The Problem

Action Items

Solve It!

Project Proposal

CLE/PBL Paper

• Constructivism
  
• PBL as an Example of CLE
  
• Prototype as a PBL
  
• References
  

PBL Evaluation
Criteria

PBL Prototype

Project Proposal

• PBL (Problem-Based Learning): Toxic Wastes at Former US Military Bases in the Philippines

2. Target Audience (include description and charactieristics)

• The target audience may include high school students in Grades 10-12, college students that may include extended studies students, undergraduates, graduate students, and doctoral/post-doctoral students. The target audience may also include individuals interested in environmental issues and activists from different activism arenas. Little or no prerequisite knowledge of the problem is required to engage in this PBL. Skill range of target audience members of the target may range from little or no skills or a multitude of skills. In any case, everybody has something to bring to the table.

3. General knowledge domain or content area

• General knowledge domains or content areas may include any of hte following: US and Philippine History, US/Philippine relations, Science/Engineering, Politics - US, Teamwork, Communication, Leadership, Environmental Justice, Environmental Health, and Terrorism

The problem defined: The US military produces environmental contamination in every major domestic and foreign base. In the 1980s, the General Accounting Office of the US Congress found the US military to be one of the worst violators of environmental laws. Since then, legislation has been passed and domestic cleanup programs initiated to minimize the threat from military bases to public health and the environment. In Europe and other countries, law suits were filed forcing the US military to clean up.

After nearly a century of military operations in the Philippines, the US military left behind sites contaminated with toxic solvents, pesticides, asbestos, heavy metals, unexploded ordnance and other hazardous substances. Serious groundwater and soil contamination in over 46 sites on Clark and Subic is documented in reports by the US General Accounting Office (GAO), World Health Organization, Independent US and Philippine experts, two US-based environmental firms, and the Department of Defense's internal reports.  US failure to meet its environmental safety standards is also documented by the GAO. Yet, US officials refuse to even acknowledge the problem.

The health effects of some of these hazardous wastes are readily seen, as in those victims suffering from asbestosis or wounds from detonated ammunition. The health effects of other waste materials such as lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other persistent organic pollutants are less discernible but equally deadly.These substances have been linked to reproductive failure, cancers, and behavioral disorders.Former Clark residents report many cases of stillbirths, birth defects, cancers, skin problems, and mental disability. Some Clark residents still drink from wells testing positive for mercury. A preliminary health survey, released in 1998, shows that communities closest to toxic sites report higher rates of reproductive, kidney, and nervous system disorders. Many leukemia cases have been diagnosed among children and as many as 81 people have died.

It is unconscionable that the US, with full knowledge of the danger of military contamination and while willing to protect those in developed countries, is unwilling to help the Philippines, a country with few financial and technical resources to conduct a comprehensive cleanup.  This US refusal to protect health violates international law. Filipino Americans can rectify this environmental injustice by pressuring the US government to meet its moral and legal obligations to protect health.

When the U.S. military closed down its bases in the Philippines in 1992, they left behind toxic contamination that is now seeping into the environment, threatening the lives of thousands of people in surrounding communities. Today, more than one hundred people have died from illnesses believed to be linked to the toxic waste. Despite calls by community and environmental groups for U.S. accountability, the United States refuses to take responsibility for this environmental tragedy. (taken with permission from http://www.facessolutions.org)

Who is going to clean up the toxic wastes left at the former military bases in the Philippines, how is it going to be cleaned up, and how is the environmental health of the people in these affected communities in and surrounding the former bases going to be protected?

4. Learning outcomes within content area that the CLE will focus on includes:

• Do research in areas involving:
  • US/Philippine History and politics,
  • US/ Philippine Relation
  • Engineering
  • the Physical sciences,
  • Environmental justice,
  • and terrorism
  • ...and be able to make connections between each domain.
• Develop an understanding of the problem, its causes, its present and future effects on the community and environment
• Utilize and hone problem-solving skills
• Be able to support and defend a position decided on by the group with evidence and use argumentation to prove a point.

5. The learning problem or cognitive puzzlement from the point of view of the learner.

• The cognitive puzzlement will be how to deal with the toxic wastes left at the former bases in the Philippines, who's going to clean it up and how is environmental health going to be protected for the citizen in these communities surrounding the bases. It will be helpful to to determine what the problem is, its causes. The team will also propose a solution and prepare to communicate and defend your position in a real community forum on toxic wastes.

6. The learning activities

• The learners will be set up in groups of four to five. The group will be given the link to the FACES website at http://www.facessolutions.org to be introduced to the problem. The FACES website serves as a clearinghouse on the military toxic wastes issue at the former bases in the Philippines. The group will not be limited in searching for resources. There will be designated persons that will play the role of facilitators and be helpful in using problem based learning approach/model defined by Barrows.
  
  • Exposure to the problem
  • Reasoning through the problem, identifying the needs of the learner, and identifying resources
  • Self-study
  • Application of new found knowledge
  • Summary of what has been learned in the process

  After introduction to the problem, students will work individually to process and find out what they can about the problem using their resources. With the facilitator in facilitating mode, the students will brainstorm ideas, facts, learning issues and develop an action plan.
  

• All information and activities will be documented in a personal team-based portfolio. Individually each student will get involved with peer(at the end) and self-reflection(continued throughout the process). In the end, they will present their solution to the members of the community, and the steps on how they will get to their solution. Materials and resources will be available to them and be able to get other needed items when and if they need it.

7. Evaluation (how will assessment occur)

• Peer-assessment - at endpoint of the project.
• Self-assessment - at midpoint and endpoints of the project
• Reflections document (this will be a secure document that will be posted on the web within a personal folder within the project website that can be accessed by proper user/password access)
• Evaluation and organization of Team Project site
• Participation in creation, presentation, and defense of project deliverable/solution