2) School Portraits

Learning Goals

By completing this section, you will be able to:

• know the approach of rapid assessment as well as the difference between "desk research" and "field research", and between "secondary data" and "primary data";
  
• document what you know about your school or what questions and ideas you have with the help of the School Portrait;
• collectively identify and decide on a direction for your community science investigations based on interests, values, capacity, and opportunities.

Activity: Brainstorm questions and improvement ideas about your school

There are many things to find out and improve about a school. In this activity, brainstorm and share some questions that you have about your school or about schools and education in general;  thoughts about what problems there are; or ideas about ways to improve your school. Use the board activity or use the linked worksheet template to collect ideas from your group asynchronously or during a meeting. 

Note: This activity can serve as a community science method that you can do with other members of your school community. This is especially good if you think you do not know a lot yet about how people in your school think about things or what problems they see.

OR, use the resource below:

Introduction to School Portraits

As you might have discovered in the previous activity, there are many things to find out and improve about a school. Here you will learn about the School Portrait as a tool to help you structure  all these different questions and ideas about school.

Identify a focus direction for your Community Science Project 

From the reflections and discussions with the help of the School Portrait you will now identify a focus direction for your community science project.

Use this worksheet template to help you in this process. If you work in a team, your facilitator can help you discuss proposals and make a decision together.

Upload the filled out worksheet in the assignment below.

Reflection on this unit