Students investigate how environmental justice issues in Southeast San Diego shape daily life by studying neighborhood heat, water use, pollution, and access to safe, welcoming green spaces. They collect local field data, analyze maps and community evidence, and interview residents and experts to understand how human activity affects the environment and contributes to rising temperatures and changing conditions. Working in teams, they use scientific principles to design realistic actions such as heat maps, green-space proposals, or pollution response plans that respond to community needs. The experience builds science understanding, communication, collaboration, and problem solving through public-facing work with local partners.

Students will collect and analyze local evidence about temperature, shade, pavement, weather patterns, water use, and pollution to explain how human activities affect environmental conditions in Southeast San Diego. They will ask questions, interview community members and experts, and combine scientific data with lived experience to identify patterns in heat, green-space access, safety, and daily life impacts. Students will design and revise a realistic monitoring or action proposal, using claim-evidence-reasoning to communicate trade-offs and solutions through maps, visuals, and multimedia updates for a public audience. Students will also strengthen collaboration, reflection, and public speaking skills by making shared decisions, responding to feedback, and presenting to community partners.

Students will create field notes, interview recordings, simple data tables, and draft maps as working products during site visits, partner interviews, and data analysis. In teams, they will develop one main final product: a neighborhood heat map, a green-space proposal for a nearby public space, or a pollution action plan focused on local air temperature, water use, and community impacts. Each team will also produce a short multimedia community update with photos, charts, and narration, plus a poster or interactive story map that compares two or three neighborhood sites and explains evidence, trade-offs, and recommended actions. These products will be revised through peer critique and feedback from parks staff, researchers, environmental justice advocates, air district staff, or water partners before being shared at a public showcase.

Start with a Heat Hunt Kickoff at a nearby park and surrounding streets, where students use simple thermometers, shade trackers, and observation cards to compare pavement, tree cover, comfort, and signs of safe, welcoming green space. Follow with a Community Voices Pop-Up in which a parks staff member, environmental justice advocate, or SDSU researcher shares a short local story about heat, water use, or pollution, and students record one surprising fact and one question they want to investigate. Back in class, teams post photos and first data points on a shared neighborhood map, then choose whether they want to focus their inquiry on data centers, green-space access, or pollution impacts in Southeast San Diego. End with a brief debrief circle where students connect what they noticed to daily life in the neighborhood and preview the final public showcase.

Host a student-led Neighborhood Future Forum that combines a gallery walk with short presentations, where teams share heat maps, green-space proposals, pollution action plans, and multimedia community updates with families, peers, and community partners. Set up interactive stations with maps, photos, data charts, and student narration so visitors can compare neighborhood sites, ask questions about evidence and trade-offs, and discuss how heat, water use, air quality, and green-space access affect daily life in Southeast San Diego. Invite partners such as Parks and Recreation staff, SDSU researchers, environmental justice advocates, the Air Pollution Control District, and local water or planning representatives to give feedback and respond to student recommendations. End with a reflection circle and resource table so students celebrate their work, name what they learned about collaboration and scientific thinking, and share possible next steps for community action.