Student Expectations While EnvironMentors has much to offer students, it is also a rigorous and demanding program. Make sure students fully understand the following expectations at the very beginning of the program season. EnvironMentors asks students to commit to the following: 1. Stay in contact with your mentor Obtain all your mentor’s contact information (home, work, cell phone numbers, and email) and share all your contact information with your mentor and coordinator. - Meet in person with your mentor for 1-2 hours once per week or at least 3 times a month. - If you cannot make a meeting, contact your mentor immediately to reschedule. If you cannot reach your mentor, call your chapter coordinator immediately. 2. Stay in contact with your chapter coordinator -
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Provide your chapter coordinator with your class schedule, after-school and weekend schedule, work schedule, and a list of your extracurricular activities. - Attend all EnvironMentors workshops and school meetings. If you cannot attend a workshop, school meeting, or other event, contact your chapter coordinator immediately. 3. Work with your mentor to design an experimental research project based on an environmental issue that concerns you. -
Identify a research question. Conduct a literature review on your topic utilizing library and internet tools. Identify a local expert on your topic and conduct an expert interview. Develop a background research paper, with mentor assistance, incorporating what you learned in your literature review and expert interview. - Develop a hypothesis based on your background research and design an experiment to test it. - Write a description of your experimental methods and materials. - Collect data for at least 3 experimental trials. - Organize, analyze and present your data visually with tables, charts and graphs. - Write a discussion and conclusion in which you discuss the results of your experiment and draw a conclusion about what your data mean. - Write a complete research paper using the elements you completed throughout your project. 4. Work with your mentor to communicate what you have learned -
Design and create a project display board or poster. Develop a lesson plan based on your project and present it to an elementary school class. Present your project at your Chapter Fair. Participate in your Chapter Awards Ceremony and possibly the National Competition.