New technological tools for a clean environment
Hosted by OSOS, contributed by Isabel Domene Egea on 10/02/2019

How to decrease illegal waste dumping in open areas?

A program for reducing environmental pollution in agricultural and open areas. Specifically, the pupils will deal with the ongoing problem of illegal garbage disposal in agricultural and open areas. The school is in Sakhnin, which is located in a rural area covered by olive and fig groves, and overall more than 40% of the area around the city is farmland. There is a great interest for the community of the city and around it to decrease the illegal use of the land for garbage disposal, because of the damage to crops and to wild animals.

In this project 9th grade pupils will work on a solution for this problem in two ways: (a) approaching the problem directly by collecting the data and delivering it to the relevant authorities; and (b) raising the awareness for the problem and creating a long term solution.

The pupils will work with relevant municipality representatives to locate areas that are severely polluted with garbage. The data collection will be done using state of the art technology – drones with photographing and mapping abilities. The final product of this project will be a file with all the mapped areas, including photos and relevant description. It will be delivered to the relevant municipality factors as a basis for solving this problem.

Furthermore, the pupils will learn about saving the environment and garbage disposal specifically. As a secondary product they will look for ways to raise the local community awareness of this problem – as at least a part of it stems from within this community and from residents of the region. A good option is to have recycling workshops with the students, and ask them to actively pass their new skills and knowledge to their parents and other community members (for example by presenting the products of the workshop in a celebrated exhibition). 

 

 

Responsible Research and Innovation

One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation principles (more information at RRI-Tools.eu). This is how the NanoChannels Accelerator fits into the RRI model:

Governance

Students will share with the stakeholders the problems posed by this Accelerator, and they will choose with them the challenges to face and they will even devise the solutions according to their needs and desired results.

 

I.e.: students will be in contact with several stakeholders who will be involved in the activity, including the local community, representatives of the city council or technologists. students will be in continuous contact with them during different phases, sharing responsibility in the decision making and also in the final results of the project.

Public engagement

Students will encourage the creation of new and profitable associations with students and stakeholders, encouraging their collaboration to propose solutions to the problem.

 

I.e.: the stakeholders will help to create new relationships among stakeholders such as recycling experts, governors or neighbors, which allow new solutions to be proposed to the project both in the short term and in the long term.

Gender equality

Students will discuss the gender dimension in the research process carried out during this project, incorporating issues to work on the elimination of gender stereotypes in the sectors covered by the Accelerator.

 

I.e.: students will form work teams with gender equality, and will work with stakeholders to improve the state and reduce the stereotypes of the world of recycling and urbanism.

Science Education

students will propose a research work in which, together with the help of different stakeholders, they will help other citizens to participate in the improvement of the school environment on the subject contemplated in the Accelerator.

 

I.e.: students will propose a process of investigation in which challenges are resolved around dumping in a critical and constructive manner, which will enable citizens to improve the problem in the environment.

Ethics

Students will take into account social and moral aspects when solving the problem posed by this Accelerator, creating an integral investigation that allows to share the responsibility of the achieved achievements.

 

I.e.: students will participate together with the stakeholders to develop a series of materials that will make society aware of the need to avoid dumping and improve the state of common spaces, making the population reflect on the values ​​of the environment.

Open Access

Students will use scientific and dissemination literature to know the state of the art of the topic raised in this Accelerator. In addition, as the project progresses, students will be turning their knowledge and experience into a series of materials that can be disseminated to neighbors, in order to raise awareness about the problem.

 

I.e.: students will create a series of materials that can be disseminated to raise awareness among neighbors and other stakeholders to avoid the problem of dumping in green spaces. In addition, students will also share the results obtained through a specific website, which will be shared with the local council so they can disseminate it in their channels.

Keywords: Environment, agriculture, pollution, technology, drone
Learning Objectives: The project aims on solving a problem that is relevant for the city residents. It provides the solutions in two ways: (a) approaching the problem directly by collecting the data and delivering it to the relevant authorities; and (b) raising the awareness
Rating: -/5
Näkymät: 325
Kielet: English
Students age group: 12 - 15, 15 - 18
Subject domain: Science, Environmental Education, Geography and Earth Science, Engineering, Technology
# of students participating: 50
Updated on: 10.02.2019

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