Application of Project-Based Learning in Enhancing Solid Waste Management and Awareness

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Application of Project-Based Learning in Enhancing Solid Waste Management and Awareness

Nurul Ain Zulhaimi^1*, Nur Shafiekah Sapan¹, Siti Aishah Ramli¹, Siti Nurul Aishah Abdul Hamid¹, Siti Katijah Johari¹

1 Pusat Penataran Ilmu dan Bahasa, Universiti Malaysia Sabah Kampus Antarabangsa Labuan, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Accepted: 15 February 2021 | Published: 1 March 2021

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Abstract: Solid waste is one of the regular issues of environmental management. As an effort to tackling the issue, Environmental education is one of the important and relevant from year to year to enhance the management of the nature. There is an urgent need for the young generation to be educated on sustainable development to protect the earth for the future. Lack of knowledge and awareness of the scarcity of our nature means there is that our natural resources becoming scarce and we are facing all types of environmental consequences. This paper explores the application of project-based learning in one of the liberal courses, which related to the environment and being offered as elective subjects in one of the high education institute in Malaysia. The implementation of project-based learning in dealing with the environmental destruction while conserving the earth focusing on solid waste being discussed and presented. Also, this paper shows the value of the project-based approach by the respondents' reflection. It is proved that project-based learning has helped to breed a positive attitude towards the environment.

Keywords: Solid waste, environment, project-based learning

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1. Introduction

Higher educational institution plays an important role in training and preparing students in adapting to the real-world life challenge. This role has changed some of the approaches in delivering and completing a certain course in a programme. One of the practical and approaches is by applying project-based learning in one subject. Project-based learning has been using by many educational institutions in many levels, project-based learning challenges students with real problems, promotes collaboration among students in conducting their investigations, and encourages students to incorporate and fuse their knowledge to solve the presented problems (Menon & Poroor, 2020). Project-based learning has been used extensively in many subjects such as finance, engineering (Rodríguez et al., 2015; Sharma et al., 2020), aerospace (Castaldi

& Mimmo, 2019), language (Abdul Khalek & Lee, 2012), environment (Genc, 2014), mathematics (Septian et al., 2020) among others. This shows that project-based learning can be applied in many subjects depends on the adaptability and the project designed to suits the objective of the specific course.

Project- based learning can be regard as one of the meaningful educational approach.

According to Blumenfeld et al., (1991), project-based learning involves the element of an

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investigation by students. In project-based learning, students can develop ideas, questioning solutions, designing outcomes, discussing possible approaches, collecting, analysing data, communicate with others and building artifacts. Students are responsible for their own choice of project. It is a student-centred approach where the students are learning by doing (Crawford, 2015). The key features of project-based learning are practical because students are learning by solving the real-world problems and this put theory into practice. Students are required to come with the ideas and solution in the learning process by themselves. This approach train students to be able to plan, execute and learn the impact of their decision by their capability.

Students will become empowered because they are now not just learning but can become part of any lesson problems.

The focus in this paper is solid waste management, one topic under environmental related course. Environmental knowledge and management are important because it is an interdisciplinary study on how the piles of earth function, our interaction with the earth and how can we help to with the environmental problem. Any environmental related course is suitable for any level of education from kindergarten until universities or beyond the classroom formally or informally. Since we are a part of the environment, the knowledge and how to deal with the environmental with what we have is important and can be applied in project-based learning.

Solid waste can be defined as all the wastes arising from human and animal activity that are normally solid and that are discarded as useless an unwanted. Year by year, the amount of solid waste keep increasing following the increase of the human population. The composition of solid waste can be in the form of food waste, paper, glass, plastics, textiles, wood metals, yard wastes, electronics, depending from the source of the solid wastes which can be categorized as residential, commercial, institutional, construction, industrial and agricultural source. One of the challenges in solid waste management is in changing the habits of society by reducing the consumption of materials. In this paper, students are responsible to come out with a reliable and practical solution in using their capabilities in tackling the solid waste issue.

2. Methodology

A five stages schematic framework for a project-based approach in the teaching and learning of education is described below. The project-based learning framework in this study consisted of five main stages in the particular order the division of teams, planning, the beginning and development of the project, reporting, evaluation and reflection. In stage one, students were divided into 10 groups randomly. Each group consisting of not more than 10 members. One leader was chosen to make the project become smooth and on tracks until the end. This is followed by briefing regarding what is the expected outcome, introduction to project-based learning and examples of the project. In phase two, they began to brainstorm the ideas. The ideas were then gathered in a proposal. After the evaluation and changes being made, every group started their projects following what has they initially planned which mark the beginning of stage three. In the following stage, students presented their report in writing and verbal.

Stage five is the evaluation by the researcher on each project. The final stage, stage six involved

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students’ reflection will then be discussed. The recommendation to enhance the quality of the students project-based learning is also presented at the end of this paper. Researcher use observation as a method as this paper is still at a preliminary stage. This paper chose and presented three different projects that have successfully executed.

3. Discussion

One of the main concerns in environmental management is solid waste. One of the issues in solid waste is the quantity of solid waste. The 3R application in solid waste management is still relevant and can help to protect the environment if every people grasp and appreciate every reduce, reuse and recycling in the 3R. Other than that, the concept of upcycling is also mentioned and successfully implemented by one of the groups in dealing with solid waste.

Reusing

In dealing with the issue of solid waste, this paper will present two projects that have been implemented well by students. First, students have done a project of collecting and donating used clothing. Among the projects that can be used as a reference in the future and successfully executed is a project called Don’t Throw, Save for the Need. The program has successfully collected used clothing and collected in one week. With the distribution of advertisements through social media applications, the number of shirts received was unexpected. During the process of segregation of clothes, students involved in this project began to realize the importance of reducing the use of clothes and reusing clothes when still good. This concept is included in one of the 3R concepts, reduce and reuse.

The project has also donated shirts to several organizations and some individuals in need.

Among the organizations that are honoured to get such clothes are hospitals, one of the rehabilitations centres in the community, matriculation colleges and some very needy individuals. Some of the bad clothes have been sewn and made into wipes for daily use by some campus staff. The rest of the clothes are then sent to one of the recycling centres. When asked about the feedback from the students who made this project a success, they were satisfied with the contribution and worked hard to implement the project even though it was quite difficult as the number of clothes received was very overwhelming. Here, time management is one of the added values that is a lesson to students. Most importantly, students themselves feel the importance of minimizing the necessary clothing and reusing clothes if they are still good.

Stage 1 : Group

arrangement Briefing Stage 2:

Brainstorming

Literature Review

Idea Formation Proposal

presentation Stage 3 : Project

begins Stage 4 : Report

1

Final Report Verbal

Presentation

Stage 5:

Evaluation

Stage 6:

Reflection

Figure 1 : The stages involved on project - based learning

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The students stressed that they did not think that the project they were planning had a profound effect when thinking about how much resources have been used in the production of clothes and how easy it is for the clothing community to stop using it.

Upcycling

Upcycling means “process in which used or waste products and materials are repaired, reused, repurposed, refurbished, upgraded and remanufactured in a creative way to add value to the compositional elements” (Singh et al., 2019). It has been applied in textile, particleboard and wood among others. One group took the initiative to introduce the application of simple upcycling as a way to manage solid waste. The projects involved directly with the community and this make the train the student to work with the community too. The targeted audience were children from one childcare centre. This project aimed to protect the environment by using less plastic and teach to the younger generation about the concept of upcycling. In this project, the students use their creativity to create something useful from used plastic bottles.

Initially, the students explain the concept of upcycling, the benefits, and example of the materials and how to create a new item. Upcycling differs from recycling because upcycling means give used materials to create something useful. This approach can save the environment and at the same time nurture creative skills in an individual. Besides, it also can become the source of income by selling the finished product by saving the cost at the same time since the materials used are originally a waste product. In this project, students involved need to deal with the children centre and obtain permission to proceed with the projects. The roles of every student in the group are important since it involves a third party. During the execution of the project, everyone enjoys learning the concept of upcycling. Through this project, it is believed the support from the community also play a significant role to make sure the objective s is achieved. In this case, the collaboration from the centre is much needed for the continuous environmental-related program in the future.

Reduce and Reuse

The third project undertook by the students after brainstorming is related to reduce and reuse.

It involves the next project that makes solid waste a major issue is a project of producing bins from used materials. In this project, students have implemented the process of gathering the necessary materials. Materials were also obtained from the second project described earlier when they agreed to share materials in the success of their respective projects. Next, after studying the production of trash cans that they can do, students have taken a few days in the process of implementing their project. During the briefing session, the bins produced are very strong and can be used for a long time. This project trains students to be creative in managing the environment, especially in solid waste management, contributing to the community when the bins are used and at the same time save our earth.

In their reflections, this is the common man students mention several benefits that they acquire through the project One of the is teamwork. In the projects discussed above, students have shown the intention to make changes (intention to act) has an impact on the project they have done. When empowerment is applied within oneself, each individual will feel they are capable of making better changes to the environment. This concept is explained in a model of behaviour change through environmental education by in the context of empowerment (Hungerford &

Volk, 1990). More proudly, some students in this second project presented have continued their efforts the following semesters even they are not required to do so. This proves that students understand the problems and take on the role of one of the individuals responsible for the management of natural resources.

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There are several similarities between the projects. All the projects have a strong structure of the organization. This is namely by dividing the task and appoint specific roles to certain individuals. Among the roles that need to be addressed are project leader, timekeeper, secretary and treasurer to make the projects smooth and successful. Secondly, all projects have their constant discussion weekly which held online or face to face. Thirdly, these projects take into account the contribution to society as one of the excellent initiatives as it proves that everyone is capable of to save the environment and contribute to society at the same time. The differences between these projects are the ideas that they generate after they are being brief regarding the projects. This shows that each group has a different approach in tackling the solid waste issue based on their capability. Secondly, each project focus on a different part of solid waste management.

4. Conclusion

Each one of us has our own capability to protect the earth. Every human need to realize that they have their roles to make the environment a better place to live for the future generation.

One of the on-going issues is solid waste, and as the world population keep increasing, the amount of waste also significantly increases from year to year. Environmental education is needed an can be taught at all different levels. From the application of project-based learning, students can explore the various opportunity to deal with solid waste using their own capability.

Project-based learning can be applied in various subjects using the creativity of the instructor.

In the same time, students also realize that they can contribute to society as well. Students showed an intention to change and more responsible for their action towards the environment.

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