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The workshop aims to provide guidance on how to frame problems and solutions using practical and user-friendly tools to help solve complex and interconnected problems. The workshop will focus students on transformative thinking, teamwork and results oriented thinking through the utilization of mapping tools that help identify, define, and solve for the greater sustainability challenges of our time.

Workshop Prep & Objectives

Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes

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Display the lesson slides for the class and create a discussion about what they already know about how to solve complex problems and introduce the problem/solutions tree.

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The workshop activity is best done on a large whiteboard or a poster board using sticky notes that can easily be displayed for groups to work together in open discussion.

Follow the instructions in the lesson on how to create a problem/solutions tree from an aspect related to the ”Waste Challenge”. The slide notes at the bottom of each slide will have instructions on how to create the problem/solutions tree.

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Key Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Alignment:

English Language Arts and Literacy: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about topics and texts. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions. Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning.
Social Studies - People, Places, and Environments: The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
Science - Earth and Human Activity: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment. Things that people do can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things.

SDG Alignment

SDG & Curriculum Alignment

Prep time: 10 – 15 minutes

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The Workshop

Workshop duration: 45 – 60 minutes

Split into groups of 3-5 and prepare a poster board or whiteboard with sticky notes for the exercise.

Read the “Waste Challenge ” handout to use for the problem/solutions tree exercise. Students will decide on an aspect from the waste challenge scenario to work from (e.g., recycling, waste workers, collection and sorting, etc.).

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When finished with the problem/solutions tree have the groups define their solutions pathway with a “solutions statement” they think will best solve the core problem. Have the groups present their findings to the rest of the class.

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Groups will map out the problem/solutions tree to examine the interrelated aspects of their problem, and the means and ends of a potential solution pathway.

Lesson plans are designed to be flexible and responsive to the evolving needs of your classroom. Lessons are editable and customizable to meet the different individual student and classroom contexts. A PowerPoint version with teacher instructions and a printable PDF lesson are available for download.

Flexible and adaptive lesson

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Prepare the PowerPoint presentation

When you are ready to present the lessons to your class click on Slide Show on the top menu bar then select Presenter View. In Presenter view, you can see your notes as you present while the audience see only your slides.

The notes appear in a pane on the right. The text should wrap automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary. You can also change the size of the text in the Notes pane by using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes pane.

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The Problem Tree

Effects

Causes

Problem

(Slide duration: 5 minutes)

Tell students:

In order to begin thinking about finding solutions to problems we need to identify the negative aspects of an existing situation and deal with the present issues rather than apparent, future or past issues. It is often this first step that can help us find solutions, by analyzing and mapping out the relationships of causes and effects around a main problem or issue. This gives us the depth of understanding from which we can build successful solutions.

A Problem Tree can be defined as a visualization of the problems in the form of a diagram, or “hierarchy of problems”, to help analyze and clarify cause–effect relationships, or as a tree that provides an overview of all the known causes and effects to an identified problem. A problem tree analysis examines the negative aspects of an existing situation and establishes the cause-and-effect relationships between the identified problems.

The anatomy of the problem tree: The trunk of the tree is the core problem we are looking to solve. The roots of the tree are the causes of the core problem, and the branches and leaves of the tree are the effects of the core problem, which will more than likely lead to additional problems.

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The Problem Tree

Animals harmed

Effects

Causes

Threat to ecosystems

Impacts on climate change

Impact on tourism and coastal economies

Ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of land and marine species

Problem

Humans can ingest waste

Unknown side effects of human consumption of waste

Waste enters our food chain

Increase in waste leaking into the environment

Low rate of recycling

People do not properly separate waste at home

Community lacks proper recycling bins

Mismanagement of waste at the source

Fluctuating prices for recycling discourage collection, unstable income

Waste workers lack organization or support, inefficient

Waste workers cannot collect and sort waste efficiently or meet the larger demand

No formal Gov. recycling department

Lack of modern recycling infrastructure

Government does not fund recycling

(Slide duration: 5-10 minutes)

Tell students:

Let’s see how to use the problem tree using a real problem scenario: Low rate of recycling

*It is helpful to do the problem tree exercise in a group on a large poster board or on a whiteboard using sticky notes to allow ideas to be displayed for everyone to discuss, modify or rearrange as the problem analysis process evolves.

Example:

Have a look at the cause-and-effect pathway highlighted in red. Start at the bottom and move up through the tree making a statement about the causes and effects of the problem of low rate of recycling.

Pathway 1 (In red): Fluctuating prices for recycling discourage collection by waste workers who cannot efficiently operate and service the large supply of waste. This causes and increase in waste not being collected and leaked into the environment that ultimately has a negative impact on climate change.

Each “cause” indicated at the bottom of the tree feeds into another effect that causes the problem of ”low rate of recycling”. The effects indicated above the problem statement cause subsequent effects and so on. This can continue until no other cause or effect can be identified within the scope of the main problem.

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The Problem Tree

Animals harmed

Effects

Causes

Threat to ecosystems

Impacts on climate change

Impact on tourism and coastal economies

Ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of land and marine species

Problem

Humans can ingest waste

Unknown side effects of human consumption of waste

Waste enters our food chain

Increase in waste leaking into the environment

Low rate of recycling

People do not properly separate waste at home

Community lacks proper recycling bins

Mismanagement of waste at the source

Fluctuating prices for recycling discourage collection, unstable income

Waste workers lack organization or support, inefficient

Waste workers cannot collect and sort waste efficiently or meet the larger demand

No formal Gov. recycling department

Lack of modern recycling infrastructure

Government does not fund recycling

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The Problem Tree

Animals harmed

Effects

Causes

Threat to ecosystems

Impacts on climate change

Impact on tourism and coastal economies

Ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of land and marine species

Problem

Humans can ingest waste

Unknown side effects of human consumption of waste

Waste enters our food chain

Increase in waste leaking into the environment

Low rate of recycling

People do not properly separate waste at home

Community lacks proper recycling bins

Mismanagement of waste at the source

Fluctuating prices for recycling discourage collection, unstable income

Waste workers lack organization or support, inefficient

Waste workers cannot collect and sort waste efficiently or meet the larger demand

No formal Gov. recycling department

Lack of modern recycling infrastructure

Government does not fund recycling

(Slide duration: 5-10 minutes)

Tell students:

Next, a group identifies the causes of the core problem we just defined - these become the roots of our tree.

What are the main contributors to our core problem?

And what are the causes of those main contributors that lead to our core problem?

The heart of the exercise is the discussion, debate and dialogue that is generated as factors are arranged and re-arranged, often forming sub-dividing roots into more specific causes of the causes of our core problem. Take time to allow others to explain their feelings and reasoning and record related ideas and points that come up on separate paper under titles such as solutions, concerns and decisions.

Examples:

People do not properly separate waste at home which results in the mismanagement of waste at the source and leads to a low rate of recycling.
Waste workers lack organization and support meaning waste workers cannot collect and sort waste efficiently resulting in a low rate of recycling.

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The Problem Tree

Animals harmed

Effects

Causes

Threat to ecosystems

Impacts on climate change

Impact on tourism and coastal economies

Ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of land and marine species

Problem

Humans can ingest waste

Unknown side effects of human consumption of waste

Waste enters our food chain

Increase in waste leaking into the environment

Low rate of recycling

People do not properly separate waste at home

Community lacks proper recycling bins

Mismanagement of waste at the source

Fluctuating prices for recycling discourage collection, unstable income

Waste workers lack organization or support, inefficient

Waste workers cannot collect and sort waste efficiently or meet the larger demand

No formal Gov. recycling department

Lack of modern recycling infrastructure

Government does not fund recycling

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Solution Tree

Ends

Means

Solution

Increased rate of recycling

People properly separate waste at home

Waste is properly managed at the source

Decrease in waste leaking into the environment

Reduced impacts on climate change

(Slide duration: 5 minutes)

Tell students:

A Solutions Tree (aka Objective Tree) is a problem tree that is transformed into a set of future solutions to the problems. Each negative statement is converted into a solution by rewriting it as a positive future statement. The positive statements are in fact solution statements that can be presented in the map showing a means (the roots) – ends (branches) solutions hierarchy. The analysis of the solution tree aims to provide a clear overview of the desired future situation once problems have been identified and reformulated into solutions. The map helps us illustrate and communicate the means-ends relationship.

Our Problem Example as a Solution:

From the previous slide one major cause of our problem is that people don’t properly separate waste at home. Click 1: People properly separate waste at home.
From the previous slide people not separating waste resulted in waste being mismanaged at the source. Click 2: Waste is properly managed at the source.
Our problem was low rate of recycling. Click 3: Our solution is now increased rate of recycling.
From the previous slide one major effect of our problem was an increase in waste leaking into the environment. Click 4: A decrease in waste leaking into the environment.
From the previous slide there is an increased impact of climate change. Click 5: Reduced impact on climate change.

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Choose an aspect from the “waste challenge” scenario

Create a solutions tree and define the solution

Create a problem tree and define the core problem

Select a preferred intervention and create a final Problem & Solutions Statement

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Negative Statements

Effect

Causes

Positive

Statements

Ends

Means