| A BREATH OF AIR |
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Background: The fallout from the September 11 terrorist attack
continues, creating unprecedented health, political and economic problems in
downtown Manhattan neighborhoods. The
destruction of three immense office towers and extensive damage to many more
propelled airborne pollutants and irritants both toxic and non-toxic
that posed health and trauma problems for the areas residents, workers, schools
and businesses. But there was no
consensus on the danger (or non-danger) of this fallout for different categories
of people, particularly as the months went by and the clean-up proceeded.
Experts seemed to disagree with one another.
Many in the community understandably viewed the information through the
prism of their own self-interest concerns of parents for their children, of
businesses for their survival, of employees for their jobs and of residents for
their short and long term health.
Scenario: It is now early June 2002. Nine months after the 9/11 terrorist attack, environmental concerns, while subsiding some, still remain high. You are director of a new neighborhood group of residents, businesses, parents, and students, the TriBeca 9/11 Coalition. Your organization has called for a Town Hall meeting on Monday, June 10th in the 1,000-seat Theater One at BMCC to discuss, assess and take action on continuing public health and environmental concerns. Your job is to present a PowerPoint overview entitled The Public Health of TriBeca: Nine Months Later Issues, Facts and Concerns. Striking a balance between the concerns (and sometimes hysteria) of your coalition members and the best scientific information available (which is sometimes in dispute), the main purpose of your overview is to frame and promote rationale, informed discussion of the issues by:
Objectives:
·
To gather, analyze and
evaluate information about public health in downtown NYC in the wake of 9/11 and
to assess appropriate response by your community.
Resources
· Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/wtc/
· NYCOSH World Trade Health and Safety Links: http://www.nycosh.org/linktopics/WTC-catastrophe.html
· National Institute of Environmental and health Sciences World trade health and Safety Informationm: http://www.wetp.org/wtc/
· NYC Department of Health: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/alerts/911.html
·
World
Trade Center Disaster / Worker and Environmental Health Information (Center for
the Biology of Natural Systems
Queens College): http://www.qc.edu/CBNS/WTChealthinfo.html
Activity. (60 Minutes Total)
Step
1. Researching the Situation. (30 min)
Choose a partner. After reviewing these instructions, work with your partner
to examine some of the sites listed as resources (above) to gather information
about 9/11 fallout and related public health issues. Use the attached
note-taking form--or create your own.
Step
2. Sorting, evaluating, and analyzing information. (15 min). Stop gathering and start analyzing.
With your partner, reflect on the data you gathered.
Which sites were most helpful to you?
What kinds of information did you find on different sites?
How would you describe their biases?
How would you rate their reliability? (NOTE: If you want help thinking
about evaluating web site reliability, go to: http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/net.html.)
Overall, what do you think are the key pieces of information for your
community to know?
Step
3. Outlining key points of a presentation. (15 min)
Sketch the key points of
your presentation. Consider these questions as you prepare the outline.
What information does your audience need to know?
How should that information be best presented (order, emphasis,
illustration, layout)? What would
you include? Exclude?
How would you make these decisions?
NOTE:
Remember, your purpose is to develop an overview that (1) defines
the key issues for discussion, (2) presents and assesses key sources of
information (including graphs and images), and (3) raises a few key questions
for discussion and investigation by the TriBeca Coalition.
Step
4. Questions for further inquiry. (10 min)
What else would you want or
need to know to create your presentation? Brainstorm a list of
questions and possible sources for additional information.
Small Group Discussion (45 minutes):
Gather with others who did this activity. Take turns briefly sharing your outlines for a one-page flyer and your list of questions for further inquiry. Then reflect on and discuss this activity with your small group, using the following sequence of questions as prompts. At the end of this time, prepare one member of the group to share key points of your discussion with the larger group.
What did you learn from
this activity? What could students learn from a classroom version of it
(including the sharing and exchange of presentations)? What other kinds of
writing or presentation outcomes could this activity support?
What are the strengths
and weaknesses of this activity? Is it a good vehicle for developing student
skills in inquiry, critical thinking, and writing? How could it be improved?
How would you describe the pedagogy that informs this activity? What skills and modes of thinking does this activity support? Do the electronic materials being engaged suit the assignment's pedagogy and methodological goals? What can we learn from this activity about the kinds of inquiry assignments that work best when using new media resources?
How does the inquiry approach used in this activity compare with inquiry approaches you have used in your classes? What is similar? Different? What are the advantages and disadvantages of inquiry learning, in your experience? Where does it fit in the repertoire of teaching in your field?