Public Information Campaign: Soil Erosion, Conservation, and Watershed Health
Initial Publication Date: June 6, 2013
Summary
Students in groups of two create a 4-minute educational video, brochure, and poster on an aspect of soil erosion, soil conservation, and/or watershed health for agricultural regions within the midwestern states. This is a half term project and the materials are presented in a forum towards the end of the semester. The project is aimed to help students learn to pitch science to a wide audience and provide practice (indirectly) applying scientific principles to conservation efforts.
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Context
Audience
Undergraduate major/non major environmental science course. Students with all types of backgrounds
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Before the project the course covers soil erosion processes in the classroom and the field.
How the activity is situated in the course
This is a culminating project that occurs over about 6 weeks with check points along the way.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
soil erosion, soil conservation, and watershed health.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Synthesis of ideas, critical evaluation of soil conservation methods, and development of a region specific conservation model.
Other skills goals for this activity
Writing, presentation skills using various platforms (poster, brochure, and video), research using WWW, government, and library resources.
Description and Teaching Materials
Half semester project on soil erosion, soil conservation, and watershed health.
Student Handout for Soil Conservation Campaign (Acrobat (PDF) 78kB Apr30 13)Teaching Notes and Tips
The main problem I have with this is ensuring students really focus on the region. I meet with them as the project progresses to make sure that they keep focused on the region.
The videos are generally well done. I find that I need almost no intervention with the videos because most students have some experience and since I keep the video production open they can play to their strengths.
The videos are generally well done. I find that I need almost no intervention with the videos because most students have some experience and since I keep the video production open they can play to their strengths.
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Assessment
Students present their campaigns at a forum where they introduce their materials.
The project is graded on the quality of information, degree of tailoring the information to the region, proper citations/references, and overall professional look to the campaign.
The project is graded on the quality of information, degree of tailoring the information to the region, proper citations/references, and overall professional look to the campaign.