. Materials List

    8. 2 Ideate prototype designs with Pros & Cons

    9. Iterate: Present to another group for feedback, propose second draft design

    10. Create marketing plan and poster

    11. Rehearse presentations

  5. Design Showcase for Inventions

    1. What makes a good showcase?

    2. Feedback and Reflection Forms

Sources