SERVICE LEARNING (Task 11)

SERVICE LEARNING

Students will conduct a carbon footprint audit of their school, suggest and, in some cases, implement means by which the carbon footprint may be reduced.  Specifically, on one day of the unit students will form into small groups and consider features of their classroom which might be causing the use of more fossil fuel than necessary and follow up with internet research as to how those inefficiencies may be diminished.   Each student will be assigned, for homework, a one-page research paper in which they report their own carbon footprint and present 2-5 strategies for energy conservation and carbon footprint reduction which may be applied to the school.Their work will be preceded by a classroom visit by an engineer from a local contractor or other energy efficiency expert who will give them a starting point.  Finally the students, as a class, will produce a  document recommending specific improvements, poster illustrating their recommendations, and a brochure of recommendations which may also be applied to other institutions as well as individual homes.
The class will present their recommendations to the school administration and implement such as are reasonably possible.  As a continuing service component following the unit, students can display and explain their poster at certain school functions, and produce copies of their brochure for distribution at school functions and/or other public gatherings.

The rubric for the individual papers is:

CARBON FOOTPRINT/ENERGY CONSERVATION RUBRIC
Criterion	Does not meet	Approaches	Meets/Exceeds
Completion	Assignment is not turned in	Assignment is turned in late (less than 1 week) or partially complete	Assignment is complete and on time
Research	Less than 2 energy conservation strategies are listed	2-5 energy conservation strategies are listed	5 or more energy conservation strategies are listed
Comprehension	No discussion is included	Discussion of applicability to the school/classroom is discussed for each strategy	Discussion of applicability to the students home or other locality  is discussed for each strategy
Form	Multiple errors exist, sentences are incomplete	Discussion is in complete sentences with few errors	Discussion is in complete sentences with no errors.  References are hyperlinked.