Unit on Solving Problems in the Community Goal: Students will understand and realize that they can make a difference in the community. Background: Students need to understand that they can make a difference in their community. This lesson is designed to give the basic structure of how to go about choosing an issue and trying to solve it. You as the teacher will need to decide how far to take it in the classroom. Hopefully the students will lead the way by becoming excited at the prospect of having an impact on the community. For a more indepth look at how kids can change the world see the book. A Kids Guide to Social Action : How to Solve the Social Problems You Choose-- and Turn Creative Thinking into Positive Action by Barbara A. Lewis Materials: Community resources, books & magazines on topic, Internet, local papers, notepaper. Procedure: 1. Choose and Issue/ Identify the Problem Introduce the idea that kids can solve the communities' problems too by reading some stories about students who have made a difference in the past whether by making food baskets on Thanksgiving or cleaning up the area closest to their schools. Tell the students that they are going to look around for something they are interested in changing. They can find ideas by taking walks and writing down observations, reading a local paper, watching the news, talking to other people, going to a city council or school board meeting. Students will then bring in ideas of what they would like a chance to change. You may choose to have them give a 3 minute presentation on their idea. The class can then vote on what they would like to do. 2. Research Set aside class time when the students can read books, and articles, get on the internet, talk to others in community about their opinions. You may need to coordinate this at first until the students learn about the various ways to gather information. They might begin by making a list of questions about the topic they would like answered and proceed from there. Students will need time to share information gathered, perhaps daily progress reports 3. Brainstorming Solutions. Begin to brainstorm solutions as a class. Explain that any idea is okay no matter how far fetched it sounds. Write all ideas on the board. When finished have the class discuss the potentials of each idea and then decide on the solutions they want to pursue. You will need to decide if this will be a whole class project or group projects. 4. Evaluate Solutions. Each group will choose a different solution to explore. They will then do more research and put together an oral presentation based on criteria you choose. (You might find that the students will be motivated on their own and will not need as much structure from you). You will need to decide whether this will be a mock solution or whether you would like the students to actually put their solutions into action. If this will be a classroom exercise ask a group of adults such as teachers, parents, or school board members to act as a voting board. Each group will present their solution and the board will vote on the solution they think is best. Evaluation is based on how well researched the solution was and how it was presented. You should tell the students beforehand what kinds of things you are looking for in the presentations. Students may decide that they want to implement their solutions. Let each group present a persuasive argument to the class for their solution and let the class decide which solution they want to try.

*This lesson plan was adapted from A Kids Guide to Social Action by Barbara A. Lewis.

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