7th grade students in the 20/20 science class have been working to help solve some of the toughest global issues this year. Challenge 20/20 asks students to find local solutions to twenty different global problems, and our 7th grade students rose to the challenge. Students addressed issues like biodiversity loss, poverty, and water scarcity. They planned and executed a local solution throughout this school year, and they engaged the community to make their project sustainable. One group of students designed and tested a low-cost water filtration system; the girls presented it to the elementary students and donated their prototype to the science lab so younger students are aware of the problem and a possible solution. This project inspires students to learn more about global challenges and use critical and creative thinking to help in a local context. Students are motivated because they can see the change and speak with people who are impacted by their efforts.
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mindful of the materials they used to prevent waste; choose a tool they have never used before, and perform an action to help solve a problem OR educate others about a problem. With this freedom, students were motivated to create a variety of products including game shows like Jeopardy and Family Feud, Wevideos, Prezis, Powtoons, E-books, Flip-a-clips, infographics, websites, audio presentations like radio programs and songs, and video presentations including
Students used GarageBand to create a song from separate recordings of their instruments in a process similar to recording studios. When students had finalized their song, they began making a music video. This project required students to be very organized and creative. They were motivated to learn about sound waves in order to produce a fun and entertaining video.
Over Spring break 5th graders in language arts class had a Spring break reading challenge! To share our reading life and our vacations, students took a selfie of themselves reading, and wrote a one sentence book review of their good fit book to post on their class padlet page. We are doing lots of great reading in ELA 5th grade and remembering good readers create a BUZZZ about the books they love! Take a look!
Recently, 26 eighth grade students visited New York for the biggest middle school Model United Nations conference. Students prepared for the conference by collaborating on position papers using Google Docs. These position papers represented extensive research into their assigned country's views on different problems the global community faces today. Students were motivated to engage deeply with the culture and society of their country to learn how Jordan or Botswana would recommend solutions to problems from clean water to equal access to education. During the conference students were not allowed to use computers or technology for additional research, and instead needed to rely on their position papers, knowledge, and face-to-face communication to persuade other representatives to support their resolutions. Outside of the conference, this trip provided students experiences from a wide range of transportation, architectural and communication technologies during subway and ferry rides and visits to the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza.
recycling each day? This includes organic waste, aluminum, paper and plastic. We also generate about 27 kg of trash each day. Even though we recycle almost 4/5 of our waste, we want to do better. Consumption and waste directly contribute to global warming, arguably one of the most poignant issues facing the world today. After examining the results of the waste assessment and taking a tour of the campus to look at other ways we are consuming resources, groups of 3 or 4 students chose an issue to research more in depth. They developed driving questions such as: Is all plastic recyclable? How can ASFG reduce food waste? How can we reduce the amount of trash we generate? What is the environmental impact of our pool? Students interviewed maintenance about our water consumption, the cost of energy and the types of chemicals used in our pool. They interviewed the cafeteria staff about food waste. They researched the impact of extracting aluminum from the ground. Students also looked at waste data collected by other schools. The final product for each group was to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that focused on their issue. They used the data gathered at school, compared it to an outside source, and developed at least one solution to the problem. This project required students to integrate learning from science, math, language arts and technology to produce high quality, persuasive videos. Students were engaged throughout the process because they had many opportunities to pursue their personal interests and collaborate. See more PSAs on our YouTube playlist.
In 5th grade English Language Arts students are getting ready to publish fiction writing so they have started a class blog for reflection. Using the Google Classroom Stream, students respond to reflection prompts to think about the writing process and improve their confidence. Students will continue to reflect on their writing attitude as they draft and revise their stories in the coming weeks.
Pasos de la investigación: 1. Selección del tema 2. Buscar información sobre el tema 3. Registrar tanto la información encontrada como el sitio de consulta 4. Comparar y parafrasear la información de acuerdo a los textos consultados 5. Justificar los sitios consultados. 6. Realizaron un rostro Azteca. Los estudiantes utilizan el video Art Attack: Rostro Azteca para aprender cómo hacer los rostros aztecas. Vea a continuación un ejemplo de trabajo de los estudiantes. Students in 7th grade math used technology throughout the unit on scale and proportion. The unit began with a discussion about how people use scale in every day life. We discussed how movie makers use scale models, engineers and architects use scale to create construction drawings, and toymakers use scale to make adult sized objects just right for children. For the first activity, students measured simple geometric objects and created them in Sketchup at their original size and then smaller or larger based on a random scale factor. Students shared their Sketchup drawing in a shared Google folder, and then downloaded one of their peer's drawings to determine their scale factor.
For the final project for the scale and proportion unit, students chose to create a scaled version of famous landmarks, everyday objects or areas of school. Working in teams, students could choose to create a scale model, diorama or 3-D drawing of their object. Some of the students who chose to create their object in Sketchup or Tinkercad will have their object printed on the high school 3-D printer. Scale and proportion are a big part of our everyday lives in many ways. This unit provided hands-on and tech-on opportunities for students make connections and apply proportional thinking. On November21st, students in the 5th Grade Animal Rights Service Learning group participated in two Skype calls. Students are reaching out to organizations across the world to make a difference for animals and learn about the work that is happening around the world. Students Skyped with an animal shelter in Sayulita called Sayulitanimals and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in Washington DC.
Reaching out globally and using Skype as a way to connect with these organizations across the world, engages students. The video shows a student concerned about shark fishing and the endangerment and mistreatment of sharks. During this call with AWI, she was able to converse with experts, ask good questions, and learn more so she can start creating her action plan for her project. Students are taking the initiative on their service learning projects. One student created a blog and another created a website to reach out and collaborate with others. Realizing that with new literacy practices, we can co-construct, publish and collaborate, this project reinforces core curriculum learning. Soon the group will be opening a SL twitter account to do some research and connect cross culturally with other people micro blogging about animal rights. |
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