Module Overview: Call to Action: Be the Change!

Overview

In this module, you apply the skills you learned throughout the course by completing a research project about a topic you are interested in that you encountered in this course. The project includes an annotated bibliography, research, writing a research paper, and preparing a presentation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:

  • Evaluate information scientifically in the context of his/her own life.
  • Identify and evaluate instances where population growth and humans' use of resources impacts the natural environment.
  • Use the concept of sustainability to critique global and local environmental issues, and identify the steps that can be taken to improve environmental conditions and actively participate in solutions to environmental problems.
  • Utilize academic research skills; such as evaluate the quality and credibility of information from various kinds of sources, narrow topics and discern the most important information from texts.  
  • Employ strategies to build and retain vocabulary.
  • Identify how authors organize text both written and oral and use vocabulary for specific purposes and audiences, and apply these strategies to their own academic writing and speaking.
  • Utilize the writing process to write academic essays.
  • Improve sentence clarity and structure by addressing errors in the context of their own writing.
  • CCRs Reading Anchor(s) Level E:1,2,6,7,8,9 CCRs Writing Anchor(s) Level E:1,4,5,6,7,8,9 CCRs Speaking/Listening Anchor(s) Level E: 1,2,4,5,6 CCRs Language Anchor(s) Level E: 1,2,3,6

Why This is Important

Investigating current world and environmental issues can be a lot of gloom and doom. It's crucial that we present this subject matter through a solution-oriented perspective. This module reinforces how education, especially literacy in various disciplines and critical thinking, is a tool to create positive change in our world. By ending with a project, students synthesize what they have learned and make practical use of their skills and knowledge. If students feel disenfranchised and powerless, this project helps shift their way of thinking.