Part Two: Your Project

Chapter Six is the halfway point in Nature Labs, where the final project is introduced and student lessons transition from knowledge acquisition to knowledge application. We’ve designed the final project with four ideas in mind:

1. Ask students to take what they’ve learned in this course and prove their comprehension by applying that knowledge.
2. Ask students to create their final project using the parameters of balancing people and nature (helping keep ideas focused while also allowing for unique, personal interpretations).
3. Ask students to create something, within the confines of this class, that reflects their passion or interests and helps address a contemporary problem or issue (helping answer the question of why this class and this project matters in the real-world).
4. Ask students to create something that reflects where they want to go in life (ensuring they are building skills towards their ideal future).

Note: This goes without saying, but like every lesson and each activity in Nature Labs, the final project is ultimately up to you. We’ve done our best to provide a rigorous structure that reflects what students and educators told us they wanted, hopefully helping lessen your classroom design burden. That being said, we’ve intentionally left many aspects of Nature Labs vague so that you can adapt it to your preferences and your situation. The Lesson Media for Chapter Six, as you will have noted, is extremely vague in explaining the final project for this very reason. We want you to be able to use as many elements of Nature Labs as possible without forcing you to adhere to a specific lesson or project outline.

Your Project:

This section outlines the final project for students.

Outline: Students will create and present a visual story that can help advance a better balance between people and nature in their community or beyond.

Process: For the visual story, students will choose a medium that plays to their interests and strengths, and is a platform that they think best enables them to share their idea. No matter the goal, their visual story – overtly or subtly – should inspire their audience to create the Canada they want to call home.

Skills: creative thinking, research, organization, responsibility, leadership, time-management, independence, collaboration, critiquing, reviewing, communication, self-starting, self-regulation, critical thinking, citizenship, awesomeness

Final Product: Students will produce a visual story, an artist statement and a presentation. The visual story will be created using a medium of their choice or as directed by you. The artist statement will be a brief description of their visual story. The presentation will involve sharing their work and artist statement with an audience, likely the class, though that’s for you to decide.

Rubric: Again, you can use this rubric or provide your own for students to review.

Why Nature: We again cover why nature is used as the metaphor for this class, and highlight the many ways students can define or envision balancing people and nature. We strongly encourage you to allow students to define this question in the broadest possible terms.

Project: Part One

This activity uses the principles of design thinking to help students lock down their idea by creating a rapid prototype for testing.

Instructions:

1. Present or have students carefully review the activity’s preamble.
2. Remind students to use the work they have already completed in the previous chapters, as this will give them a significant head start on their final project.
3. Students can use the linked resources to help them better understand the purpose of the task.
4. Have students follow the prompts listed in the activity and encourage them to use the guiding questions to help them perfect their concept.

Project: Part Two

This activity uses the principles of design thinking to help students test their rapid prototype – their idea for their final project – in order to get critical feedback before they launch full-on into the creative process.

Instructions:

1. Present or have students carefully review the activity’s preamble.
2. Organize your class into prototype stations and have the students rotate through every prototype station, leaving feedback notes. Make sure students have Post-it notes and a pen, or some other tool or device that will allow them to leave ideas with each station.
3. Encourage students to use the prompts in the activity to help them focus their feedback.

Project: Part Three

This activity uses the principles of design thinking to help students re-adjust their ideas based on the feedback they’ve received, helping them create a more robust, worthwhile final project.

Instructions:

1. Present or have students carefully review the activity’s preamble. Encourage students to reflect on our advice regarding feedback (what to accept and what to reject).
2. Give students time at home or in class to work through the feedback they received, allowing them to refine their idea before they begin the creation process.
3. The infographic and the Curated Library are tools to help the students as they work through the refinement process.