Earthforce Community Action and Problem-Solving Process

Overview

• Combines action civics, project-based learning, and STEM education.
• Includes materials and professional development workshops.
• Key resources: Educators Guide, Tips Cards, and Resources website.
• Process aligns with national standards like NGSS, C3, and 21st-century skills.

Step 1: Community Definition and Investigation

• Define Community: Establish where the project will take place using geographical or social aspects. Keep it manageable.
  • Consider access, existing data, and curricular ties.
  • Start with a narrow focus if new to youth-driven learning.

Conducting Inventories

• Key to define the content topic for study.
• Conduct at least three inventories:
  • Numbers-based: Data collected as numbers (e.g., water quality, maps).
  • Descriptive: Information gathered through expert talks or surveys.
  • Student-chosen: Encourages engagement and ownership.
• Analyze inventories to identify community strengths and concerns.

Identifying Strengths and Concerns

• Environmental Concerns: Problems from human-nature interaction, should be local and relevant.
• Strengths: Environmentally positive aspects like people and organizations.
• Document and categorize into a list to form a student portfolio.
  • Focus on identifying concerns, not project ideas.

Root Cause Analysis

• Determine if concerns are root causes or effects of root causes.
• Important for meaningful and sustainable projects.
• Conduct a root cause analysis to validate concerns.
• Tools and resources available on the Step 1 Resources page.

Completion of Step 1

• Community is defined.
• Multiple inventories completed, including descriptive and numbers-based.
• List of strengths and concerns compiled.
• Root causes identified within the community.
• Student portfolio created.

Next Steps: Proceed to Step 2 - Issue Selection.

For more information, visit earthforceresources.org.