Student Designing

At Foothills Community School, one of the cornerstones of our educational model is the use of quarterly projects. Four times a year, our students take the lead in solving a problem or answering an open-ended dilemma, which is based on either the interests of our students or the needs of our community. Students take the lead during these projects, they take the information they learn and design solutions depending on what they and their group feel would best solve what is asked of them. These Project-Based Learning (PBL) STEM activities, which are based on the Buck Institute of Education Project-Based Learning model, require our scholars to identify and design solutions through the use of investigation, the engineering design process or the cycle of computational thinking. Once a solution has been discovered they present their findings and results to the public. These projects are highly interdisciplinary. Each content area works to take a piece of the project puzzle and provides support and information to our scholars to help them form their answers. This process ensures that students have a richer experience when they tackle the original problem and helps them create solutions through experimentation or the design process with the added support of their teachers.
In order to prepare meaningful learning experiences for our students, at the end of each school year we survey the scholars of FCS in regard to their interests and passions. The teachers then take the students’ interests and look for overlaps that align with the North Carolina Essential Standards and North Carolina Standard Course of Study. These overlaps are then used to create projects that put students in the driver’s seat as they investigating and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex problem or challenge. Teachers constantly work to develop these projects, both during the summer and once the school year begins. This is to ensure both their interdisciplinary effectiveness and to provide that teachers utilize standards that support student’s learning and their ability to complete the project. Students are provided daily time to work on their projects during project time. This daily project class, which contains multi-grade level teams, allows our students time to work on synthesizing any new information they have obtained from their classes in order to construct their model and develop a showcase for their solution which they have created through the design process.
In order to ensure project authenticity, the administration, teachers, and students reach out to the community to find partners for each PBL project. These have ranged in the past from local restaurants, factories, business associations, our local community college, high school CTE classes to even partnering universities. Student progress is celebrated with quarterly open houses in which stakeholders are invited to view student projects. Those projects chosen by their peers and the community are showcased publicly and highlighted through pictures, presentations, and displays throughout the FCS hallway, the community (meeting presentations, ie. County Commissioners, local School Board, local museums, etc.), competitions to expand student opportunities, and social media outlets.
The first project that students have worked on during the 2019-20 school year, Seed to Need, has been a locally-focused project looking at Mcdowell County’s local food systems. Students started this project by visiting local farms in order to develop a basic understanding of our food system and careers within it. The driving question for the project was: How do we grow advocacy surrounding food systems and farmers while addressing food needs in our community? In each content classroom, teachers presented information that engaged students in investigating and experimenting with content. For example; Math classes looked at ratios, proportions, and geometry; ELA classes focused their time on writing problem and solution based essays; science classes investigated different ecosystems and their impact on human health while social studies classes looked at the concept of resource availability and its impact on society as a whole.

Evidence: Student Designing

2019-2020Seed to Need Planning Documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wY3tWiMnhWOWytC43tp0zgYb7RSx6HDB?usp=sharingSeed to Need Project Site: https://sites.google.com/mcdowell.k12.nc.us/fcsseedtoneed/driving-questionSeed to Need Student Work Samples: https://www.wevideo.com/view/1491014034https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12csUhlfpsSThLTwR1Z5eo3Q02Grja7koDuxRj3CXWBQ/edit?usp=sharing

2018-19A Whole New World Planning Documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uVFNhiskLEf31VoEcfCWEIZ6xlp8dVoJ?usp=sharingA Whole New World Project Site: https://sites.google.com/mcdowell.k12.nc.us/a-whole-new-world/homeA Whole New World Student Work Samples: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iEJCfXMwUWypge3fYaAIKxeDVqO194kH79q7hXtvLB8/edit?usp=sharing
FCS Passion Projects Planning Project: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11ny9_nfxgV1jen47du4PwX0Am3P7bZ6S?usp=sharingFCS Passion Project Site: https://sites.google.com/view/fcspassionprojects/homeFCS Passion Project Student Samples:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xs3WMWE280i9ibd7xDK2gikF4iYFmZCucEu01HdCZmA/edit?usp=sharinghttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1L2V-EQLcucBu7kq_o9DckOhTUGcy9pT9KpmBRlY_etA/edit?usp=sharing

Food Truck Frenzy Planning Project: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZjrRNiDj6-wwpySWzn7XUJbIOH58PfrQ?usp=sharing
Food Truck Student Work Sample:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Qm6n0sLZNcn5mqrIwdC0RATMBe6YL_cBQzfg4JykH4/edit?usp=sharing
Space Survival Planning Documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n6wkEZeWA0yo8u86Tqt9oxaU6oH1Iy7b?usp=sharingSpace Survival Site: https://sites.google.com/mcdowell.k12.nc.us/fcs-spacesurvival2018-19/homeSpace Survival Student Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZaLJht2n1Ihttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1969WmCDAAWbDvEQgpr6tz2L-IIFTeWVl/view?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1h43wct0tDJHodlRFdOU-EIpJHFZ3mQuv/view?usp=sharing

Whole New World Project

Click here to view Whole New World Project

Copy of Jayden Pupoh - Write your WHOLE NEW WORLD NARRATIVE HERE

Narratives Work sample

On this project, students were required to look at point of view for ELA. The assignment went past the analyzation level on Bloom's taxonomy. Each student in the group had to write the same story with the same plot except each person had to have a different point of view of the same event. It took a lot of peer to peer collaboration. The story line told of the problem in the Whole New World Project and the story line had the solutions to the problem as well.

Copy of Kyla Joyner - Write your WHOLE NEW WORLD NARRATIVE HERE

This is another student's story in the same group creating a scenario solving the problem. All STEM projects are cross curricular.

Seed to Feed Project

Click here to view the Seed to Feed Project Website

Everything at FCS is a process. We meet weekly so that we can come together as a team to discuss what is and is not working on the projects to make the next project better. For the first projects, we did not provide a website of the information for the projects. Through much discussion and collaboration with parents, we decided this would be a great tool and one area for parents to get all the information that is expected of their child for the project.

On the Farm

At Windy Ridge

Understanding Space Needs

English Farmstead Cheese

Student's Choice

Student's chose problems and service learning solutions to plug in and involve themselves within the community to put action into their understanding.

Places that students chose to engage in service learning at:

-Local Farms (Business Partners)

-Foothills Food Hub (Community Partner)

-Shepard's Table (Community/Church Partners)

-Community Garden (Community Partners)

-MANNA Foodbank (Community Partner)

Food HuB

Loading Trucks

Food Hub

Accounting for poundage in/out

FOod Hub

Packing boxes

Sorting food

Manna Foodbank

Food Preparation

Sorting food for boxing

Seed to Feed final projects:

Students shared their ideas for addressing the problem of food insecurity in their community with MANNA FoodBank in Asheville.

One idea offered was a semi-truck of food to deliver in rural areas or to those without transportation. They were excited to hear that MANNA had a similar idea and is rolling out a mobile food pantry initiative this month!

Community Garden

Planting

Community Garden

Planting

Community Garden

Harvesting

Urban Farming

Community Garden

Business Partners

Harvesting

Designing Garden Systems

Creating systems for sprouting

Garden Systems

Understanding Barriers

Hydroponics

Sprouting Systems

Growing

Measuring

Planting

Building

Tools

Preparing

Determining the Amount of Lights

Lighting COnstruction

Building Light Structures

Space Survival Project

The students were required to use a great deal of creativity to complete a special space edition of a local broadcast (no more than 30 minutes) that informs the public of the establishment of a new International Space Station. During this special edition broadcast, they were required to explore the history of humans in space, the government of the new space station, the food, exercise, and nutrition required for the 200 astronauts that will be living there.

Click here to view the Space Survival project

Windmills

Students were given a package containing simple windmill materials (wood dowels, rubber bands, styrofoam, etc) and instructions. They worked in collaborative groups to first build the windmill correctly and measured rotations per minute (rotations per 15 seconds times 4). Then they drew plans for the changes they would make (based of prior knowledge, what they learned building, and what they researched). Students worked on their models and tested them. We then had a contest to see which windmill measured the highest rpms.

Example of projects in science class:

Students, working in groups, were given batteries, wire, paperclips and ask to design a motor that spins the paperclip at the fastest rate. Students were asked to design the motor and test the spin, then redesign and rebuild for better results.
Students, working in teams, were given tubing, pipette, value, clips and “blood,” and ask to design a two, three and four chamber circulatory system. Students had to redesign and rebuild until successful.
Students, working in teams, were ask to design a “wanted poster” of an organ system. The design had to fit the criteria of outlaw and contain the information needed to explain the organ system. Opportunity was given to observe others and redesign their poster.
Students, working in teams, had to design a track that is formed into a roller coaster. Students track had to complete a loop and extent a specified length. Students were able to design, build, test and redesign.
On our Science Olympiad team in all 23 events there is a certain amount of teamwork and design as each pair work to prepare for their event.
Specifically in our building events, mousetrap vehicle, boomilever, elastic launched glider, ping pong parachute, thermodynamic, mission possible, machine, game on students working in teams are on a four month process of understanding the goals, designing, building, testing, tweeking or rebuilding, testing, rebuilding.
All of these are contest with very specific rules and competitive scoring. All of these also include engineering dilemma that must be worked through and choices made. For example in boomilever, which is a cantilever build to specification to hold an ever increasing weight. The scoring gives points to the cantilever which is the lightest and holds the most weight so students must test to find that point were strength and mass are at their optimal point.
During team building exercises teams were asked to build the highest spaghetti tower in a time limit, Students could test and redesign. Students, working in teams have been ask to build the best package to protect a dropped egg. Students working in teams were asked to build a catapult using sticks and rubber bans to launching different mass material at different ranges. Then students were given a catapult kit to do the same thing.

Designing for Change

photos.app.goo.gl/qYh95ZtqBiCamiCb8

Click here for the Designing for Change Website for teacher PD

This project was so successful that the teachers at FCS decided to share it with other teachers.

The teachers wanted to share with other teacher how to set up a multi-disciplinary goal that focuses on real-world problems and challenges. The sharing included how to do built-in periodic check-ins between teacher and students, starts with direct instruction and ends with a culminating presentation. Our goal at FCS is all teachers can teach students teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, speaking, listening, reading, writing, peer/teacher communication and engagement in order to meet a community need (i.e., hunger, oral health, providing necessary supplies to students in need) through PBL.

Stem ELA Elective

Stem ELA Robotics

In my part the STEM ELA class, we have been working on LEGO Robots. Students have been progressing through several worksheets I have designed based on learning the basics of robotics and programming. They have worked in teams to solve problems and do little experiments.

RobOtics

Running Programs

Programming

Building Programs

8th Grade Stem ELA

In the 8th Grade STEM Class, we have been using LEGO EV3 robots to work on several different skills. Students have been working on the design process, programming, and collaboration. The video here shows one of the first times that students designed a robot in order to play a game. The goal is to move the cups off of the black line in order to earn a point. The robot they designed had to launch a wheel and axel projectile in order to do this. The entire project has taken about a week to accomplish, the class in only 45 minutes long. As you can see, the students are highly engaged and all of them already have ideas about what changes they need to make in order to be more successful.

Trashy Situation

Trash Pickup Kickoff

Which Family will Win

Most Trash Retrieved

Students started their next project outdoors to clean up the FCS, WMMS, and MHS campus. The cleanup was a competition between the homerooms to see who could clean up the most trash. Students brought the trash back into the room to support it according to the recycling guidelines.

Sorting

Measuring

Classifying

Recycling

Refugee Summer Projects

Cardboard Boat Regatta

Natural Selection activity

Students started with 1 fork, 1 knife, 1 spoon, and 1 straw. They had to collect beans and calculate the average (math) of all individuals. After calculating the average, the student who caught less than the average died and those who caught more survived to reproduce. We observed how the population differed and why. Students led the conversation to solving the problem and they why. The students formed questions to help through the brainstorming.

The class then talked about natural selection, variation, and fitness and categorized what we know drives these process.