In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA, students will use a realistic scenario in order to analyze the steps for adopting a road in their own community. The students will be required to activate prior knowledge about litter and natural habitats, brainstorm independently, and also collaborate within cooperative groups to create a written procedure to explain their reasoning. Students will take into consideration wildlife, traffic, the amount of litter, and the length of the road (which affects the cost of clean-up).

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx