Facilitating discussions

The four kinds of approaches to discussion in the classroom include:  (1) responding to a problem, (2) responding to an observation, (3) responding to a narrative, and (4) reflecting on classroom activities.

For my blog post this week, I will be focusing on the approach of responding to an observation.  To make this discussion topic a bit more specific than simply the pollution problem in the Boston Harbor, I would like to discuss my observations of Boston residents' concern about their drinking water.  Why do Bostonians know so little about the pollution problem in our harbor, yet are so concerned about the quality of their drinking water?

Some of the best practices to facilitate a discussion, according to Parker (2001) and Johannessen (2002) include: preparing and discussing the nature of a good discussion, creating a set of guidelines that ensure civility, plan the topics that you want to cover and how you will do this, create a stimulus or "controversy" to begin the discussion, focus on how you will respond to what others have to say about your question or concern, use the questions of people in your discussion to guide your agenda, use both whole-group discussions and small-group discussions, guide participation by using one person's statement as a question for another participant, if the discussion is not going well, stop and discuss the problem, consistently ask how the discussion comments relate back to the original stimulus, do not dominate the discussion, slow the pace of the discussion as to allow participants time to reflect, be a good listening model for your discussion group, and lastly, instead of responding, ask someone what he or she thinks.

More discussion questions:

• Why is there not more awareness being brought to the city's residents about the harbor's pollution problem by the state and its officials?

Service Learning Project

The Boston Harbor Association is the leading non-profit, public interest organization working to promote a clean, alive and accessible Boston Harbor, and is committed to providing free programming for the general public and students to learn about Boston Harbor and the waterfront.  http://tbha.org/index.htm 


On the BHA's official website, there are many activities and events that they promote which support the cleanup and reinvention of the harbor.  (http://tbha.org/events.htm)  Some of these events, like the one I mentioned previously in my blog, Stewardship Saturdays, involve volunteers actually cleaning the beaches near the harbor on the waterfront.  Other activities include informational tours along the harbor as well as presentations and lunches.


The BHA also promotes activities that they do not necessarily host, however are located near the harbor, on the Waterfront.  These specific activities are listed on their website, because any positive experience near the harbor is a step in the right direction for the intended change we hope the harbor to make.


The activity that I have chosen to do as my service learning project is the "Free Thursday nights at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art)".  
For those of you who may not be familiar with the ICA, it is the newest museum to be built in the city of Boston and it's home to many innovative and contemporary artful pieces from around the world.  I am excited to go, as it will be a great experience as well as help support the tourism near the harbor.
http://www.icaboston.org/

What do we know and what can we do to help?

As revealed through my interview of my roommate, Abby, many Boston residents are unaware of the severity of the polluted Boston Harbor or what they can do to assist with its cleanup.  First and foremost, Bostonians must understand what is actually going on with the pollution and its cleanup.  Some informational knowledge that most Boston residents have about this issue include the declining animal species that once filled the harbor, as well as the concern that our drinking water may be polluted.  Many residents living near the South shore of the city are also aware of the unclean beaches surrounding their areas.

The following is some procedural knowledge that Bostonians can use to help with the cleanup that our harbor really needs:

• Conserve water: Turn the sink faucet OFF while you are brushing your teeth.
• Watch what goes down the drain and make sure it's safe.
• Don't Litter! Pick up your trash so it doesn't end up in the Harbor.
• When you walk your dog, be sure to clean up after it.
• Use environmentally friendly cleaners when washing your car.
• Minimize your use of fertilizers and pesticides as the excess can wash into water systems.
• Take shorter showers - gallons of water are wasted each minute.
• Organize a beach cleanup with your friends.
• Recreational boaters, please use pump-out facilities.
• Visit Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands!

(http://tbha.org/resources_makedifference.htm)


Anyone interested in what they can do to help cleanup the harbor should first read and understand the pollution problems.  Second, starting with these minor changes to our everyday lives listed above, begin to do their part in cleaning up the harbor.  

What are some critical attributes of the cleanup of the Boston Harbor?

• William Golden, City Solicitor for Quincy, was the first public official to openly acknowledge the declining state of Boston Harbor.
• In 1984, Governor Michael Dukakis signed a bill creating the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and granting it responsibility to take over and rebuild the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) sewer system.
• The U.S. District Court, finding MWRA liable for the MDC’s acts, imposed schedule for upgrading the MWRA system.  The principal goal of the system upgrade was the construction of a secondary treatment plant on Deer Island.  Once complete, the plant will operate both primary and secondary wastewater treatment facilities.
• In 1988, the federal Ocean Dumping Ban Act was passed and the MWRA ceased the discharge of sludge into the Harbor in 1991.
• On December 24, 1991, the ocean-dumping of Boston’s sewage sludge ceased, and the Quincy Pelletization Plant began operations.  The MWRA selected the New England Fertilizer Company (NEFCo) and its Biosolid Drying Process which converts sludge into low-nutrient, organic fertilizer pellets, thus reusing nutrients while minimizing the harmful effects from other disposal techniques.

What are some critical attributes of the polluted Boston Harbor?

• Boston Harbor covers 130 square kilometers and has an average depth of 5.8 meters.
• The Harbor once supported abundant, healthy populations of harbor seals, porpoises, whales, sea birds, and many other types of marketable fish and shellfish.  However, after centuries of raw sewage and pollution to the Harbor, a large portion of these species have suffered.
• Before 1980, the main transport artery and large buildings separated downtown from the ocean, and those who did notice the deterioration of the water quality had no means to convey their observations.
• The majority of beach-goers were primarily lower- to middle-income Bostonians with little formal political standing, while fisherman simply did not want to announce to the public that their product was below average.  Legislators were interested in more visible projects, such as roads and parks.
• The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) required that publicly owned treatment works would provide secondary waste water treatment by mid-1977;  however, the Metropolitan District Commission suspended any action for system upgrades for 13 years. (Refer to Table 1 below)

TABLE 1:

                    POLLUTION-PREVENTION COMPARISON 

               OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT OPERATIONS

            Primary Only                                                   Secondary

– removes 60% of solids                                 – will remove 90% of solids

– removes 40% of toxic pollutants                  – will remove 85% of toxic pollutants       

– reduces BOD* by 35%                                – will reduce BOD* by 85%

*Biological Oxygen Demand, a measure of the oxygen-consuming organic matter present in effluent.  BOD is a pollutant because it removes oxygen necessary for fauna from the marine or aquatic environment.