Students investigated issues connected to sustainability in the world at large, and more especially, China, in order to come up with real-world solutions to pressing environmental and social issues. Students examined human behavior, social media, web-design, policy, government, modernization, and environmental science to determine what issue they felt compelled to address as part of a social media campaign. The purpose of their campaign was to raise awareness of a targeted audience, to advocate for their ideas, and to inspire action amongst their peers as well as to learn how to work collaboratively on a complex problem. Their final products included a variety of communication media from brochures to web-sites to word-of-mouth campaigns and were presented at a gala exhibition to parents, educators, community members, and government officials.
"Working in a team, the best parts were that you always had someone to talk to and rely on when things start to get tough. As the stress became more visible, my team made sure that if someone stepped out of the group norms they were reminded." - Student
"We changed our project completely halfway through the process because we were going in a direction that wouldn't be do-able. We used to target politicians, and we thought that they might listen to us, and perhaps follow our plan. However, we were shown that this would basically impossible, so we changed it so that we could do something more local and possible." - Student
"The best parts of working on our team was that we were all able to work together, and split up the work. I felt like I was able to count on my group members if I accidentally slipped up. I knew that they knew their stuff pretty well, and that I could count on them. This was especially evident today when during the gallery walk, I couldn't answer a question." - Student
"I was quite overwhelmed in the beginning, but then I now think that focusing on one aspect made it a lot easier. In turn, when you think small you can apply it to bigger things. We started with something very simple, which is overpopulation. Then we applied it to female education, and then we were able to apply that to the driving question. After we did this, it made a lot more sense." - Student
