MFC 1.0 - School Year 2018/2019
How can we use natural resources to positively impact local communities?
Students from Buckfield, Piscataquis, Telstar, Greenville, and Forest Hills participated in our first project, starting in January and running the second semester. Students attended 2 cohort events at UMaine, met with a range of professionals, shared their community posters and learned about postsecondary options in Maine's forests.
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PROJECT NARRATIVE
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For this project, students will investigate how forest use has, is and could positively impact local communities, guided by the overarching question “How can we use forests to positively impact local communities?”
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Students will define a local region and invite community contacts and partners to collaboratively explore the history of forest use and ownership in their region, investigate current forest use, and imagine ways local communities have, are and could use forests to impact financial, social/cultural and ecological dimensions of their regions.
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School Partners
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Buckfield Jr./Sr. High School, Buckfield
Environmental Science Class taught by Caleb McNaughton
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Forest Hills School, Jackman
Environmental Science class taught by Megan Leach
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Greenville Consolidated School, Greenville
Environmental Science Class taught by Selena Tardif and Dawna Blackstone
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Piscataquis Community High School
Maine Forest Collaborative class taught by Heather Doherty
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Telstar High School, Bethel
Environmental Science class taught by Elke Blauss
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The Curriculum
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🌲UNIT ONE (January to February)
Building context for understanding forest use in our local communities
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Collecting data, and learning from community resources
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🌲UNIT THREE (April to May)
Analyzing data to share an understanding of how forest use has, is and could positively impact local communities.
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Analyzing data to define the local story
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Organizing data into a story map
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Telling the story of "How has? How are? and How could?"
Student Outcomes
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1. Investigate complex issues facing forests, drawing upon a wide range of community resources both in and out of school.
2. Investigate emerging industries, technologies and innovation.
3. Collaborate with other students, natural resource practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and other community resources to apply available information to their understanding of natural resource management.
4. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1.b)
5. Apply leadership skills to contemporary issues facing natural resource industries.
6. Apply advocacy skills, including research, argumentation, and presentation skills
7. Apply goal setting and problem-solving skills in novel situations in collaboration with other students, natural resource practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and other community resources.
8. Articulate a personal connection to the local natural resource economy, markets, and ecosystems.