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Lesson 3: Community Connection

Lesson 3: Community Connection

Objective:

Students will research and review articles from accredited sources to guide the design of their community focused Participatory Sensing campaign.

Materials:

  1. Resource: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers
    https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/

  2. Video: Online Verification Skills - Investigate the Source found at:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hB6qjIxKltA

  3. Video: Online Verification Skills - Verifying Images and Videos found at:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7eKG9RuqUE4

  4. Video: Online Verification Skills - Find the Original Source found at:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tRZ-N3OvvUs

  5. Team Campaign Creation handout (LMR_U4_L2)
    Note: This handout was used in Lesson 2 but a new copy should be used for this lesson.

  6. Article: Great Pacific Garbage Patch: The World's Biggest Landfill in the Pacific Ocean
    https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm

  7. Data file: US Landfills
    https://www.epa.gov/lmop/landfill-technical-data

  8. Article: 3 reasons why California's drought isn't really over, despite the rain
    https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165378214/3-reasons-why-californias-drought-isnt-really-over-despite-all-the-rain/

  9. Data file: US Drought
    https://www.drought.gov/historical-information?dataset=0&selectedDateUSDM=20120710

  10. Article: The number of homeless people in America grew in 2023 as high cost of living took a toll
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/

  11. Data file: Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR):
    https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar.html

  12. Article: COVID-19 pandemeic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide
    https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide

  13. Data file: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS):
    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/data-questionnaires-documentation.htm

Essential Concepts:

Essential Concepts:

Data collected through Participatory Sensing Campaigns will be used to create models that answer real-world problems related to our community.

Lesson:

  1. In this lesson, students will decide on a topic and research question for their Team Participatory Sensing Campaign. They will review articles and choose at least one to set the context for the real-world problem that they will be addressing with their campaign.

  2. It is important to check the reliability of your sources so that you are not spreading misinformation or basing your research on untrustworthy or inaccurate information.

  3. An option for checking the credibility of sources is the SIFT method (The "SIFT" method is adapted from https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/ by Michael A. Caulfield):

    1. Stop - First, ask yourself if you know and/or trust the source of the page. Don't read it or share it until you know what it is. Second, if you have started working through the moves and find yourself in a “click cycle”, STOP and remind yourself what your goal is - don’t lead yourself astray down a rabbit hole of facts/links.

    2. Investigate the Source - Take time to figure out where it is from before reading it. If it’s from an unfamiliar source, do a Google or Wikipedia search. Here’s a video to help with investigating a source:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hB6qjIxKltA

    3. Find Trusted Coverage - This is where we determine if a claim is reliable. Do a Google News search for relevant stories and use known fact-checking sites like snopes.com, factcheck.org, or politifact.com. If there are images in your source, you can do a reverse image search via Google to check its validity or if it’s used elsewhere. Here’s a helpful video on how to do a reverse image search:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7eKG9RuqUE4

    4. Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context - A lot of what we see on the web is a re-reporting or commentary of a story. When you see phrases like “As reported by…” or “According to…”, it can be an indication of this. Here’s a video to help navigate finding an original source:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tRZ-N3OvvUs

  4. Now that you know how to check the credibility of sources, we will review characteristics of a participatory sensing campaign.

  5. Refer back to their class created campaign from Unit 3 to review. Using a Pair-Share strategy, ask students to discuss when a Participatory Sensing campaign should be used rather than a survey. Answers will vary. Research questions that include variation across time or across locations are good candidates for Participatory Sensing campaigns; therefore, a trigger is necessary in order to record observations at multiple time points and locations. If a question needs to be answered only once, then a survey is a better method.

  6. Remind students that in the last unit, they created one campaign for the entire class. In this unit, each student team will be creating and implementing a campaign on a topic that addresses a community concern or interest.

  7. Distribute the Team Campaign Creation handout (LMR_U4_L2). Use the remainder of the class for students to find and review articles that will be the basis for their team participatory sensing campaigns. They will decide on a topic today and continue to create their campaigns in the next class period. Facilitate the student teams' brainstorm session by circulating around the room to check for understanding. If teams need help with finding an article and choosing a topic, you may recommend one of the following:

    1. Article: Great Pacific Garbage Patch: The World's Biggest Landfill in the Pacific Ocean
      https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm

      1. Data file: US Landfills
        https://www.epa.gov/lmop/landfill-technical-data
        Note: This article and supporting data align with the topic of trash brought up in lesson 1.

    2. Article: 3 reasons why California's drought isn't really over, despite the rain
      https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165378214/3-reasons-why-californias-drought-isnt-really-over-despite-all-the-rain/

      1. Data file: US Drought
        https://www.drought.gov/historical-information?dataset=0&selectedDateUSDM=20120710
        Note: This article and supporting data align with the topic of drought brought up in lesson 2.

    3. Article: The number of homeless people in America grew in 2023 as high cost of living took a toll
      https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/

      1. Data file: Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR):
        https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar.html
        Note: This article and supporting data align with the topic of homelessness.

    4. Article: COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide
      https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide

      1. Data file: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS):
        https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/data-questionnaires-documentation.htm
        Note: This article and supporting data align with the topic of mental health.

  8. Take time near the end of class to have student teams share out their chosen topics.

Class Scribes:

One team of students will give a brief talk to discuss what they think the 3 most important topics of the day were.

Homework

Students will come up with at least 2 possible research questions for their participatory sensing campaign. They will come to a consensus about their research question with their team in the next class period.