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Students take on the Oregon Coast Tsunami Survival Challenge

Teacher: Sean Bedell Subjects: Cross Curricular (STEM, Communications, ELA) Grade Level: 6th Grade School: Eddyville Charter School, Eddyville, OR The Challenge The Tsunami Structure Challenge: Design and construct a wooden evacuation tower model that can withstand three different sizes of tsunamis waves, including one generated by a magnitude 9 earthquake using the materials provided by the Hinsdale Wave Lab at Oregon State University. The structure must keep people safe and dry. The Problem Living in Oregon, most students never really think about earthquakes and tsunamis because there haven’t been very many in recent recorded history. But scientists warn that the potential threat to the West Coast exists. Unfortunately, time erodes community awareness and preparation. However, students’ attitudes can change when they explore and discover the potential of it actually happening where they live. In teacher Sean Bedell’s case, the reality of an actual tsunami threat happened. On March 11, 2011, his community awoke to an early morning tsunami warning stemming from a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan. News broadcast the videos on TV showing the devastating tsunami sweeping across the Japanese coast, reaching miles inland including the fate of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This generated tsunami warnings for all of North America. Knowing the potential threat that a wave could be heading towards the Oregon coast, the community sought higher ground and waited.

Connecting with Museums Learning Approach

Case Study: Chris Poulos

Project Name | Museo del Barrio | Ventures into Abstract Art en Espanol Teacher | Chris Poulos, Redding , CT - Joel Barlow High School Connecticut Teacher of Year 2007 Total Time | 3-4 weeks IDENTIFY & EXPLORE | 1.5 Week CONNECT | 1 Day DESIGN & PRODUCE | 1 Week SHARE  | 1 Day Grade Level | High School Spanish Number of Participants | 14 students in 4 teams Keywords & Content Areas Social Studies | Study of Latin American Culture Spanish | Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening (Interpersonal, Interpretive, Presentational) Art | Art interpretation, Design sensibility Language Arts | Writing, Speaking and Listening, Presenting concepts, themes and ideas Media & Technology | social network, website development, video production

Problem-Based Learning Approach

Case Study: Laurie Graves and Lamont Clabaugh

Project Name | A Better Community (ABC) Teachers | Laurie Graves & Lamont Clabaugh Total Time | 6 weeks Make it Real | 1-2 weeks Make it Relevant | 2-3 weeks Make an Impact | 2 weeks Subjects | Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math Grade Level | 3-6 Number of Participants | 32 students in two classes Key Words & Content Areas Science | environmental issues, trash, recycling Language Arts | persuasive writing, personification, opinion piece Math | surveys, graphing, estimating, data analysis Art | recycled art, designing informative posters Social Studies | community history, personal interviews Project Overview What problems might young kids solve in their communities? Real world problems are often right in our backyard and schoolyard. Given the opportunity to investigate their rural Wyoming community, Big Horn 3rd graders discovered that local residents were not recycling, then chose to research and improve recycling efforts. Through this project, the students were empowered to recognize their role in the community and ultimately realized the importance of stewardship for the county's land, history and culture. Challenged to find ways to make A Better Community, these 32 third graders chose to investigate recycling in the Big Horn, Wyoming community.  They  started by creating a survey and issuing it to students and teachers on the campus. They compiled the information collected from the surveys and created graphs to determine if there was a need for recycling on the Big Horn campus.

 

Coastal Students Investigate the Impact of Tsunami Debris

TEACHERS: Amie Lundquist and Jenna Samoylich GRADE: 4th grade SCHOOL: Newport Intermediate School; Newport, Oregon CHALLENGE: Students were challenged to investigate the impact of Japanese tsunami debris on their local Oregon beaches, then develop ways to inform the community. This project is an example of how students can respond to natural disasters at the local level, as well as interact with global environmental issues.

This project is part of Project SEAL, a partnership between the Model Classroom Program and Lincoln County Oregon Schools made possible by a US Department of Education grant. As part of the school-year professional development program, participating teachers developed strategies to implement in building 21st century learning practices.

Bored of the Same Old Presentation?

First Graders use FaceTalk to Engage a Larger Audience

Teacher | Liz Postlewait Grade | 1st Grade School | Toledo Elementary Lincoln County Oregon       Photos from student field-trip to ocean tidepools; part of their ongoing ocean research.

Problem:

My students are familiar with sharing and presenting their work, but they get bored of doing the same old presentation. I wanted students to present in a fun and engaging way and gain a sense of ownership over their work. Need: Our ocean animal research projects are being presented to a larger audience at our science fair. Attendees at the fair will have no personal buy-in, and I wanted them to get excited about my first graders accomplishments.

From Desks to Tables: Four Legs of Change

Teacher | Sean Bedell Grade | 6th Grade, self-contained School | Eddyville Charter School Lincoln County Oregon “This is my first year in middle school, so when I got my classroom it was full of desks. I thought, ‘O.K., the students should start feeling like they are older and use desks in the classroom.’ I put them in rows and started the year. The desks were fine, but whenever I needed the students to work together they were moving the desks around and there was not much room on the desk itself. Plus the students just sat in the same seat week after week. This was working, but the class just didn’t have a collaborative feeling, but more of an individual, this is my space, learning on my own kind of a vibe.”

Dreaming Big: Unveiling New Project Planning Tools

It’s the time of year that many teachers are thinking about, dreaming up, and planning end of the year projects. Model Classroom has been thinking about it too, and we’re excited to unveil some new project building tools to support the project-building process. (Much thanks goes to some of the stellar teachers in our larger Model Classroom community, including Jeri Powers and June Teisan, for their feedback in building these tools.) Choose your Own Adventure! Brainstorming Guide: Where do you start when planning a project? Teachers in our network tell us that they get inspiration from many different places. Many of you start project-building by using required standards. On the other hand, many of you are interested in learning how to use other sources of inspiration (including places in your school or community, topics students are interested in, and issues of local or global significance). This brainstorming guide has multiple entry points, allowing you to choose your own adventure and plan in a way that better supports your source of inspiration. The brainstorming guide is saved as a Google presentation on Google Drive. Challenge Template 3.0: The brainstorming guide connects you to the Model Classroom’s new project building template. The immediate goal of this template is to help you build a flexible framework and project toolkit. The long term goal is to streamline and improve how Model Classroom projects are documented and shared within the larger educational community. You can find the challenge template 3.0 on google templates. Here’s the catch: both of these tools are in beta. If you use either of these tools, please tell us what you think. Your feedback will be used to improve these tools for other teachers trying to do similar work. If you have questions or need help, please contact us through our Facebook group or by posting a comment here. Once you’re finished share your template with us! Model Classroom has rolling admissions for virtually supported projects.

Project SEAL Educators Are Thrown to the Sharks!

Kicking Off a Model Classroom Professional Development Partnership

Lincoln County teachers preparing to kick-off a workshop at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

PROJECT SEAL = Students Engaged in Authentic Literacy. PROJECT: 2 year Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant from the US Department of Education for the students and staff of Lincoln County, Oregon.  KEY PLAYERS: Ruth McDonald, Lincoln County Oregon School District Resource Teacher Doug Hoffman, Lincoln County Oregon Media Specialist Julie Crowell, Lincoln County Oregon Media Specialist PARTICIPANTS INVOLVED: 60 teachers, media assistants, teacher mentors, and school principals throughout the district GRADES: K-6 (2012-2013 school-year); 6-12 (2013-2014 school-year) LOCATION: Lincoln County, Oregon School District CHALLENGE TO TEACHERS: Test and share strategies that engage students in relevant learning experiences, building examples of student-driven 21st century learning approaches, challenge-based learning projects, authentic technology integration, and real-world application.

Exploring One’s Culture

Evansville Advocates: Investigating the Value of One's Community

NAME: Beth Oswald TEACHERS INVOLVED: Meg Farnung, Library Media Specialist GRADE: 7th Grade SCHOOL: J. C. McKenna Middle School LOCATION: Evansville, WI CHALLENGE TO STUDENTS: Investigate and sell the unique and special cultural qualities of the city of Evansville and why it is a great place to live.

Kids ‘School’ the Board of Education: A World Showcase in Wyoming

Teachers: Laurie Graves & Lamont Clabaugh Project: The Then and Now of Sheridan County Overview: Laurie Graves and Lamont Clabaugh’s 3rd grade classes were invited by the superintendent to “show and tell” their continent project to the board of education for their November 20th district board meeting.  Featured Tools: student-created QR Codes & adult attendee's Smart Phones

On November 20th about 90% of the students came back to school with parents in tow. As the board came in, Laurie welcomed all with a brief overview of the project, explained the New Learning Institute’s Model Classroom partnership, and then turned it over to the kids. “It was beyond amazing because [the students] just took off!” - Laurie.