Creating change at Truesdell EC, Part II: Choosing the project!

During the DC SCORES spring season, each of our 44 teams go through a four-step service-learning process that involves A) Identifying problems that need addressing in their community; B) Researching one issue; C) Implementing a project to make a difference in the community; and D) Reflecting on the impact they made.

This spring, DC SCORES intern Kristen Miano is following the Truesdell Education Campus (elementary school) Trojans as they go through the service-learning process. Read below and watch each week’s video to learn how DC SCORES empowers youth to create change around them. You can also view photos from Truesdell HERE and follow Kristen's Tweets HERE. 

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Written by Kristen Miano
Digital Media Intern

The votes are in: The Truesdell Trojans will be cleaning up their school and encouraging others to do the same for their spring SCORES service-learning project.

“The overall project goal is to reduce the amount of trash in the building,” said Cailin Eisle, one of the Truesdell writing coaches.

Now that the team has an issue to tackle, the next phase of the project is to conduct research and construct a plan in order to achieve their goal.

To jump start the planning process, the Trojans were treated to a special guest speaker last week — Ms. Duckett of the Truesdell custodial staff.

“The students were able to brainstorm questions and ask [Ms. Duckett] questions,” Cailin said. “That will hopefully keep them engaged in their project.”

Ms. Duckett has seen the trash problem first hand at Truesdell, and had some great ideas for where the team could target their efforts as they begin working toward a cleaner school.

“The classrooms and the lunch room are the two areas with the most need for trash clean up,” Ms. Duckett said. “And paper trash is the biggest problem. School papers, homework papers, paper towels — all kinds of paper creates the most trash.”

The kids made sure to take notes about all the information Ms. Duckett provided, including what tools they can use to pick up trash, how to keep track of what work has already been done, and the best ways to motivate other students to be diligent about cleaning up.

“Ask them nicely to pick up their trash,” Ms. Duckett advised. “Also, posters that say ‘Keep your school clean’ or ‘Clean up after yourself’ could be helpful.”

After the discussion was over, the students spent some time making thank you cards for Ms. Duckett and reflecting on what they had learned.

“I learned that picking up trash doesn’t need to take too much time,” said Yocelyn M., age 10.

Bryan M. also thought Ms. Duckett had some greats bits of advice and came away from the lesson with an idea of how to move their project forward.

“We can put signs in hallways and bathrooms,” he said, “to tell [people] they don’t need to leave trash on the floor.”

The Trojans learned a great deal from Ms. Duckett’s experience and are charging ahead into their school-cleaning project armed with excellent information and some grand plans and ideas.