Welcome to our Project Showcase!
As part of the SPECCIT Program, teachers are given the resources, connections, and funds to develop transdisciplinary lesson plans that incorporate the NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency learning standards. Below, you'll find projects for grades 6-8 that span subjects in math, science, social studies, language arts, and technology. Each lesson plan goes beyond the classroom and encourages students to engage meaningfully with technology and develop the skills needed to thrive in a technology driven world.
Brasher Falls: 7th Grade
CAREER CAMP
For this project, students will have the opportunity to explore career paths in a multitude of disciplines. Students will generate research questions in order to learn about careers in various fields and complete a research log. Students will then be responsible for researching local connections- where do these businesses exist in St. Lawrence County? New York State? Once they have identified local businesses, they will reach out to conduct interviews with people currently working in the field they are studying. Lastly, students will create a digital artifact/tool in order to inform their audience about the career they researched.
Brasher Falls: 8th Grade
A TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO STANDARDS
For this project, students will be tasked to create and maintain a digital portfolio. Using a standard model, students will build and customize a digital portfolio of their best work from 8th Grade and beyond. To display a wider variety of skills in their portfolio, students will complete a series of projects in their individual classes (independent of each other), which will be based on meeting the Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards, as well as a variety of content standards and soft skills. The products of these projects will then be added to each individual student’s digital portfolio.
Canton: 8th Grade
FUTURE PATHWAYS EXPLORATION
Canton Central School proposed a Future Pathway Exploration for eighth-grade students The module prompts students to consider what pathways their interests, passions, and strengths are connected to. The module uses digital media, a personality, and a career interest profiler to drive the student’s research into a field they may be well suited for.
Gouverneur, Parishville & Colton-Pierrepont
THE SPAGHETTI BRIDGE CHALLENGE
The focus of this project is for students to work in teams to build a bridge from spaghetti and hot glue. Ultimately, teams compete against each other and the bridge that is capable of holding more weight for it's "size" before breaking than any other bridge wins; that is, the bridge with the highest load to weight ratio is the winner.
Specific Saghetti Bridge Project Constraints
1. Your bridge must span a 35 cm space.
2. You may only use 1 box of spaghetti and 2 hot glue sticks to build your bridge. No other materials are allowed.
3. You may design your bridge on wax paper, use scissors, and pliers provided by your teachers.
4. You have 1 class period to create your final design for a grade.
5. Your bridge must be able to fit a car that is 3.5 inches wide and 3 inches tall.
6. No more than 6 strands of Spaghetti can be used together in a bundle
7. Anywhere that spaghetti crosses other spaghetti, the strands need to be broken and glued together.
Massena: 6th Grade
MAGIC SCHOOL BUS TRIP TO ICELAND
We are taking our 6th Graders on a field trip to explore Iceland and the effects of Climate Change on life in the Arctic up close! Our school bus driver, Miss Frizzle, sees a herd of reindeer crossing the road in front of us in their migratory path. She honks the horn as she attempts to steer our school bus off the road to avoid hitting any deer. Unfortunately, she hits a patch of reindeer poop, and she loses control of the bus. Our school bus spins out of control and lands next to a building on the outskirts of an abandoned fishing village Porlȧkshöfn near the southern coast of Iceland. We all file off the bus and soon realize we are far from any civilization!
We need to set up camp until help can come and rescue us. Our first tasks are to decide where to set up this camp, look for any natural resources that can help us, then decide what type of renewable energy to use to power our camp and how we are going to run our camp.
After we have all that accomplished, we need to learn about the effects of climate change on Iceland, so it's a good thing we all brought our Chromebooks. But be sure to keep an eye out for those mischievous elves in “ICES” the Icelandic Criminal Elves Society.
Massena: 7th Grade
TICK TALKS
This project spans across three 7th grade and one 8th grade classroom to study the upward trend in ticks and Lyme Disease cases in the North Country. In addition to investigating a number of reasons why for this real-life issue may become more prominent; ideas for addressing prevention and eradication are explored.
Morristown: 6th Grade
THE NORTH COUNTRY'S MOST WANTED
For students to learn about our environment, and the characteristics of different interactions of species, including those that help and/or harm (the native species). To encourage students to understand the connections among organisms living together sharing resources in both a positive and negative manner.
Potsdam
THE 4 C'S OF ENGINEERING
Potsdam Central School proposed and executed a module titled “The 4 C’s - An exploration” in which students were challenged to build a cup tower, write an algorithm for their process, and debug it. The students are then prompted to think about the 4 C’s (collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity), research, reflect, and create a padlet to inform their classmates about each C.