Latin America PBL

Name: ______

Objective: To investigate a current issue/ problem in Latin America and develop a potential, reasonable solution.

Requirements: You will have to follow the requirements as they are outlined in this project. You may choose if you would like to work in a small group of 2-3 or individually. There will be different requirements for what option you select. You will select one of the problems we discuss in class (and outlined below). You will have to investigate this problem using the 5 themes of geography (region, human-environment interaction, location, place, movement). A final presentation and official proposal are due at the end of the project.

Timeline: You will have 6 weeks to complete this project (January 6/7- February 6/7, 2014). Class time will be given, as well as lab time. Depending on how in-depth you make your project, you may have to have additional time to work on your project at CARE, Activity period, or home. This is about 10 classes.

Class 1: Introduction/ brainstorm/ formulate Diving Question
Class 2, 3, 4: Research the issue that you are trying to solve. Get background information, possible solutions already tried, experts in the field, current technology used involving the problem, charities/ organizations associated with the problem, etc…
Class 5,6: Review your information and start to complete the appropriate steps in the proposal. Think of a solid solution to the issue, and possible ways your solution will fail. Think of fixes to the possible fails.
Class 7,8: Test your solutions if possible, build a model if possible, rethink your solution and make changes if needed. Begin your final presentation. Review directions for final presentation requirements.
Class 9: Final preparations for presentations next class. Check proposal and finish it, review for proper grammar, spelling, etc. Put presentation in SS Drop Box on Collaborative Storage.
Class 10: Presentations & Proposals due

Issues in Latin America Today:

Clean Water

The unsafe drinking water there is part of a global problem. Throughout Latin America and the world, nearly 800 million people live without safe, clean drinking water, according to United Nations agencies. More than three times more people—2.5 billion—manage to survive without a decent toilet, day in and day out. People suffering from water-borne diseases take up about half of all the hospital beds in the world. And each year the diseases carried in water kill nearly two million people, mostly children under five years of age. In Latin America and elsewhere in the world, climate change and increasing population are going to make access to clean drinking water even more difficult. More people will have to share the earth’s finite water. The higher temperatures of climate change are expected to bring longer dry stretches and more evaporation, alternating with heavy rains and floods. Most places have not developed ways to capture and store the rains and the flooding churns all sorts of harmful things into drinking water.

Poverty

Poverty in the South America region is often perceived as an urban phenomenon, since 70 per cent of the population is urban, and extensive urban slums are highly visible. But poverty affects a much higher proportion of the region’s rural population.

Air Pollution

The suffocating cloud of smog that hung over Beijing in January this year was a very real reminder that air pollution is an ongoing and serious problem.A new report assessing air quality and efforts to monitor in Latin America shows that the toxic threat of air pollution is not limited to Asia; indeed, it is a global problem with real impacts in Western Hemisphere countries, too. From Mexico to Argentina, pollutants in the air have reached dangerous levels, with implications for both public health and the planet’s changing climate. The good news is that the solutions already exist: international standards and best practices are out there, and can to be adapted to and adopted in Latin America. Clean transportation and energy generation technologies are already taking root in the region. If leaders work to get their countries off of dirty fossil fuels, the skies will clear up and their people will breathe freely.

Crime

Several of the region’s countries — Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the Virgin Islands — are eight of the 10 most violent places in the world, according to U.N. figures.

“People are increasingly worried about their safety,” Clark said. “In such ways, citizen insecurity limits people’s capabilities and freedoms, inhibiting them from pursuing opportunities which can improve their lives, contribute to their communities, and build social trust.”