Problem Solving (OLE Problem Solving) - Community Outreach Project

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

• Define a community-based problem within the scope of the time frame and expectations of the course.
• Identify possible strategies for solving the problem.
• Propose/Evaluate specific solutions (a plan) to solve the community problem.
• Implement the proposed solution.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the solution and provide suggestions for improvement.
  

Instructions

The purpose of this assignment is to experience the notion of working in a small group to solve a very real-world problem. This is a semester-long project. Your team will need to find a REAL need out there in the community and work to develop and implement a plan to address that need.

The need may be to coordinate someone to do shopping for an elderly person, build a new set of stairs to a porch, develop a volunteer plan for a child care center, or raise funds for a project. The point is that this is REAL.

Proposal

Each member of your group will engage in the process of searching for a suitable (and doable) project. You will work as a team to select your project, identify a plan, coordinate resources, and put the plan in place to solve a problem in your community. As you can likely see, this is not an EASY project...but I promise it will be rewarding.

Each team in class is an "Action Team" as part of the KVCC Center for Civic Engagement. As such you have to define an identity (name, membership, group identity, Facebook presence (if desired), and literature (eventually). I will be the overall "Supervisor" of all the teams, so I am a resource that you can turn to.

Each team will work closely with me to create an Action Team identity and a Project Proposal. When it is ready, each Action Team will submit (and share with the class) a "Plan of Action." The Plan of Action will introduce the team and the nature of the project they are taking on. It must be "branded" so that it represents your group's Identity, Personality, and Style.

The plan will be presented to the entire class and members of the class will be able to contribute ideas/resources that may be of assistance to team.

Implementation

Now you need to actually carry out the plan. This will entail taking whatever steps you have outlined in your Plan of Action, modifying the steps as needed, and dealing with any issues or conflicts that come up.

The end product is that you actually meet the need in the community.

Presentation

You will document your project using images, words, and video. Final projects will be published on Storehouse.com, a web-based story-telling site with an accompanying iOS app of the same name.

iPads with access to Storehouse are available in the library and can be used to create your Storehouse site.

In the same folder as these instructions you will find a link to past Storehouse Presentations.

As you construct your presentation other individuals not in your group may appear in the pictures and/or videos you take. In order to get the "OK" to use their images in promotion I would ask that you have each of them complete the form listed below. If they choose to NOT sign the release or you forget to do it it means that we are then limited to looking at the presentation in class alone...we can't share it with the wider college community (which is fine).

Click here to download the release form