The “Troubled Waters” project was an effort made by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to increase awareness about the issues of water pollution and water scarcity in southeastern North Carolina, and to demonstrate methods of conserving and managing water. “Troubled Waters” was a documentary project aired on North Carolina’s Public Television station. Supplemental to the documentary, a website was created. The website included information about the documentary, Curriculum Activities, Issues, and Solutions.

My role in the project was to design curriculum activities. The curriculum activities were designed for use in the K-2 public school system, based on information we received from the “Troubled Waters” staff. The purpose of the curriculum activities was to educate our youth in the areas of water pollution and scarcity. Efforts were made to cater the materials to specific grade-levels to be used cross-curriculum, including a proposed senior project for high school seniors.

The curriculum activities project was made up of four curriculum writers who each created five activities on their own. We were assisted with content materials and possible strategies by the documentary producer and assistant. Although content materials were provided, a lot of my responsibility involved gathering additional resources for constructing the curriculum activities.

In order to accomplish the task, I needed to conduct an environmental analysis of the particular grade levels I was appointed (middle and high school), a learner analysis for catering the delivery strategies, determine objectives, instructional strategies analyses, determine resource needs, create assessment tools and teaching suggestions for potential instructors. The artifacts here, are the five lessons that I created individually.

This project was very intriguing because it allowed me to increase my knowledge and awareness about water scarcity, an issue I had little knowledge of prior to the project. I was allowed the opportunity to serve as both a subject matter expert and designer. The artifacts demonstrate my ability to synthesize new information and design appropriate content for instruction.

Troubled Waters Web site (Click on Acknowledgements; Find "Patrick Gunn"; View Curriculum Items)