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This year's MAD Fair will be May 1st from 4:30-6:00 in the Scott Middle School Gym
LPS Jump code: RQRZ
Our "Make a Difference Project" started out simply as a way to make research more enjoyable and meaningful for our 6th-grade students. We didn't like how the research process ended with the students writing a paper with only their teachers (and maybe some peers) for an audience. Students learned some interesting facts about cheetahs, ice cream, or airplanes but weren't able to really do anything with the information they gained. Kim Ridder had the idea of letting the kids choose a social problem that was near and dear to the kids' hearts as their research topic. Many students had friends and family members who had suffered from cancer or other illnesses. Some students really felt compelled to learn all they could about other kids who didn't have enough food to eat. Still, others felt their hearts pulled towards topics dealing with the abuse of animals. Every student was able to find something that was wrong with the world they were inheriting and could put a lot of energy into researching. Students answered three questions during their research: What is it? Why is it a problem? What is being done to help? While answering that last question, students were encouraged to find an organization that was local, that they had experience with, or that they felt did the best job of providing support.
After writing their paper, students were grouped together based on the organizations they wanted to support. The groups created informational boards like they would for a science fair that could be displayed in our pod for others to see.
But why stop there? We decided to invite the Lincoln community to come and learn from our kids and, hopefully, feel like making a donation to a charity of their choice. This way of doing research fit naturally with the next genre of writing our kids tackle in 6th grade: Persuasion. Students wrote persuasive letters and essays to family members they wanted to attend the "MAD Fair". They wrote to their organization to persuade them to come and be a part of their presentation. They wrote to local media outlets in order to get airtime to invite the entire community to come a see what they had learned. The letters were almost always a success. Students have been featured on morning radio shows, evening and nightly television news programs, and even on Fox and Friends!
Finally, students learned and practiced presentation skills to get ready for the MAD Fair. They get nervous for their first few presentation, but then they get comfortable and just amaze the public. We hear over and over how impressive our kids are and how passionate they are about their topics. That tells us that they have done their job!
Every year, the MAD Fair gets bigger and bigger. We have gone from representing 34 charities, to over 60. We have gone from raising $2,300 our first year, to consistently bringing in more than $10,000 the last few years. Just as important, our students have educated countless citizens about the problems they see in the world and how we can make them better. We are proud to be a part of this project, and so proud of the work the kids have done!
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