Results
of Project SUSTAIN
Project
SUSTAIN was an educational improvement initiative of the Ypsilanti
Public Schools, managed by Creative Change and funded by the
US Environmental Protection Agency and Washtenaw County government.
The initiative ran from 2001-03. The project aimed to improve
teaching and learning through sustainability
education. Activities included professional development
for teachers, interdisciplinary classroom units impacting 500
students in grades 5-12, and community-based projects with students.
Learn
more about the project.
Project
SUSTAIN's goals:
Evaluation results for students
Goal:
Increase students' knowledge and awareness of community and
environmental issues.
Method:
Students were
asked to indicate their agreement with the following statements
in a pre-post test that used a Likert scale (5=agree strongly).
The results are shown in table.
A. I understand how classwork relates to my life.
B. I know a lot about environment issues in my community.
C. I am interested in topics related to the environment.
D. I understand impacts of my actions on the environment.
E. I have a responsibility to help solve problems in my community.
F. I understand that local actions have global impacts.
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of page
Evaluation results for teachers
Goal 1: Increase
teachers' intention to use the research-based instructional
strategies listed below.
Goal 2: Increase teachers'
confidence in using these strategies.
Method:
A pre-post test asked teachers to indicate levels of confidence
and their intention to use the targeted strategies. (7=high).
The results are shown in tables below.
Instructional strategies:
A. Involve students in the community
B. Involve students in democratic process
C. Use role plays, simulations, and other hands-on methods
D. Have students evaluate different perspectives and their credibility
E. Differentiate content or methods
F. Emphasize connections among content areas.
G. Help students synthesize information/explain results/draw
conclusions
Results
of Goal 1:
Results
of Goal 2:
