Middle School Project Based Learning in the Academic Courtyard and Preserve

Middle School students have been tending beds in the Academic Courtyard as part of their science curriculum. Teachers Maura Saurman, Jim DiFranco, and Kate Cassidy developed The MilkWeed Project as a key feature of their program asking the question Who can grow the healthiest milkweed for transplant into The Preserve. A project based learning initiative (PBL), the teachers have retooled their current thematic curriculum to include one PBL unit per grade per year.  The Milkweed Project has been developed for the units on energy based on the essential question, where does energy go? Faculty were looking to include a way for students to not just follow the cycles of energy by working in the Academic Courtyard, but find an authentic way for it to be applicable to GA’s preserve.

When asked why The Milk Weed project is a game changer for teaching and learning in the sciences faculty reported that students have practice at applying concepts they learned throughout the year and use them to make a difference. Collaboration with peers and faculty in person, through a dedicated space in an online classroom space (VLE) and across networks using shared Google Docs has also been a game changer for students. Authentic inquiry combined with engineering and design, alternative assessments and team work has been a motivating factor for student success and has contributed greatly to high levels of students engagement.

What We Are Watching

In the highly celebrated documentary Your Environmental Road Trip, three friends hit the road to explore every state in America in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises. This film has been called "a groundbreaking adventure and a celebration of the American spirit in the face of adversity - a thought-provoking, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious, documentary about the courageous and creative individuals, groups, businesses and leaders of this country who are tackling the greatest environmental threats in history. " Called into action by the ever-increasing threats of planetary catastrophe (from climate change to toxic pollution, from water scarcity to habitat destruction), three adventurers supend their lives, pool their collective life-savings, and set off on a first-of-its-kind, 50-state, year-long journey of discovery to personalize sustainability and to answer a critical question: ARE WE DOOMED?

Kindergarten Welcomes Community Partnership School for a Nature Walk

GA kindergarten enjoyed an autumn nature walk and hands-on activity with The Community Partnership School CPS) Kindergarten class. Students conducted a collaborative leaf-packing experiment at the Wissahickon Creek designed in two parts.  The first taking place at the creek on the day of their outing. The second, occurring three weeks later, when students opened and investigated the small aquatic creatures that made a home inside the leaf pack. The students also collected souvenirs and designed and created a clay sculpture incorporating these found objects from nature.