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education:
working with watersheds (PDF print-formatted version - introduction and all 8 lessons) What is an Alternative Solutions Matrix? Activities for students to examine an environmental challenge in the Upper Altamaha Watershed, come up with alternative solutions, and evaluate the solutions based on their own criteria. The following eight "Alternative Solutions Matrix" lessons were created to address specific environmental challenges in the Upper Altamaha Watershed and present the various situations to students. The purpose of each lesson is to have small groups of students assess ten potential solutions with six evaluative criteria for each problem. General background information is given, along with a specific local example. Students must read the scenario, evaluate the most pressing issues involved, and most importantly, brainstorm and evaluate innovative solutions. Four solutions are provided, and each group must determine six additional ways to mitigate the environmental, health, or economic hazards. Four of the evaluative criteria are also given, and students select an additional six ways to measure the effectiveness of their solutions. The provided chart allows students to rank each of the ten solutions with their top six criteria. Once the results are tabulated, groups can rank the effectiveness of each solution. (Detailed instructions are provided within each lesson.) Not only do these lessons give students a glimpse at the factors affecting their local watershed , but they also help motivate students to be active participants in local issues. Teaching them that many possible solutions are overlooked in the early stages of a project is the first step in cultivating informed and engaged citizens. These lessons also require students to think critically and develop an argument about why one solution is better than another. Meanwhile, they create a scenario where students must strike personal compromises as the group creates one collective judgment. Many follow-up activities are provided, but each lesson can function alone. Each of the eight lessons along with all of the supplementary material is correlated to current seventh-grade science Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), but they also may be appropriate for other grade levels as well. We hope you and your students enjoy these Alternative Solutions Matrix lessons! Lessons From Your Drain to the River: The Story of Wastewater (PDF) Have You Seen This Fish??? (PDF) Deadhead Logging in Georgia: What's Out There? (PDF) Fish Are Delicious-Or Are They? (PDF) Are Mussels Losing Muscle? (PDF) Dirty Streets, Dirty Streams (PDF) It's Just Another Forest. (PDF) Dam Construction in Georgia, It Affects You! (PDF) |
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