What is the effect of plastic waste on planktons' ability to fulfill their ecological roles?

In this project, students will collect plankton from our local waters and learn how plastic pollution impacts their function in the environment. Then the class will create mathematical models illustrating what they've learned culminating in a surprising and impactful exhibition of work.
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Planning

1. Samples and Teaching Models

Annotated images pulled from live samples.

This model of my plankton species is 1:100000 scale.

The beginning of the project will involve collection of samples of plankton. In collaboration with USD's department of ocean studies we will make our best efforts to identify what we find. Students will make a "teaching model" of their chosen organism with it's functional parts separated into layers. 

Included on the teaching model will be initial data visualizations expressing the research that students have begun. 

2. Data Visualizations

For the second product, students will create a more complex data visualization that expresses the most urgent or impactful conclusions from their research. In my case, I developed a model which predicts the mass of microplastics that are contained within the digestive tracts of plankton in a given sample of water. It is a range with 3 variables so our data visualization is also 3 dimensional.

These models will be abstractions of information, but should present a good opportunity for students to justify their calculations and reasoning. 

This is a model of our plastic volume, not our data visualization. The data viz is the last part of our planning to complete.

3. Plastic Volumes

The last product will be a 3D volume made of reclaimed plastic bags. The volumes are designed so that participants can climb inside. We will shine footage of the plankton species that we studied and use the volumes as practical mathematical models which illustrate the conclusions reached earlier in the project. Sitting within the volumes will be a surprising and educational experience. 

The Petradome is 47.8 M^3 when inflated. That volume of seawater would have approximately 220 pieces of microplastics contained within the plankton swimming there.

Reclaimed plastic bags make up the volumes and will be recycled at the end of the project.

This view is from within the inflated volume. The projector is outside shining onto the outer surface of the volume.

Here's a short example of how the volume inflates.

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Exhibition / Reflection

Report what you have learned about doing this kind of major, independent project?

Indicate changes in ways of thinking?
Assess your own strengths and shortcomings in carrying out the project?

Who would have thought that repetition would lead to expertise? The feeling of calm that I felt during the second exhibition of this project was due to my experience from the first semester: I had prepared the students to close gaps in planning that we noticed during the fall and as a consequence, the students were fully in charge of transporting their projects to the site, deploying them according to our calendar, and stowing the projects again after they were shown. Sabelle and I provided only minimal support around the schedule. I've learned that when I have a clear idea of exhibition from the beginning of a project I am able to take the appropriate time to delegate the logistical pieces of the event to the students. When we have to generate the plan, execute it AND organize it, there isn't quite enough time.

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A major learning of mine from this project was that I have been very misguided about my planning project for my whole career (lol). I've always started with an engaging product then tuned it to incorporate content from the class. This leads to a situation where students can complete the product without having a deep knowledge of the content. When I taught physics, the fabrication and structuring of the product was enough, but with a different content curriculum I have struggled. Here are a few reflective questions for myself going forward

- When exhibited, does the student work make sense without supplementary documents, posters, etc? 
- Does the product address an issue within the subject area? 
- Does the product incorporate or illustrate the students findings? 

If the answers to the above are all yes, then congratulations! Your project is the product of student inquiry and is authentic. For me, the answer to these questions has usually been no, indicating to me that while the students are making beautiful work, it has been hollow and due for improvement. A beautiful object without meaning is just decoration. 

To apply what I've learned is simple; I will reorder my planning process as follows:
1. Frame the project overall as a theme. What subject within the content will we examine closely?
2. Guide students to connect their interests to the theme. Guide them to identify issues within the theme that they have a passion for
3. Provide a product category which suits the theme. Students will design their version of that product to address the issue/interests previously identified. 

By positioning the product as something made in response to an issue or interest, I will make it more likely that the product is designed as a response to the subject of the class, rather than having the subject of the class be designed in response to a product. Here's an example
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1. Theme: Our Chosen Perspective. Do we get to choose how we see the environment?
2. Issue: Humans with technology tend to see themselves as separate from the natural world, leading them to abuse/mistreat it.
3. Product Category: Printed fabric product (bag, shirt, blanket) which shows how one species benefits humanity.

At exhibition, a student may have made a bucket hat with a print of two symbiotic organisms on it, showing the surprising interconnectedness of their life and ours. The visual of the pattern and the functionality of the hat will demonstrate what the student learned while studying that issue, because the hat will have been made in response to what they learned. In Dear Plastic, the kids made big plastic inflatables and at the very end connected them to what they had learned weeks previously.

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