Capstone Project Proposal

Name of student: John Chau

Date: March 20th, 2021
Teacher: Ms. Lacroix
Capstone strand I have chosen is Project Captone
Proposed title for my project: Environmental Solving Through A Childrens Book

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that
connects with a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that
you cannot just google an answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.
My inquiry question is:

How can I reach out to children to make keeping the environment clean memorable to impact
the amount of litter and waste produced.

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are
choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect
to your passion(s), purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

Walking around the city I spot a lot of trash all aver the streets and grass and think to myself,
why does this happen. I wanted to do something that could potentially change the amount of
littering that occurs. An idea I had was to educate people on the matter but that wouldn’t be
that effective as it's hard to change people's habits. But if I target who hasn’t developed bad
habits like children then it may be possible. When the environment is clean it brings me joy
and it also benefit everyone else too as the city would feel nicer and wildlife wouldn’t be eating
plastics.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this

area of inquiry?

I don’t have much knowledge on the subject be I do sometimes manage the recycling and
compost in my household. Before the composting system came food waster usually went in
the trash. But with composting garbage cans had less in them and started to fill landfills
slower. If every household were to compost effectively then it would have an large impact on
landfills and prevent some environmental problems.

Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What
connections does this inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

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 The main thing that connects this project to my interest is cleaning. By educating children to
manage their waste properly would lead to an cleaner environment. For my future I currently
have my eyes on becoming a dentist. With proper dental hygiene people can smile brightly
with joy as they gaze upon an clean environment,

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

Subjects
Literature, Art, Environment, Learning,

Personal Awareness & Responsibility

-”I understand learning takes patience and time”, the project will take some time and I
shouldn't rush it.

Social Responsibility
-Building relationships, I will be able to make connections using the end result.

Critical Thinking
-”I can analyze and critique my work and my learning”, I’ll know when I need to put more work
into if something doesn't seem right.

Creative Thinking
-”I can create new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that influence how
people think about topics”, I will use the book I create to change how people think about waste
management.

Communication
-”I can reflect on the processes of learning and share what I have learned”, I will be able to
show my improved skills through the book I create.

Personal & Cultural Identity

-”I understand what is important to me”, I know what to focus on for this project.

Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to
present your project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once
completed. You may use a combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website

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 o imovie presentation
o YouTube channel

This project will mainly have a physical portfolio as I will be creating a children's book on
waste management. Things that will be in the portfolio are things such as ideas, story boards,
the book itself. As I work through this project there may be an electronic portfolio but the
majority will be physical.

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what
will you research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced
at the end of this project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your
proposal.

For my capstone I’m focusing on the topic of waste management. The main points that I’ll be
researching on are litter, recycling and compost. I have gotten multiple journals through
JSTOR and will be incorporating the information into what I’ll be creating.

What I want to do is to education people on the effects of littering and how they can manage
thier waste properly. I’ll be trying to effectively get their interest on recycling and trying to get
them to start composting if not already. It is difficult to change bad habits that have been going
on for a while but if I target an audience that has yet to develop those then it’ll have a greater
impact. The logical choice in picking a group that hasn’t built many habits would be children as
they are the most impressionable to teach.

To teach children on what I’m researching, I have to make it more accessible to them.
Repeating the things from the journals would make them look interest quickly and there are
complicated words and are at a higher level that children just aren't ready for. A great way to
simplify the information would be to creating a children's book about waste management.

By creating a children's book I’ll be able to picture it better for children over purely telling them.
Children have a tendency to picture themselves as characters from their various books and
shows they see. If I were to creates a protagonist who is a great role model then children
might be able to take after that certain character. There are various aspects of a book that can
make a child interesting. One big thing is to make it easy to follow along which is important as
they don’t pick up every detail that’s given to you, the big picture I think should be the main
focus. To sculp the big picture I’ll need to illustrate memorable drawings.

I’m not the best at literature nor drawing but I think through this project I’ll be able to pick up
those skills and hone them. How will I learn and improve on these skills? Through various
guides and journals that are applicable to what I'm focusing on. There will be a lot of drafting
for this project as I’ll be writing a story whilst designing characters which will need many
sketches until satisfaction.

I the end of this project the final result will be a completed children's book. What outcomes
that I hope for out of this book is to educate some children into creating good habits such as

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 holding onto their trash to a garbage can; I also want to encourage them into recycling and
creating their own compost bin as small steps lead to something great.

Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and

skills you will need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to
access/learn all of the resources necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail
your plans.

Resources that’ll be needed are art supplies, books and paper

-Since my younger sister likes to draw I'll be able to borrow some of her supplies to use on my
project.

Skills that'll be needed are writing skills and drawing skills.

-To improve my story writing skills I can look at various books and see what aspects making
them appealing to children whilst for drawing I can find various guides that’ll aid me in
improving my drawing skills.

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will

you need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you?
What is your plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this
project?

I can reach out to the city to learn about the disposal services and I can get some book
making references from authors of children books like

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee
that might affect progress with your Capstone Project?

I don’t really create stories on my own time outside of class so in terms of writing I’m not very
familiar with creating books. Since I’m creating a children’s book I will have to include carious
illustrations but I’m no artist so I will have to learn and practice to make good quality work.

Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about
your project that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

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References:

Attach a REFERENCE LIST. Your list should be written using correct APA formatting.
An example is provided on page 21 of your Capstone booklet.

Batson, D., & Liu, S. (2017). Howe it’s done: Waste not, want not. ReNew: Technology for a
Sustainable Future, (138), 36-39.

Brittain, A. (1996). Garbage Grows Great Plants. Science and Children, 33(7), 20-35.

Giorgis, C., Johnson, N., Colbert, C., Conner, A., King, J., Kulesza, D., & Kulesza, D. (2000).
Children's Books: Characters. The Reading Teacher, 53(6), 518-527.

Khawaja, F., & Shah, A. (2013). Determinants of Littering: An Experimental Analysis. The
Pakistan Development Review, 52(2), 157-168.

Song, J., Murphy, R., Narayan, R., & Davies, G. (2009). Biodegradable and Compostable
Alternatives to Conventional Plastics. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences,
364(1526), 2127-2139.

Viscusi, W., Huber, J., & Bell, J. (2014). Private Recycling Values, Social Norms, and Legal
Rules. Revue D'économie Politique, 124(2), 159-178.