Students will discover a policy within their school or district that is important to them and that they'd like to change. They will conduct an investigation of the policy in question and write a letter with their claim, results, and recommendation to the appropriate audience.

In this problem-based learning module, students will work together collaboratively to establish questions and develop these questions into claims after being presented with the problem “How are today’s living standards contributing to the drug resistance disease crisis and what needs to be done to begin to reverse the effects of the contributing factors?”  The students will then work collaboratively to continue researching and will use the research to create a collaborative electronic public service announcement to go along with an individually written letter which will be sent to either a state representative, the FDA, lead community personnel, etc. Both products, the PSA and the letter will include their well defined claim, supported with evidence and backed up with reasoning.Prior to beginning module, please note: Module can be completed in isolation, or can be completed in conjunction with modules "Antibiotic Resistance and Antibiotic Policy" (science) and/or Advancing Change through Public Awareness (social studies) as part of a full interdisciplinary unit between 8th grade social studies, language arts and science.  This would allow for students to have a wider array of questions to guide their claims and the students could build the PSA in social studies and write the letter in Language Arts.

This lesson is intended to be taught over multiple days, focusing on Chapter XIII: Two Thousand Miles for A Five-Minute Speech from Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington.  The students will also complete a close read of The Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington.  Through the two texts, students will read about the events that led Booker T. Washington to deliver a speech at the Atlanta Exposition.  Students will write and deliver their own speech, supporting their arguments with claims and evidence. Image source: "Booker T. Washington" by skeeze on Pixabay.com

In this module, students analyze arguments and the evidence used to support arguments to determine whether sufficient evidence has been used and whether the evidence is relevant in support of the claim an author or speaker is making. They then research to gather evidence to make their own spoken and written arguments. Students will read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (930L), a literary non-fiction text about where food comes from and about making decisions about what food to buy and eat. They build background knowledge about what happens to food before it gets to the consumer, and the different choices the consumer can make when buying food while analyzing Michael Pollan’s arguments and the evidence he uses to support his claims. In Unit 2, students engage in a robust research project in which they further investigate the consequences of each of the food chains and the stakeholders affected in those food chains. To help students grapple with this issue, they use a decision-making process called “Stakeholder Consequences Decision-Making” (see the end of this document for details). This process will help students understand the implications of various choices, and will scaffold their ability to determine, based on evidence and their own values, to take a position on which food chain they would choose if they were trying to feed everyone in the US. Students finish the module by writing a position paper explaining which of Michael Pollan’s food chain they would choose to feed the US and why, and creating a poster stating their position. This task addresses NYSP12 ELA Standards RI.8.1,W.8.1, W.8.1a, W.8.1b, W.8.1c, W.8.1d, W.8.1e and W.8.9.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

The Miss Indian America Pageant was launched by Sheridan residents in the 1950's to combat discrimination. In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials) students will view the story told through the eyes of Miss Indian America title holders who held a reunion in 2013, serving as grand marshals in the Sheridan, WY Rodeo parade and commemorating a legacy of bridging cultures.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will identify the reason why the town of Sheridan, WY started the Miss Indian America Pageant.
Students will define the given vocabulary words.

Food waste is a major contributor to greenhouse gas. Wasted food and the resources to produce that food are responsible for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In this storyline, students learn about the resources required to produce food through following the carbon cycle and discover how food waste contributes to climate change. They will also learn the farm to table transport chain as well as how to conduct a food waste audit. Finally, the students will research solutions to the problem of food waste that can be applicable to their own lives, their school, and their community. 

The Wind River Reservation contains some of the most unique features in Wyoming. Visitors to the reservation usually tour burial sights of Chief Washakie and Sacagawea. However, the significant contributions of these historical figures are sometimes overlooked.

In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), contributions of Washakie and Sacajawea will be highlighted, and stress the importance of teaching and learning about the unique history, culture, and contemporary contributions of Wyoming’s tribes on the Wind River Reservation in a culturally responsive manner.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will identify leadership traits.
Students will obtain an understanding of the purpose behind learning about the Arpahoho and Shoshone people.
Students will analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance to understand the continuing evolution of governments and to demonstatre civic responsibility.