1. Submitted to ATC21S team at Melbourne University on Friday 22nd May 2015
MOOC Assessment ATC21S - Sarah Fretwell-Jex
Major Project in an aspect of Environmental Sustainability
Background
It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for the
year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline. Taking a global overview of the
need to reduce Carbon emissions and national footprint and extrapolation of that necessity
into a local situation such as a school or College with young people at its heart; girded
round by the teaching team and led and supported by the SMT in any educational setting;
itself surrounded by the local authority or local community, which has links to Government
and they in turn have links to the global responsibility and the agreements made by the
united nations of the world….
This is the background against which this opportunity for Collaborative Problem Solving
(CPS) sits, with an educational opportunity at its heart.
You can see that these many layers are linked and go from the very top level in our global
community, all the way down through whichever society you choose to focus it on. The
consistent element and message for the purposes of this assignment is that, ‘The Future
Belongs to the next Generation’ and therefore the young need to be engaged, educated
and empowered to make a difference, whilst being fully supported by all the adults who
surround them, or who have an influence on that future. If they believe that their work is
valued and their voice heard, then they will become truly global citizens, who will both vote
and take responsible daily action to improve the security of their future.
(This assignment is aimed at the 15-25 year age group, but could be amended for a younger or older student
group. Ideally a project with this kind of focus, could also be expanded beyond the traditional set-up that we
have grown used to in our education system and engage the Teaching and Management staff and Local
Employers in engaging equally with this issue, as I have seen in the Engauge Project in Sustainability, in
West Sussex County Council, set up by John Hoyland and which resulted in a range of Sustainability Skills
qualifications developed by myself, the Engauge team and the BTEC qualifications development team at
Pearson.)
The Objectives
• Learners must identify and understand the problem/s around the creation of and
necessary reduction in carbon emissions
• Collaborate to develop a creative solution to dealing with one or more of these
problems
• Design a way of communicating these findings to an audience
• Test the plan in some way in the local arena
• Capture the results, evaluate and make recommendations, based on the findings.
The Tasks
1. Following an introduction by their Teacher, students are tasked with individually
researching why there is a need to reduce Carbon emissions both in the UK and
globally. They will demonstrate their understanding of the situation by making a 10-20
minute informal presentation to other members of their class and a member of the
teaching team. This research should be in a form that will enable the information to be
used in the collaborative stage of the project.

2. 2. The collaborative stage starts with an opportunity for creative ideas to be explored as a
group. This should be to a range of problems identified, at least 1 by each member of the
group. A group of 4 should explore at least 4 ideas, so that each student can develop a
response to the creative interrogation of both the problem and possible solutions, resulting
in a progression of a possible solution that can be implemented in the school, College/
University or local community. Each individual should capture these findings and creative
explorations in whichever way they decide to be most appropriate, in readiness for group
discussions and choosing which problem they agree to take forward to the next stage. The
scale of the problem or solution explored is not important, as even the smallest problem,
once repeated can have a huge impact globally and the same can be said of even the
smallest solution.
3. The agreed-upon problem/idea must be communicated to an audience of the groups
choosing, from the following list: Parents, Peer group, Local Community, The SMT in
school, College, University, Local Government, The National Government or the United
Nations. The group must decide why they are communicating with this particular audience.
It could be in order to galvanise this group into action, or to raise funds to support putting
the idea into action in the local area. Whatever the resultant communication of the
message, it must be negotiated and agreed by the whole group and a method identified
and used.
4. Putting the plan into action, is a very important way of testing whether the groups
solution is viable and whether they can count on the support of their audience to see it
through to completion. Identify roles for each member of the team, based on the needs of
the project and the skills available in the students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
and test the plan. This might involve identifying a team leader and other vital roles,
identified through the nature of the chosen plan.
5. Capture and discuss the results of testing the ideas and evaluate their success as a
team, whilst making individual recommendations for how this could be further improved
and implemented. Incorporate any improvements or changes necessary for future
success, as suggested by each group member. These recommendations can be shared
with your original audience or a new audience, depending on what you have found to be
most appropriate or effective. Communicate your findings and make recommendations,
based on these findings, that could be repeated again in your institution or in any
institution around the globe. Be prepared to share your findings.
Collaboration
There are various opportunities for student collaboration from Task 2 onwards and huge
potential for engaging wider audiences in supporting students in implementing their ideas.
Collaboration should not be viewed as the preserve of the student group alone, as the
overarching objective is to engage everyone in making a difference. Collaboration beyond
the confines of the team will potentially support learners in engaging with the wider
community and helping to bridge the gap between being a child and an adult; a student
and an employee, or similar.
Students will need to collaborate on identifying and sourcing suitable digital technology
capable of capturing data collected and I would recommend looking at the digital
mechanisms designed for use by the Engauge team (see link below), these are freely
available for registered centres.
Another opportunity for collaboration, is to task teachers and SMT, to actively embed
sustainability into all areas of the curriculum. An example might be asking "what's the
Maths behind an 80% reduction in Carbon emissions? How do we work it out? and how do

3. we demonstrate it with use of figures?". If ALL teachers in the school or FE/HE
environment were to consciously analyse the current curriculum against this opportunity
and then choose to embed this assignment into their subject area the following year, then
the power of this could exponentially transform and embed the learning experience and
widen the achievement of outcomes.
If students and their community have managed to engage effectively with the assignment,
then it is hoped that they will feel some ongoing commitment to keeping up the good work
and take their tested plans through to a point where they can make actual and observable
'Change' happen. This ongoing commitment will give students an opportunity to transfer
these experiences into their future lives and have a tangible model that they can repeat in
the workplace, or in their home lives. It’s the assignment that never ends, because making
the required difference in reduction of carbon emissions will be a commitment for life.
Social media would be an excellent way to share the assignment with a wider audience, as
it unfolds and then to continue to track the effects and successes of the students ideas as
they roll out over time. A simple Facebook group, that openly shares its findings and adds
students each year, would be an excellent way to keep people on board. Students should
also be encouraged to find other ways to share their ideas, in the hope that others may
emulate the more successful ideas, which is the whole point!
Developmental Learning
The assignment offers opportunities for all 5 strands of Collaborative Problem Solving
(CPS) from the Conceptual Framework:
• Participation
• Perspective Taking
• Social Regulation
• Task Regulation
• Knowledge Building
Assessment of learning will be through a range of methods, including peer and self-
assessment, teacher observation of student participation and any feedback resulting from
interaction with wider audiences, who will be encouraged to feed back to the groups as a
whole.
References
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-greenhouse-
gas-emissions/2...
https://www.engaugeonline.co.uk
https://www.edexcel.com/quals1/skills/sustainability
Other materials to reference:
www.overviewthemovie.com