ReThink Trash Using 21st Century Skills

The March Issue of THE Journal caught my eye with “Return to Sender” by Dan Gordon.

The article was once again making the case for reinventing our schools and moving from the 3 Rs (readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic) to the 4 Cs of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.

I have been working on polishing the materials for our ReThink Trash Project (funded in part by HOTCOG and created in partnership with Kigluait Educational Adventures). The project fits perfectly into how to design effective learning in our schools.

The 4 Cs Students Need

Critical thinking, creativity, and communication are not always going to be linear processes, but this matches with our ReThink Trash project. I think all of those are dependent on collaboration skills.

21st Century Skills

How ReThink Trash fits this model of thinking.

1. Classes meet via video conference to learn about trash and the impact on our environment.
2. Each class researches and learns about trash in their school or community. They will define the problem that they would like to work on.
3. Each class will implement an actionable service learning project, including a data collection plan to determine their plans effectiveness.
4. Each class will create a digital story to tell about how they defined the problem and what they did about it.
5. Classes will meet again with other classes via video conference to share what they have learned and plan continued action.

Resources

• “Return to Sender” article in THE Journal (free registration required)
• ReThink Trash Project
• Whirlidurb Video Conferencing
• Kigluait Educational Adventures
• Heart of Texas Council of Governments

What is a project or program that you have participated in that fits this type of learning and skill set that our students will need to use when they are members of the work force?