Plastic-Free Oceans: The Great Pacific Challenge

Introduction

Imagine you are a Marine Biologist. You’ve just received a distress signal from a research vessel in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They aren’t reporting a storm—they are reporting a continent of trash. This is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." If we don’t act now, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Are you ready to dive in and find a solution?

Image of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch showing plastic pollution

Task

Your mission is to work in a "Discovery Team" to create an Environmental Action Proposal. You will choose a specific role (Scientist, Economist, or Policy Maker) and produce a Multimedia Presentation (using Canva or Google Slides) that proposes a realistic technology or policy to reduce plastic pollution in our oceans. Your end product must demonstrate "Higher Order Thinking Skills" by analyzing current data and synthesizing a new solution.

Process

To reach your goal, follow these "milestones":

Form Your Team: Assign roles (Scientist, Economist, Policy Maker).
Research: Use the provided links to gather "declarative knowledge" about ocean currents and plastic decomposition.
Brainstorm (Divergent Thinking): Use a digital whiteboard to list as many solutions as possible—be creative!.
The Solution (Convergent Thinking): Select the most feasible idea and develop it using the IDEAL Model (Identify, Define, Explore, Act, Look back).
Present: Create your slides and prepare for a virtual "Town Hall" meeting on Discord or BigBlueButton.

Resources

The Global Node: UN Environment Programme - Clean Seas
The Tech Node: National Geographic - Plastic Innovation Challenge
The Data Node: Ocean Health Index - Interactive Map

Evaluation

As we learned in Module 7, a good rubric tracks evidence of competency.

Criteria	Exceptional (4)	Proficient (3)	Basic (2)	Unsatisfactory (1)
Content Accuracy	Research is thorough and cited correctly.	Information is mostly accurate with minor gaps.	Missing key facts about ocean pollution.	Content is inaccurate or incomplete.
Critical Thinking	Solution is innovative and addresses the IDEAL model.	Solution is logical but lacks original innovation.	Solution is superficial or unrealistic.	No clear solution provided.
Collaboration	All team members contributed equally to the presentation.	Most members contributed; roles were mostly followed.	Uneven workload among team members.	No evidence of teamwork.
Multimedia Quality	High-quality "Representation Formats" used (images/data).	Visuals are clear and relevant.	Visuals are distracting or low quality.	No visuals used.

Conclusion

Congratulations, Team! You have successfully navigated the depths of the Pacific and emerged with a plan to save our marine ecosystems. Through this WebQuest, you didn't just learn about pollution; you practiced "Connectivism" by using digital networks to solve real-world problems.