This document summarizes a study on how a project-based ecology class helped high school students become more scientifically literate and engaged citizens. The class focused on long-term investigations of real-world environmental issues rather than tests. Student work, surveys, and feedback showed that the project-based approach helped students better understand ecology concepts and their role in environmental stewardship. However, some students found the projects took a long time and were not always interested in every topic. Overall, the study suggests that project-based learning can help students more meaningfully interact with science and want to take action on environmental issues.

1. How high school students use project-based learning to become scientifically literate citizens.
Kayla M. Rubin
City College of New York
Abstract:
Human impact on Earth’s systems is a recurring theme throughout the New York City K-12 Science Scope and
Sequence and the Next Generation Science Standards. However, an overwhelming number of students are still
incredibly disconnected from their own and others’ impact on the environment. Through the analysis of course
curriculum, student work, student surveys and student feedback, this study looks at the impact of project based
learning on student engagement, student learning, and student ability to apply basic knowledge of ecological
concepts to help solve contemporary science issues. We hope that with careful planning and conscious-
teaching, students can interact deeply and meaningfully with science content in order to become
knowledgeable stewards of our planet.
Background/ Context:
The problem:
1. Students struggle to see their connections to the environment and nature.
2. Teachers often struggle with making current events and contemporary issues accessible and
engaging for students.
The question :
How can we get students to not only understand key science concepts; but also understand the
duality of how science impacts their lives and how their lives impact science, to the point
where they are changing their habits and influencing others to do the same?
The study:
This study takes place in my “ Ecology: Impact and Activism” class. This class, a science elective
offered at a small public high school in the South Bronx, is geared towards 11th and 12th grade
students. THERE ARE NO TESTS OR QUIZZES IN THIS CLASS. It was designed to be a project
based course that focuses on teaching and refining student understandings and
misunderstandings of ecological concepts through long-term, real-world investigations.
Methods:
1.) Looking at student work
2.) Looking at student survey responses
3.) Looking at student feedback on course
Dig In: The Keystone Debate
“How does your organization feel about the
construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline?”
Fuel for Debate- The Lesser of Two Evils:
“Which is less harmful for the planet, the
extraction and burning of natural gas or oil?
The Deer Dilemma of Westchester County:
“How does your character think we should fix
the deer overpopulation problem in our
town?”
Student Survey Questions and Responses
1.) Taking into consideration all of the examples of
human interactions with the environment that we have
looked at this year; what role should we as citizens have
in taking care of the environment? Use direct examples
from our assignments, discussions, readings, and
projects.
“Make our communities better and safer places to live”
“we need to be more aware of how we are negatively
impacting the world”, “DDT, got rid of bugs but it made
our food dangerous”, “CO2 emissions are causing the
Earths climate to change”, “Organizations are working to
fix these problems like GrowNYC “
2.) Our ecology class was a project-based class. Project
based learning is a teaching method in which students
gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended
period of time to investigate and respond to a complex
real-world question, problem, or challenge. In your
opinion what were the strengths of the way this class
was taught? What were the shortcomings or
disadvantages of learning this way?
“no tests”, “more aware of what’s going on around me”,
“makes me want to take action”, “allows me to focus on
actually learning stuff, instead of focusing on memorizing
facts”, “makes me think my opinion actually matters”
“It’s a lot of work and it builds up quickly”, “I wasn’t always
interested in every topic”, “Sometimes I just wanted to be
done with a project, they lasted a long time”