How to Post

Week A Individual: Private Theory

Assignment (by midnight Wednesday)

1. Post your list of hypotheses, ideas, or hunches about the event described in the scenario (PBL Step 2).

2. List what you know about the event (PBL Step 3) and the reasons for how you know. Write your information in the form of an ESS analysis. If needed, refer to the Week 2: The Integration of the ESS Analysis and the PBL Model reading and the diagram below to get you thinking about the various interactions and interrelationships that occur between and among the spheres and event. Don't be concerned if this particular ESS topic is not one of your strengths; you are here to learn, and the Earth system science analysis is only the starting point. The purpose of this assignment is for you to list what you already know. You do not need to conduct any research to do this assignment.

3. Read your teammates' postings and respond to at least one teammate's posting. Remember to be curious rather than judgmental about your teammates' ideas.

Posting Instructions for step 4 Go to the Classroom to select the appropriate event classroom, then click on the Portfolio graphic.

4. Submit your private theories and prior knowledge for a grade to the Portfolio in the Classroom.

Week A Team: Knowledge Building

Assignment (by midnight Sunday)

1. Post a list of team-generated questions (PBL Step 4). This list of questions structures your team's search for evidence to help you make recommendations or solutions for the problem described in the scenario.

2. Develop a plan for how you, as a team, will answer your questions (PBL Step 5).

3. Answer the questions and support them with evidence.

4. Actively summarize and make connections between your teammates' questions, answers, and ideas.

5. Write a team problem statement (PBL Step 6). This problem statement provides the basis of the arguments you will use to build a model during the team assignment in Week B: Teacher as Model Builder. You will use the information you find to build your model to make your recommendations and solutions concerning the problem in the scenario.

6. When you are satisfied as a team with your analyses, submit it to the Portfolio for a grade.

Week B Team: Model Building

Assignment (by midnight Sunday)

1. You and your team need to think in terms of an iterative, or evolving, process regarding the gathering of information as you move toward your findings (PBL Step 8). When ideas begin to emerge several times in different discussions, it is a sign that you are developing a shared understanding. The focus of this team assignment is to build an ESS model to support the problem statement you developed in Week A.

2. Continue gathering information to answer your teammates' questions from the Week A team assignment with evidence from experience, research, and reading to support or refute the team's ideas. You and your team will gather, organize, analyze, and interpret information from multiple sources. Exchange ideas; think about solutions; weigh alternatives; and consider the pros and cons of potential courses of action (PBL Step 7). As new information comes to light, analyze it for its reliability and usefulness and also for its impact on the direction that the problem is taking, as well as for its effect on the very nature of the problem. Therefore, you may need to revise or modify your problem statement (PBL Step 6). Post your best ideas in the Teacher as Model Builder space in the Classroom.

Posting Instructions for step 3 Go to the Classroom to select the appropriate event classroom, then click on the Portfolio graphic.

3. The ESS model that you build with your team should include: 

• Your team's findings as they relate to the problem statement: a brief opening summary of supportable ideas and conclusions (recommendations, solutions, or alternatives) based on the information your team has collected, particularly for your ESS analysis, over Weeks A and B (PBL Step 8). 
• Statements about the relationships: detailed accounts of all the changes and impacts (revealing your understanding of interrelationships of the spheres and the event in the Earth System Diagram) that led your team to the conclusions put forth in your recommendations or solutions (findings). Make sure you include the systemic relationships, called causal chains, where multiple spheres and the event are involved in complex and interrelated changes. In a system, nothing occurs in isolation. Each causal chain should include S > S > S interactions.
• Evidence: For evidence that your thinking is accurate, consider information, examples, and corroboration from readings, web sites, CD-ROMs, analogies, or experimental results and experts. Combine these to give credence to your relationship statements in the causal chains.
• Submit your team's analysis to the Portfolio in the Classroom .

Week C Individual: PBL Design

Assignment (by midnight Sunday)

1. Design your PBL lesson according to the rubric

2. Post your PBL lesson for feedback from a critical friend.

3. Be a critical friend to at least one teammate. Decide (with your teammates) who will be assessing which teammate's PBL lesson so that each teammate has a rater.Read your teammate's PBL lesson.

4. Revise your lesson based on the feedback you received.

Posting Instructions for steps 5-6 Go to the Classroom to select the appropriate event classroom, then click on the Portfolio graphic.

5. Post your PBL lesson in your Portfolio and rate it.

6. Rate your teammate's lesson in the Portfolio.

Final Project

Assignment (by midnight Sunday)
1. Review the Volcano Scenario, the responses you posted in Week 2, and the volcano samples provided for you in Week 3. To review your Week 2 responses, go to the Classroom, then click on Volcanoes and locate your posting for the week.

2. Find your problem statement, then continue gathering information to answer your questions with evidence from experience, research, and reading to support or refute your ideas. You will gather, organize, analyze, and interpret information from multiple sources. Examine ideas; think about solutions; weigh alternatives; and consider the pros and cons of potential courses of action (PBL Step 7). As new information comes to light, analyze it for its reliability and usefulness and also for its impact on the direction that the problem is taking, as well as for its effect on the very nature of the problem. Therefore, you may need to revise or modify your problem statement (PBL Step 6).

3. Then, using the Volcano Scenario and building from your responses, the samples, and most importantly a problem statement, you will individually complete PBL Steps 7 and 8, just like you did in the team Week B: Teacher as Model Builder assignment. The difference now, however, is that you will complete these steps by yourself instead of with your team.

Build an ESS model that includes:

• Your findings as they relate to the problem statement: a brief opening summary of supportable ideas and conclusions (recommendations, solutions, or alternatives) based on the information you have collected, particularly for your ESS analysis (PBL Step 8).
• Statements about the relationships: detailed accounts of all the changes and impacts (revealing your understanding of interrelationships of the spheres and the event in the Earth System Diagram) that led you to the conclusions put forth in your recommendations or solutions (findings). Make sure that you include the systemic relationships, called casual chains, where multiple spheres and/or the event are involved in complex and interrelated changes. In a system, nothing occurs in isolation. Each causal chain should include S > S > S interactions.
• Evidence: For evidence that your thinking is accurate, consider information, examples, and corroboration from readings, web sites, CD ROMs, and experts that lend credence to your relationship statements. Discuss what you learned and make statements you can support with evidence from multiple sources, including observation, expert opinion, analogy, or experimental results.
• Submit your analysis to the Portfolio in the Classroom for a grade.

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