COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Signature Assignment

Combating the Issue of Sustainability at Copper King Elementary School

Kathryn Penunuri

Arizona State University

COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Applicant Environment

My name is Kathryn Penunuri and I am an 8th grade science teacher at Copper King

Elementary School, in the Pendergast District of Avondale, Arizona. I have been teaching for 3

years at Copper King Elementary, and have had, 7th, and 8th grade students in the science

content area since I have been with Copper King. Copper King Elementary is considered a “Title

One” school with 100% of its students coming from low-income households. A large majority of

the population who attends Copper King are of Hispanic descent (70%), followed by Caucasian

(12%), and Black (10%), trailing behind. In terms of gender, the school is almost evenly split, at

53% of students identifying as Male, while 47% of students identify as Female. 14% of students

attending Copper King, are marked with having some type of disability.

With these factors in mind, as well as Copper King’s vision of being “...​ ​a community

where respect, engagement and a passion for learning lead to individuals achieving their highest

potential,” ​ I have decided to work on diversity within my own classroom, in order to help my

students achieve their highest potential. Within my daily schedule, I see a total of 70 students

who all have different experiences, and different learning potentials. The way that I choose to

run my classroom directly relates to needs of my students experiences. I believe in collaborative

learning for multiple reasons. One, my students begin to understand their peers needs alongside

myself. In turn, it allows me to shape my lessons in part with the demographics of my classroom,

and molds it so my classes feel at home within our school’s community. Two, my students begin

to gradually feel comfortable in participating with one another, which sets them up for success

when transitioning onto high school, with a new community dynamic.

COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

At this time, I see my students biggest need is to understand the impact that they truly

have on themselves and their futures. The community that they come from may not always

understand the true importance of education, and I believe a big part of my job is to ensure that

my students, and their families begin to understand this importance. I attended a school within

the Pendergast District, as well as one of the feeder High Schools in the Tolleson Union High

School District, and so the culture of the area is something that I know all too well. Thinking

back to my time as a student in these schools, I realize that my parents, and peers, may have not

known exactly what types of things I was focusing on, rather than the specific content, or

standards that show up on a traditional standardized test, or progress report. This was something

major that began to stand out to me, and what made me realize why my students do not exactly

understand the value of education, and potential just yet.

My philosophy of education stems from the ideas that teachers, students,

parents/guardians, and communities are all key contributors in understanding the current needs

of our students. It is because of this I believe that introducing a project-based learning

environment would benefit all of the parties listed above.

My idea is to have my students work on an issue that is directly affecting our school. The

issue I have chosen to allow my students to explore is sustainability. Every time I walk onto our

campus, I notice that students seem to feel it is okay to leave their trash anywhere, and

everywhere. As well as this, I see teachers making use of tons of paper each day, and no recycle

bins anywhere. Specifically in my classroom, there is no recycle bin that was made available to

my class, so students throw trash into one bin, and it fills up extremely fast. As well as this,

lunch options are often not fresh, and packaged in plastic materials.
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Summary of Project and Project Impact

I want my students to dive into this, and to understand why this can be such a detrimental

problem for our community. A project based learning activity I have in mind for students, is

stepping into the shoes of an environmental scientist that is employed by our school, to come up

with a way to make our school “go green”. Students will be required to focus in on a specific

sustainability issue at our school such as lunch, or recycling issues. Once students have chosen

their respective topics, they will research trends in that area, and compile evidence that supports

a plan to create a more green environment for our school. I would then like to work with our

english teacher so students can write a proposal that they can present to our administration.

Through this PBL experience, students will be able to effect change, and share their ideas

amongst their peers, and families. Because this project is meant for large scale ideas, the more

collaboration within other classes we can get, the better. This means that other teachers in our

school will now become exposed to the reality of the problem in sustainability that our school

faces, and aid in helping find a solution. As well as this, providing a proposal to our admin does

not have to be the only end product for this project. We can have our students present this to our

city council, our school board, and other officials that have a great following within our

communities. That way, our community is aware of what type of issue we are dealing with at

Copper King, our willingness to combat it, and our need for their support.

Project Narrative

The goal of this project is to inspire students to think outside of the box. Each day will

focus on the driving question of, what can we as scientists do, to educate Copper King’s

community to be driving forces in the growing demand for sustainability. The main standard
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

students are focusing on is 6.L2U3.11, which explores human interactions in relation to positive,

and negative impacts on the ecosystem. In regards to ITSE student standards, they project really

hits each target. This is a highly collaborative, research based project. Students will be able to

engage in discussions, facilitate research, and further their teamwork skills through the 10 days

we are conducting research.​ ​Days will be listed out as followed:

Day 1: The main goal is to introduce the idea. By the end of the day students will be able

to identify a major area of sustainability that they are interested in. Students will be required to

begin the critical thinking process, and start formulating ideas about sustainability at Copper

King. Guiding questions that will be introduced include, what does sustainability mean to me?

What are the biggest issues in my life that deal sustainability? Students will also use their

chromebooks to look up vocabulary words including sustainability, repurpose, recycle,

etc…Lastly, students will provide a short response about what major area of sustainability they

found to be of interest. This will be used as an exit ticket.

Day 2: The main goal of day two is to break out in teams, and start doing research.

Students will be able to indentify major trends within the area of sustainability they have chosen.

Based off of what the students wrote about in their exit tickets, I will pair them into teams. These

will be their specific teams for the rest of the project. Teams will then divide themselves into

positions (ie. Team leader, scribe, speaker). Teams will then start to work together to determine

research on what factors are influencing changes within our ecosystem. What I really want them

to gather is that human influence is a huge factor in why things change. I then would like the

students to begin to formulate an idea on which trends relate specifically to the area of

sustainability they chose.

COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Day 3: At this time is when I want the students to start narrowing down exactly what the

biggest threat pertaining to the school, and their area is. By the end of the day, students will be

able to formulate ideas based off of the research they have done. Using their chromebooks, I

would like them to look up at least 3 scientific articles explaining how human influence has

impacted their area. Then, students will fill out a venn diagram explaining the pros and cons of

their area. This will start allowing students to formulate inferences about what time of plans they

can put in place to tackle the issue at hand.

Day 4: Students will now have the issue at hand identified, and be making strides to

formulate their plan. By the end of the day, students will be able to identify key points to their

solution strategies. Their plan will need to include the main issue focused on, evidence that the

school is struggling with that issue, and a solution to combat the issue. Students will utilize

google docs to begin to work on each section. Most work will be independent during this time,

and students shall only be discussing their findings with their own group members. This will be

for the remainder of the period.

Day 5-7: At this point, students will be deep into their proposals, and should be utilizing

some type of presentation tool (prezi, ppt, animoto) to present a long with their findings. Work

will still be done independently. Students will be able to compile their eveidencce into one

fidning during these days.

Day 8: Check in. We will come together as an agency to discuss the findings within each

group. Each group will be a lotted 10 minutes to discuss their main points of their proposals. The

rest of the agency will then be able to give input on the findings, utilizing google forms to
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

anonmysouly submit feedback, and discuss ways of improvement on their plan. Students will be

able to use this feedback to sharpen their plans.

Day 9-10: This will be day one of revisions. Groups will be able to take the feedback

from their peers and decide whether or not they would like to incorporate them. As well as this,

these are the final days for revision. At this point, students will be able to identify key issues, and

solutions within their problem area, to a tee. After this, their proposals must be finalized.

Formative assesment will happen based off of round table checks by myself. Students

will be graded based off of their contributions to discussions, and the amount of content they

have gathered. After these 10 days, summative assesment will take place. Summative Assesment

will happen presentation style. As well as this, I want to bring in the administrative board at our

school to listen to what the students found, and their solutions. Students will also be provided a

rubric at the beginning of the PBL, to know exactly what the end product should be

Based off of what feedback the students recieved from admin, I would like us to have a

final breifing on how we would want to take this to a larger scale. What would we need to do if

we wanted to create a plan for our district, city, or even state? Do we have the means as an

agency to do this? How much would we need to construct our budget? Who would be our

sponsors? These are the kinds of questions that would further my students thinking.

At the end of this, the students should be able to think critically about the world that

surrounds them. I want them to be able to draw inferences, and suggest conclusions, based off of

research, and questions that they formulate themselves. For example, if a student comes up with

a composting idea in the lunch group, or re-constructs bus routes to limit the number of miles

each bus travels to, and from school. The end goal of this is NOT to have my students feel like
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

they achieved something because they got an A. It is to have them leave my class with the

knowledge that their own questions, and inferences, can used to shape, and answer questions in

real life situations.

Budget Narrative

The items I have chosen listed in Table 1 are to enhance the lesson, and to ensure my students

can complete this PBL. First off, the padlet is so my students can have an interactive discussion

in which they can leave comments about each teams solution ideas. Padlet can also be utilized

throughout the year, which I would love to do for my classroom. Second, copy paper is a

necessity. Students will be needing this to print their reports and such. Third, I would like my

students to compile their report, in nice covers. This will teach them professionalism, and allow

them to keep a copy of their work in something nice. Fourth, metal name tags are a special touch,

and highlight of this project. This is something that they will wear, every time they enter my

classroom. It puts the students in the scene of an actual agency, and really brings the lesson to

life, plus it is an awesome memory my students get to carry with them forever. Lastly, to go

along with bringing the PBL to life, I would like color changing disco lights for my classroom.

This will again put us in the setting of creating another scene rather than our classroom, and

makes it interactive, and engaging for my students.

COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

REFERENCES
1. Explore Copper King Elementary School in Phoenix, AZ. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.greatschools.org/arizona/phoenix/547-Copper-King-Elementary-School/#St
udents_with_Disabilities*Discipline_and_attendance*Percentage_of_students_suspended
_out_of_school
2. Copper King Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.pesd92.org/copperking/aboutus.html
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

APPENDIX

Table 1

Item: Cost: Where: Total:

Padlet $8.25 (per month) Padlet.com $100

Copy Paper $15.15 Amazon $15.15

Report Covers $19.99 Amazon $19.99

Metal name tags $184 Nametagwizard.com $184

Disco lights $20 Amazon $20

COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
COMBATING THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY AT COPPER KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL