From the Middle: 1st Semester Wrap up

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Our teachers have been working hard to implement Project Based Learning into the classroom.   We have highlighted several of the units students have participated in since the beginning of the school year. Our second semester will have more PBL opportunities for students including Midmester.  Midmester will take place February 7- February 22nd.  Please mark your calendars for Presentation night on February 22nd from 4-6 pm in the Middle School.  Below are some other content PBL units teachers have been working on:

Teachers:  Mrs. Geerts, Mrs. Laures, Mrs. Quirk

Topic:  Jet Toy Activity

Driving Question: How can you design, develop, and sell a balloon-powered toy made from inexpensive, common materials that will appeal to children?

Project Summary:  Students learn about science, math, and writing in this unit. Students learn about how to collect data and compute speed. Daily reflection and writing personal goals are important in this unit. Students were given directions to build a jet toy, but then have to come up with a unique design by applying what has been learned during this class. The final step is to market the new toy and be able to sell it to others.

Teachers:  Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Bear, Mrs. Brincks

Topic:   Graphing Stories

Driving Question:  Can you design a video to help students learn to sketch a graph that represents a function?

Project Summary:  Students worked to design a video that included a short skit followed by a graph that measures variables represented in the skit.  They chose a variable that could easily be measured by their audience.  The video needed to include a short clip of the variable to be measured, the video shown at real speed, the video repeated at half speed and a final clip of the graph that shows the variable that they chose to measure.