CLEAN TRANSPORTATION FUTURE [PBL-LAB + 2050 Workout]

Problem Statement: What are the most effective solutions across sectors, systems, and scales for managing the relationship between urban planning, transportation infrastructure, consumer mobility choices, and the design of our neighborhoods? What role can students play in envisioning and amplifying these solutions to ensure a clean transportation future?

Why you should attend…

• You need to get to school.
• You know that transportation is a HUGE contributor to our carbon footprint.
• You love it when your students are authentically engaged.
• You love identifying real-world contexts for meeting academic standards.
• You are personally fascinated by intersectional challenges like this one.
• You value a clean transportation future.

About the Lab: You gotta get around. Everybody does. But it seems that we’ve designed our cities where privileged folks own houses and expect every need to be satisfied by a quick car trip and a big parking lot, while other folks who provide these services have long commutes because they cannot afford to live where the jobs are. What would it take to develop walkable, affordable, diverse neighborhoods? Are we at the tipping point of an electric vehicle revolution? When greenhouse gas emissions from our everyday transportation choices make up about 40-45% of a city's carbon footprint, and we want to get to 0%, where do we start? This Lab is an ongoing practicum, convening technical experts, teachers, student leaders, and community champions to figure out how to create a clean transportation future. Will it be through innovation in policy, technology, consumer behavior, or economics? Together, we will explore, build, and refine the very best problem-based, place-based learning opportunities for applying sustainable systems design at four scales - Household, Neighborhood, City, Bioregion, and through five systems lenses - Equitable Outcomes, Engineering Design, Economic Development, Ecosystem Services, and Educating for Sustainability. Learn how to align academic rigor with community problem-solving.

PRACTICE  The fundamentals of problem-based, place-based learning

ANALYZE   Climate science in context of local solutions

APPLY   Systems thinking to identify solutions, track impact, report to stakeholders

COACH   Student Impact Projects aligned with city climate action plans

DESIGN   Lessons for application in your classroom

EXPLORE   Career profiles of people who are working on solving this problem

Associated Standards and Frameworks

• OSPI - Environmental Sustainability Standards
• NGSS - High School Human Sustainability Standards 
• OSPI - Social Studies Standards for Civics, Economics, Geography, History,
• College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies
• Common Core State Standards - English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics

What is the 2050 Workout?

Student leaders participate in the PBL Lab along with teachers, but through a parallel, youth-led track focused on a fascinating thought experiment, “What would it be like to achieve 100% sustainability in our communities by the year 2050?”  Students self-organize in research, facilitation, and presentation teams to prepare for the 2050 Update on August 26, our annual livestream event attracting thousands of viewers from across the nation. Student Ambassadors, invited peers, and our team of Sustainable Systems Coaches facilitate a different focus associated with each of the summer PBL Labs. In exploring one system in depth, the intersectionality among systems is revealed with a special emphasis on equity outcomes and climate change action. How fast can we generate the best solutions? What are the prototypes and tipping points already in play? What would it actually look like if we succeed?