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Preface
    "Spreadsheets are flexible cognitive tools for representing, reflecting on, and calculating quantitative information. They can be used to model mathematical processes or the relationships between variables in the sciences and social sciences. They are powerful and flexible tools."1


Recycle Check
A service learning spreadsheet model
    The May 2003 Lower School service learning committee meeting revealed a need for a recycling study. At the meeting, a Haverford Lower School science teacher voiced his frustration about how we fail to follow through on our recycling program at school. He noted that while students and most adults are usually pretty good about sorting items and putting them into the proper containers, we still have those who neglect their responsibilities.

    To help reinforce recycling as a way of life, a new project will be introduced where students will use a spreadsheet to track how we handle trash at school. Individual classrooms will be randomly selected throughout the year for a Recycle Check. The computer lab will have an additional recycle and trash can that will be used to exchange with the randomly selected homeroom. The following day, students will sort through the selected homeroom's containers and construct a spreadsheet with the number and types of  items in each can.

    Students will devise a scale for grading homerooms on their recycling efforts. Beside the double-bar graph above, students will explore using pie charts with percentage data to help them determine a recycling grade. In the pie chart below, students might assign a C+ to a homeroom for the random inspection of their recycle can.

Students will  print and post a spreadsheet, graph, and recycling grade in each homeroom being checked. The Recycle Check is not just an Earth Day activity, it is a mindset that can be established using a spreadsheet as a Mindtool.

    As a requirement for their Science and Computer Studies classes, students will work in groups of two and complete a Recycle Check, showing the grading scale and grade for the classroom being checked. A Word document with a proper header, spreadsheet, and graph will be included, along with a investigation of the topic, and reflection of the activity.

    Some of the questions that students will investigate are:

* Is it a law in our community to recycle?
* Does reycycling save money? Can we track the savings from month to month?
* Do homerooms need a third can for plastic and aluminum?
* How well does the cafeteria recycle?
* Who collects our recycled material and where does it go?

Students will need to conduct research and interviews to answer these questions. People at school that students may want to talk to include but are not limited to: Head of School, Head of Catering Service, Business Manager, Custodial Director.

Bibliography references are required.

Scoring rubric for the Recycle Check project

Recycle Check and Spreasheet / Word document / Homeroom grade 50
Investigation of topic 20
Reflection on the activity 20
Bibliography 10


Resources for students to explore

Greg Harder. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/recycle.htm
Available: 2003.6.19

Emily Bertram. Clean Air Council: Statewide Across Pennsylvania and Delaware
http://www.cleanair.org/waste/rec_pa.html
Available: 2003.6.19

Recycle photos from around Haverford School that students may use in their report.


References

1 - Jonassen and Carr. Spreadsheets as Cognitive Tools. http://www.ed.psu.edu/insys/400/Mindtools.htm
(Available 2003.6.19)