Our Cross-Curricular Project Based Learning Opportunities: Challenges/Competitions/Special Topics

'Gamification... for Good!' (STEM)

Gamification For Good: Authentic Change Agency Initiatives Through Gifted Game Designs

Gamification is a 'hot-topic' in the educational field, providing a platform for multiple instructional design strategies that support gifted learners’ strategic thinking, assessment, and integration of content-specific topics. Gamification is an excellent opportunity to challenge gifted students to incorporate multiple levels of thinking that span across the content-specific domains. Gamification design aims to increase the participant’s engagement with special rules, rewards, goals, or systems. However, when students engage with a bonus level of depth and complexity, such as through the incorporation of a change agency theme, their project road map includes a deeper level of skill acquisition and civic responsibility. This allows students to see themselves as ‘influencers’ in two ways: The convergence of modalities for individual gaming strategy, and using their platform for impact as leaders and civically-minded social engineers. The fifth and seventh grade students' projects have just begun to take shape. They are creating unique games, through digital games, card games, board games, and even a trasuer hunt challenge! Through ‘Gamification for Good’, gifted students will demonstrate comprehension of the impact of a complex problem, which will encourage innovative ideas, design, and action to empower others who ‘game jam’, as critically conscious civic ‘change agents’.

Critical Thinking Challenges: Braingle and the student-created 'Mr. Potato Head Math Mystery!'

Pop-Up Museum (Science, History, and Research-based skills)

What is a 'Pop-up Museum'?

Students engaged in a high-interest individualized PBL that immersed them in a topic of their choice to create an engaging and informative museum-like experience for visitors! Students gained content area knowledge about their topic, and applied their STEM skills to design and innovate a museum experience, serving as the curators to demonstrate knowledge while visitors engaged in their displays!

Pop-up Museums displays:

The Flags of the World
The History of the Sandwich
The 5 main Eras of History: The food eaten during these eras
The History of Video Games
VR Technology Systems: The making of a virtual museum to tour
The History of Football
Crowns: Famous jewels and the queens who wore them
Secret Societies
Trash to Art
The Museum of Debates
Research and Design thinking
The Prehistoric Museum
The History of Music and Instruments
The Positivity Museum
The solar system and the history of the planets
History of chess and the winning moves!
The Grass Pie
The History of Bread

The Philadelphia Zoo's 'Unless Contest' (ELA, Science, History, and Research-based skills)

The award-winning Albert M. Greenfield Foundation UNLESS Contest has empowered thousands of K-12 students to take action for wildlife. This year-long, project-based contest encourages students to create real solutions to environmental issues in their lives. Let's congratulate our sixth-grade team for their project submissions and successful completion through this competition!

Congratulations to all of our teams who competed in this contest!
Congratulations to Aria and Vienna who were state finalists! They came in 5th place out of 800 entries with their picture books and awareness campaigns!

UNLESS Contest: Participant Portal

"What's So Cool About Manufacturing?"

(STEM, Community Service, and Research-based skills)

Welcome to the 2023-2024 What's So Cool About Manufacturing Contest!

The seventh-grade gifted students finished their unique storytelling challenge as they worked with MRC (Manufacturer's Resource Center) 'What's So Cool About Manufacturing' contest! https://www.whatssocool.org/

This PBL opportunity invited teams from around the state in county-wide competitions to use digital media to tell the story of the company, including highlights that make the company a stand-out leader in manufacturing, as well as giving students the opportunity to present a theatrical, unique, and creative video, which will be evaluated by the MRC judging team! Last year, our student team was phenomenal, and we are very proud of the product they produced. See last year's video here: https://youtu.be/9B6NuZu6TVg

**This year's seventh-grade team took on the challenge as well and had many skills to apply as they partnered with Eagle Metals, located in Leesport, PA. http://www.eaglemetals.com/

Virology Lab

https://pbswisconsineducation.org/meetthelab/about/

(ELA, Science skills)

(PART I) 'Meet the Lab' is a collection of educational resources made for middle school science classrooms. The collection connects learners to relevant real-world issues, cutting-edge research, and the human element: people working together to research, innovate, and solve problems using science.

After learning about the viruses, students pursued the question, 'Are viruses manipulative?'

Students also used slides in the classroom, looking for connections between different samples.

(PART II) Melinda Krick, our college professor and scientist led the 5th through 8th grade students in an in-depth lab experience and crime scene analysis! Thank you to Melinda Krick for bringing this awesome experience into the classroom!

Financial Literacy

(Math skills, personal finance)

The students (5th-8th) worked on various components of financial literacy and awareness through their various project submissions. We analyzed our own financial awareness, focusing on an understanding of taxes, and saving vs. spending. The students also enjoyed a financial component of real-world learning through the different projects that they worked on!

Special Topic Session:

Julia Borowczyk Gabryluk, FIDE Chess Player, and Chess Coach

The students (5th-8th) were presented with an awesome opportunity... to learn chess from a master! Julia Borowczyk instructed the students in a special topics session on how to play like a pro! Julia started out with a presentation that covered everything from the history of chess, to special gaming strategies, to the winning moves one would use in a close game! Students engaged in 'symultana', which allowed them to apply their new skills in a friendly competition with their teamates!👏

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