Reflection on MWEEs

Though MWEEs are happening across the expansive Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the focus of each individual MWEE is locally relevant to the students and their community.

MWEEs represent a unique approach to project-based learning in which activities are grounded in outdoor investigations into local environmental issues, problems, and/or phenomena and culminate in student-directed environmental action projects. The MWEE has been designed to support state and local standards, standards-based initiatives, and frameworks such as: 

• A Framework for K-12 Science Education
• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
• Common Core State Standards
• College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies

MWEEs also reflect research-based instructional models including:

• place-based education
• North American Association for Environmental Education’s Guidelines for Excellence
• Investigating and Evaluating Environmental Issues and Actions

In project-based learning experiences, “students actively construct their own learning by participating in real-world activities similar to those that experts engage in, to solve problems and develop artifacts” (Krajcik & Blumenfeld). MWEEs, viewed through this lens, have students actively construct their own learning by working together to make sense of the issues. MWEEs focus specifically on providing standards-driven student learning within the context of local environmental issue. Investigations and other MWEE activities take place both indoors and outside in places including classrooms, labs, on school grounds, in a park, or with a field-based education provider. Finally, MWEEs culminate in student action, which can take many forms, including environmental restoration or protection, everyday choices, community engagement, or civic action. 

Watch the video about a high school MWEE on this page or HERE. Later, in the Lesson 1 Reflection, you will be asked to consider how a MWEE can be valuable for students, teachers, and the community. Think about what your response will be as you watch this video.