GREEN DUWAMISH WATERSHED [PBL-LAB + 2050 Workout]

Funded by King County Wastewater Treatment Division

Problem Statement: What are the most effective solutions across sectors, systems, and scales for managing the relationship between human well-being, economic ecosystem services, and viable Salmon and Orca populations in our watershed? What role can students play in designing and amplifying these solutions to ensure that salmon and people thrive?

Why you should attend…

• You live, work, and play in this watershed.
• You love it when your students are authentically engaged.
• You want to strengthen your students indigneous sense of belonging to the land.
• You want to strengthen community learning partnerships around critical issues.
• You value a healthy ecosystem.
• You think Salmon and Orca and beautiful, heroic indicators of our actions.

About the Lab: This Lab is a huge, ongoing practicum, convening many, many partners, technical experts, teachers, student leaders, and community champions to love our watershed back to health. It’s a big river system. It used to be three times bigger before we re-plumbed it. There is a dam at one end, a Superfund Site at the other, lethal temperatures in between, and Salmon swimming through it with stubborn, ancient heroism. This Lab is designed by and for the 10 school districts and 17 jurisdictions with human-drawn boundaries that overlap the natural geographic parameters of our shared watershed. We need to all be paddling in the same canoe. In this Lab 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. Swim!

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

ANALYZE   Watershed management issues from multiple lenses

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

COACH   Student Impact Projects aligned with watershed and community goals

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?