Spring 2025

DQ:  How can we be creative, have fun and fundraise for our school? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, LOTE, Fine Arts, CTE 

Instructional Skills Discovered: find author's purpose, analyze text structure, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, identify main idea & details, make inferences, determine point of view, connect problem & solution, sequence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students act as designers, advertisers, accountants and production team members in order to design, revise, advertise, create, sell and keep track of their button and magnet inventory. 

DQ:  How do plants and animals survive together in their habitat? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science, ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, draw conclusions, identify main idea & details 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration

Task: The students were tasked with becoming scientists and researching how certain plants and animals thrived together in their particular habitats. 

DQ:  How can we successfully protect a raw egg from a fall of 10 feet? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science, ELA, Math

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, draw conclusions, make inferences, make predictions, connect problem & solution 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with becoming a crashworthiness engineer and collaborating in order to design a device that would withstand the impact of a fall onto a hard surface from a height of at least 10 feet. The device must successfully prevent an egg from cracking while also following specified guidelines for construction. 

DQ:  How can the research process help us understand the role adaptations play in the survival of living things?

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science, CTE

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, find author's purpose, analyze text structure, determine cause & effect, draw conclusions, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, determine point of view, connect problem & solution, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: The students were tasked with becoming nonfiction researchers and writers by using credible sources to create digital informational texts on animal adaptations. 

DQ:  How can we use ratios to understand the relationships between different quantities in our school community? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, draw conclusions, make inferences 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Student's mission was to become interviewers at JFK Middle School! Students and their group investigated the hidden ratios that exist all around our school community. Their goal was to uncover interesting relationships between different groups and present their findings in a creative and engaging way. The outcome was to develop a hypothesis about why certain ratios exist in our school and what factors might contribute to these relationships. 

DQ:  How do enzymes function in biochemical reactions and what factors influence their activity ? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science, ELA, Fine Arts, CTE

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, identify main idea & details, make inferences 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task:The lesson begins with a review of enzymes, substrates, and active sites, followed by a discussion where students identify the enzyme in an experiment. Students will then explore how enzymes work using the "lock and key model" and apply their knowledge to complete a discovery card on enzymes involved in digestion. They will further engage in hands-on activities, such as creating clay models to illustrate enzyme-substrate interactions and participate in a gallery walk to showcase their understanding. 

DQ:  How can we organize and run a successful fundraiser to support pediatric cancer while engaging our school community?

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, SEL

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, identify main idea & details, connect problem & solution, sequence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: In this project, 4th-grade students worked to plan and run a Human Sundae Fundraiser. Over four weeks, students worked collaboratively to advertise the event, sell tickets, track fundraising progress, and engage their school community. Students filled out job applications using persuasive writing skills to convince their teacher why they were the best fit for a job. They used math to manage finances, writing and speaking skills to promote their cause and host the assembly, and creativity to design engaging marketing materials. Their work built excitement throughout the school, leading up to a fun-filled assembly where selected teachers were turned into "human sundaes" based on student votes. This hands-on experience gave students the chance to apply academic skills in a meaningful, real-world way while making a difference for an important cause. 

DQ:  How can we use ratios to understand the relationships between different quantities in our school community? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, use text evidence, make text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Ms. Cole’s class learned about persuasive writing and were tasked with persuading Ms. Attardi’s students about animals living in captivity. Students completed research to learn more about animals needs and living in zoos to write research based opinion writing. Students used AI to create images that match their writing. 

DQ:  How can we design a dream 10-day trip to Italy that stays within a $5,000 budget? 

Interdisciplinary Studies:World Languages, Math, Social Studies/History,  Fine Arts

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, connect problem & solution, make text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress 

Task: The students were tasked with becoming Travel Agents and creating a 10 day Itinerary that stayed within a $5,000 budget and used authentic websites like Trenitalia and Expedia. 

DQ:  How can you use persuasive writing to meet a real-world need? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, CTE 

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, draw conclusions, make predictions, connect problem & solution, sequence, use text evidence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: This project was inspired by the television show "Shark Tank" and was spun into a persuasive writing activity. The students were tasked with using their creativity to come up with a real-world invention, and to then present their business pitch and idea to sharks! The students observed what a successful Shark Tank pitch truly looked like and utilized persuasive language to make business deals with the sharks. 

DQ:  How can understanding area and perimeter allow us to plan and design blueprints to make our own zoo?  

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, Science, Fine Arts

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, connect problem & solution, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with becoming architects in planning out how they want to design their zoo. Students needed to design what exhibits, restaurants and sized bathrooms they needed to accommodate their guests. First students had to make estimates of their exhibits (small, medium, large), which would help them determine how to map out their blueprint. Students collaborated with deciding the name of their zoo, what animals they wanted to include in their exhibit, what restaurants to include and how to advertise their zoo (Google Slides, poster, brochure). Students presented their designs to panels (peers), in which they discussed what additional pieces to include in their zoo, as well as what interested them about the group's zoo. Students had to determine how much space/fencing (using area and perimeter) their exhibits would need to make a successful zoo. 

DQ:  What makes an animal special and unique? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science, Fine Arts

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, use text evidence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: The students were tasked to research an animal of their choosing using books and online sources. Using their research the students wrote an animal research informational paper and created a diorama of their animal. The students presented these reports to their peers. 

DQ:  How can we find and see constellations in the night sky? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science, Fine Arts, SS/History

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, drawing conclusions, making inferences, cause and effect, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Flexibility, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with imagining and creating a constellation by designing a unique star pattern, giving it a name, and telling a story or meaning behind it. Then, they displayed their constellation using art materials—such as a cup, push pin, and flashlight. Students then shared what it might represent, just like ancient cultures did with real constellations. 

DQ:  How can we use linking verb to develop a complete sentence? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Physical Education/Health 

Instructional Skills Discovered: analyze text structure, draw conclusions, connect problem & solution 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Problem Solving, Self and/or Social Awareness, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with pairing parts of sentences together using their knowledge of subject-verb agreements. Their challenge was to work together to form four complete sentences using the given subject, predicate, and linking verb cards. Before playing, each student was given a card and had to check off whether their card had the subject, verb, or predicate. Then, they had to get up out of their seats and work as a team to pair their cards together in under five minutes. Once the class created each sentence, the students had to link arms to demonstrate that the purpose of linking verbs is to "link" a sentence together. For each sentence they were instructed to keep in mind that the linking verb card chosen agreed with the correct tense (past or present), and that the linking verb agreed with the subject, whether it was singular or plural. All students were able to successfully complete the challenge and left the lesson with an understanding of the key elements to developing a complete sentence. We even had a special guest, Dr. Prinz, join in for the fun! 

DQ:  What aspects of our performance as a group can be improved and how? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Fine Arts, Physical Education/Health

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, use text evidence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students in 8th grade chorus recorded themselves singing the song "Count On Me". They then listened back to their recording, as well and a recording of a different chorus singing the same song. They analyzed both performances for the purpose of discovering what aspects of their performance can be improved and discussed techniques for meeting their goals.