What is the Learning Tree Storyboard Project?

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Introduction

The goal of the Team Project is to produce a series of Learning Tree Storyboards to be collected in a scrapbook and presented to the class at the end of the module.

The Team Project is intended to allow students to develop all the crosscurricular competencies being practised through the learning activities and to apply and appropriate them in their own project.

The project should be worked on throughout the entire curriculum module.

At the discretion of the teacher, the project could be worked on during class time and as assigned homework.

Students will collectively be working to create a "forest" that could be displayed in the classroom (taken from the pages of the student Learning Tree Storyboard Scrapbooks).

Process

1. Divide the class into teams of 4-5 students.

2. Assign teams to explore poverty and basic human needs for one selected country in Latin America, Africa, Asia, or North America (Canada).

3. Each team will need to do research on each of the poverty and basic human needs learning units covered in this module (nutrition - hunger and food security; health - HIV/AIDS; environment - water; basic education).

4. This is a case study approach where teams will be collecting an array of information on one specific country. They should complete one Learning Tree Storyboard for each of the above units looking at the problem, cause and solution/ideals for each theme covered.

5. In total they will complete four Learning Tree Storyboards, which will be compiled in their scrapbooks. Eventually, pages from the Scrapbook will be displayed in the classroom as a Poverty & Basic Human Needs Forest.

6. At the end of the module, students will give five-minute presentations to the class based on the information collected in their scrapbooks. Their presentation should do the following:

• Present all elements (problem, cause, solution/ideals) of one of their Learning Tree Storyboards or
• Present selected elements of each of their Learning Tree Storyboards or
• A variation they choose and
• Accommodate different learning styles by incorporating elements such as games (e.g. quizzes), drama (e.g. role-plays, songs), math (e.g. statistical graphs), art (e.g. drawings), new technologies (e.g. PowerPoint presentation, recorded interviews), language arts (e.g. poem), maps, etc.
• Include something learned about a different country from a different team (they will have the opportunity to learn about different countries during the jigsaw activity they will do before the end of the module).

7. Tools or worksheets will be used to complete the project. At least one team should keep copies of the Learning Tree Storyboard Worksheets used as their rough drafts. Final copies will be transferred to the scrapbook.

8. The Teacher will store the scrapbooks.

The Learning Tree Storyboard

The "Learning Tree Storyboard" is an adaptation of two ideas - the Learning Tree and the Storyboard. The Learning Tree is a common, popular education brainstorming tool that looks at the symptoms of a problem, its causes, institutions that support the cause, solutions to the problem, and the ideal situation. The Storyboard is a tool used to develop a story and how to tell that story.

For the Poverty & Basic Human Needs Module, the two ideas are combined and students will be asked to create Learning Tree Storyboards in teams.

The typical panels used in storyboards will be placed inside the Learning Tree to create a Learning Tree Storyboard. The traditional storyboard is usually presented and read in a linear way (one idea flows into the next). But in the case of the Learning Tree Storyboard, panels are placed all over the tree to create a story that can be read in many ways depending on what panel is read first or last.

Because of the different layers involved in this project, different elements could be easily integrated into other subjects such as Math, Drama, Language Arts, and Art Class.

Each section of the Learning Tree should answer different questions about the country being studied. Students will develop storyboard panels for each of the following sections:

Branches/Trunk - the problem/symptoms

What is the problem? What are signs of the problem?

Possible things to include:

• Statistics on how people are affected by the situation in the research country.
• Stories that illustrate the lack of basic human needs - from the perspective of people in the country being researched (e.g. a news story, testimonial or interview students have heard or read).
• Descriptions of the living and working conditions for people in the country being researched (e.g. Are people eating enough food to be healthy? Do people have access to medical treatment, to clean water, to work to make a living?)

Roots - causes of the problem

Why are people in their actual situation?

Possible things to include:

• Why there is hunger, people dying of HIV/AIDS, a shortage of clean water (students will need to pay attention to the facts learned in class).
• The role of the national government.
• The role of big business.
• The role of the international community.

Clouds - solutions to the problem (ideals)

Possible things to include:

• Things that need to change nationally, internationally.
• Examples of international development projects.
• What the ideal situation would look like if the problem wasn't there.
• Ideas on how students can help on a local, national or international level.

Gound - What is the global situation for the research theme?

Possible things to include:

• The global situation for the theme and country being researched (include information from facts learned in class).

Canadian Beaver - What is Canada's role in the research country?

Possible things to include:

• The role Canada plays internationally on the theme being researched.
• Examples of Canadian international development projects in the country being researched (or in the region the country belongs to).

Project Roles

• Project Coordinator: Keeps team on track, makes sure project checklist is completed, coordinates team meetings to discuss progress and problems

• Technical Coordinator: Coordinates the audio-visual elements and acts as the resource person for computer application software (if applicable)

• Research Coordinator: Finds information for different aspects of research project - Branches/Trunk; Roots; Clouds

• Materials Coordinator/Archivist: Keeps all of the Tools/Worksheets being used to develop the Learning Tree Storyboards and coordinates the materials to be transferred in the Scrapbook.

Tools

A number of tools have been made available to help students complete the learning activities as well as the project. Tools that are particularly useful for the project include:

• Learning Tree Storyboard Template - (a model of the entire tree with blank storyboard panels)

• Learning Tree Storyboard Example - (an example of a Learning Tree Storyboard for HIV/AIDS)

• Learning Tree Storyboard Research Tools - (worksheets to be used to help complete each section of the Learning Tree Storyboard: Clouds, Branches/Trunk, Roots, Ground, Beaver)

Materials List

• Access to computer lab, portable computers in the classroom, and/or home computers with Internet access and Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word installed.
• Storyboard paper
• Scrapbook
• Markers
• Pens
• Pencils
• Paper
• Atlas of the World/mapsGeneral Resources for Students

General Resources for Students

Students will find out about a number of resources through the learning activities. However, here are some general resources that will be especially useful for Team Projects.