Contingency Plans
Field Trip
There are many variables that need to be taken into account for the planned field trip. Approval, bus availability, weather as well as access to the water treatment facility and members of the Waterfront Partnership and Clearwater Mills all must be considered. As a result I have made the following plans to account for problems that may be encountered.
- A rain date will be planned in advance in case we are not able to go on the planned date.
- In the case our trip is not approved, I will arrange for representatives from the Back River Water Treatment Facility, Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and Clearwater Mills, LLC to come to Parkville and speak to the classes as an "in school field trip."
- The guest speakers may also be arranged via Skype if they are not able to come to the school themselves.
- If we are not able to have the guest speakers at all, the teacher will give a lesson that shows how the water wheel and water treatment facility address environmental impacts in Baltimore. This is clearly a last resort.
YouthCan Conference
Due to the fact that we do not know where the next conference will be held, this may present a problem for participating in the conference. Due to time and money constraints there is a real chance that the travel will not be approved by the school or children may not be able to afford to attend. In this case I would look into the possibility of participating in all or part of the conference virtually via Skype or another teleconferencing platform. This would not be ideal but would still provide students with the opportunity to share their ideas with the other students at the conference.
YouthCan Project
If for some reason the YouthCan project is no longer active or our participation is not approved by administration, we would not have access to the forums that are part of the project or the ability to attend the Conference. This would present a major problem but it could certainly be overcome by creating similar avenues for the student to share their work. This would essentially lead to the creation of a similar project to YouthCan that I would start within our county.
- A class blog may be set up for students to share the assignments they complete along the way instead of posting to the YouthCan forum. Blogs may be linked to the school website so they can be seen throughout the community.
- Connections can be facilitated with schools throughout the county and state so that we can create our own version of a YouthCan conference that can be held at Parkville.