As I looked over my research question and thought about my unit that leads up to it, I came to the realization that my plan b is a qualitative type of research project. The thing that brought all of this about was a video that my students and I watched called Lessons from a thousand years of island sustainability | Sam ‘Ohu Gon III, PhD | TEDxMaui. One part of this video talked about how our Hawaiian ancestors used to be 100% sustainable and how we are now down to 15%. Sam Gon went on to say, that if the "importation of goods were to stop, that we are just three weeks from famine". My students and I were surprised at this and my unit was created to look how we can become more sustainable in a modern day society. What changes do we need to make in order to bring up our sustainability percentage. My research question that was created off of this unit is: how does a teacher integrate STEMS lessons into a unit?
Looking at the Creswell reading, I looked to which worldview I felt most applied to my plan b. I feel that my question comes from a pragmatic worldview in that it "arises out of actions, situations, and consequences rather than antecedent conditions" (Creswell, page 10). The drop in the sustainability is what fostered my unit which forced me to look how I could make a change that would affect my students. I wanted them to look to their ancestors and believe that just as their ancestors lived off the land that we too can use the world we live in as our classrooms and make a difference in our learning.
Just as the Chilisa reading talked about the decolonization process, this in part is what I want my students to do. In the rediscovery and recovery process, is where we can look to our Hawaiian ancestors to "rediscover and recover their own, history, language, and identity" (Chilisa, page 15) as a way to rebuild and further our own personal growth within education. I want them to see that there can be learning outside the four walls of a classroom and that through this learning there is a deeper and fuller and more all around learning that takes place. This is where applying STEMS lessons into my unit will make it so my students can go beyond just scratching the surface of learning, but delve into the deeper thought provoking and inquiry based hands on learning.
My sources of data for my project will be three-fold: from my students, my team of teacher, and myself. My students will provide their student work as well as their reaction to completing the unit. My team will be interviewed and provide their thoughts and ideas of what we are accomplishing through this interdisciplinary unit. Lastly, I will provide my thoughts, the unit, and journal entries of what I needed to do to get this unit going and leading it into my plan b project. The feedback from the students and my team of teachers will determine whether this kind of unit will continue to be implemented or whether a change needs to be made to better meet the needs of both the students and the teachers.
I hope that I am able to do this question justice and that I will not skirt around the issue and not be able to find the answers that I seek. I do not want to fall into the attitude where pragmatists "stop asking questions" or where "they would simply like to change the subject" (Creswell, page 11). I want my students to come to the realization that learning can happen in any setting, at any time, and that there is learning to be found in everything they do all around them. If my students are able to come to this reality and learn that you do not need to be within the four walls of a classroom to learn then I have succeeded in my plan b.
