Boze Elementary Students Seek Help!

Project based learning is successful when we involve our community!

Please read the following project descriptions.  If you are an “expert” in one of the fields listed OR know someone who is, either by hobby or profession, let us know if you can volunteer an hour of your time to talk with our students and help to make these projects even more incredible!

  

Kindergarten

Driving Question: How can we ensure a healthy environment for our animals and plants?

Seeking experts in: Pet care, biology, postal work, environmental advocacy

The Kindergarten classes will study the needs of living things in order to discover what an animal or plant must have in its environment in order to survive and thrive.

They will specifically focus on their guppy fish that arrive from the science distributor to investigate why some of the guppies do not survive the trip to their classroom.

During this process they will research the postal system and how packages get sent, they will hypothesize why the environment is not sustainable for these guppy fish.

With the findings from their research, the kindergarteners will make videos to send to the science distributors to explain their concerns for the needs of these animals that cannot speak for themselves and suggestions for changes that could be made to make a healthier environment for these fish.

1st grade

Driving Question: How can we use what we learn from animals and their adaptations to invent safety features that will keep our community members safe?

Seeking Experts In: Police work, Medical fields, Construction work, Firefighting, Biology, Zoology, or any job where you use equipment to keep yourself safe!

The 1st grade classes will be studying how animals protect themselves.

The students will discuss how those animal adaptations have inspired safety features in our community’s jobs.

The students will have guest speakers from the community come in to discuss how they keep themselves safe on the 

The students will take this information and their research on animal adaptation to create a new invention that could keep a community member safe

2nd grade

Driving Question: How can we use the game, Monopoly to reflect the needs and wants of a specific community?

Seeking Experts In: Community development, Banking, Cultures from other countries

Students will investigate the needs and wants of communities around the world to discover how these needs and wants vary from community to community based on location and culture.

The students will use this knowledge of needs and wants to create their own Monopoly game with their community of choice.

This Monopoly game will be continually used throughout the school year, improving their math skills as they play.

 

3rd grade – HUMANS OF BOZE

Driving Question: How do cultures in the Boze Community affect our lives?

Seeking Experts In: Photography and photo editing, Interviewing and Journalism, Cultural Expertise, Story-telling

Students will learn about the many cultures in their community by talking about family/community traditions.  We will learn that culture is a combination of human knowledge, beliefs and behaviors that we pass on to future generations, and that we express our culture in certain ways, including how we eat and dress, what we believe and how we play.  

Students will take part in a pre survey to determine how connected they feel to their community.  After interviewing members of their families and community, sharing these stories among their small groups and sharing out to the whole class, students will take a post survey to see if their feelings have changed over the course of the project.

Students will interview, and take pictures of friends, families, neighbors, teachers and students.  They will post the pictures and one-liners (similar to Humans of New York (HONY)), on their classroom blog.

Students will be able to determine:

  •         What makes up a culture?  Why is it important?
  •         What are the critical attributes of a culture?
  •         How are cultures similar and different?
  •         What can we learn about ourselves by studying cultures in other places?
  •         What cultures have contributed to your community? How have they made these contributions?

4th grade

Driving Question: How can we learn from the repercussions of past natural disasters to prepare ourselves for future ones?

Seeking experts in: Geology, Videography, Volcanology, Weather, Red Cross experiences with natural disasters

Students will research past natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes in order to discuss how these natural disasters affected the population.

They will also study what the communities could have done prior to the disaster to make sure that they would be prepared to handle the after effects of the natural disaster.

Students will hear from natural disaster experts and create videos to prepare the Boze community of what we can do to prepare ourselves for a natural disaster.  

5th grade

Driving Question: What conditions influence 5th grade learning?

Seeking Experts In: Videography, Plant Biology, Environmental Science

Students will study the optimal environment for plant growth.  They will gain knowledge on the environments of organisms by constructing a plant environment, measuring plant growth, recording observations in scientific journals, and presenting their findings to students and community members.

Students will then use this information to compare/contrast the needs of humans (5th graders) by surveying/interviewing students regarding optimal learning conditions and hindrances to these conditions.  Students will create a 3D virtual model of their ideal learning space and present their ideas to their classmates and community members.

If you know of  an “expert” in one of the fields listed OR know someone who is, either by hobby or profession, let us know if you can volunteer an hour of your time to talk with our students and help to make these projects even more incredible!

Email Shoshanna Cohen at shoshannac@techaccess.org for more information!

 

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