1. Investigate types of waste products in the school building.

2. Investigate why it is important to recycle and what recycling programs other schools have in place.

3. Develop a school wide recycling program.

4. Present your plan to the school board.

Bronfenbrenner (1979) developed a well-known conceptual model that describes how a child's social world is constructed. The child is at the center of three intersecting circles: school, peers, and family. Outside of the circles is a larger circle that contains their neighborhood, community, workplace, values, social customs, and political and economic systems. (Shunk 2000) It is the situative theorists' belief that the change in one of the circles will affect the other circles. In fact, the change in one area could have an impact on numerous other areas. Therefore, the model is considered quite interactionary. The theorists that focus on the Situative Approach to education view student development and learning as a process that is similar to the model created by Bonfenbrenner. They feel that the student's development increases along with his/her participation in society or as they refer to "community of practice" (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Situative theorists also introduce the notion that this community also includes career groups that the student has chosen with which to identify . An individuals knowledge is constructed around the specialized language and expertise of this career group. The situative view draws upon Vygotsky (1978), "that learning takes place within the student’s “zone of proximal development” —that cognitive space representing the difference between work that the student can understand and perform alone versus work that can be accomplished only with mentor support." (School to Work)

This lesson allows students to create a project around a specific area such as recycling. This will be a collaborative effort between students, teachers, administrators, and cafeteria employees. Students will contact individuals that specialize in this field and take from their expertise. Students will draw from what they already know about recycling on a personal basis and transfer that into a situation where others would benefit. They will be able to construct knowledge around the whole area of environmental protection. They can draw expertise from individuals whose career focus is to help develop strategies and plans that will preserve our environment for generations to come.

Students will be addressing a number of the NET STANDARDS is this activity. They will be working collaboratively with a number of different interest groups. Part of this collaboration will even include experts in the environmental field. Students will also be designing and creating a multimedia presentation to present to the school board. They will be making decisions on the content and the most appropriate technology tools to use. There will also be a discussion on the ethical and legal use of information that has been obtained from various sources. This talk will focus on how information should be cited and when downloading clip art and animations are acceptable.