Standard 7

Students engage collaboratively in authentic inquiry during ongoing units of study.

Standard 7 Narrative

B.B. Comer Elementary School gives students daily opportunities to collaborate, problem solve, and show their creativity. Project Based Learning is a way of growing and learning at BBCES. Grade levels collaborate on several PBL's throughout each school year. During these projects students have a driving question to research, become experts, incorporate real world situations, integrate technology, and problem solve along the way. Teachers are encouraged to enter PBL projects into our county technology fair. Over the last few years, several of our projects have done very well and won awards.

Liberty Legacy Projects

Community Hero Interactive Posters

As part of the Liberty Legacy program, fifth grade students learn about Torch Team/Community Heroes. They discuss what it means for a person to be a community hero, and then they each nominate a local person they feel meets the criteria. Students create interactive campaign posters to present in order to persuade others to vote for their nominee. These posters are coded using Makey Makey and Scratch. Each homeroom then votes for one hero to recognize at our final celebration.

American Symbols Project Rubric

American Symbols Project

Second grade students at BBCES also participate in the Liberty Legacy program. Students learn about American Symbols and their significance to our American heritage. As an extension of this project, students used the Engineering Design Process and recycled materials to construct replicas of each of the following American symbols: the Liberty Bell, the American Flag, the Washington Monument, The Statue of Liberty, the bald eagle, and Mt. Rushmore. Lastly, the students created FlipGrid videos to reflect on their project and the significance of the American symbol their group had chosen to build.

Authentic Inquiry Key Exemplars

Living Big in Tiny Houses

Tiny House Project

Students worked to answer the question, "Do tiny houses make a positive impact on the environment, and are they a reasonable housing option?" In small groups students learned about minimalism, their carbon footprint and green energy. They then took their newfound knowledge and applied it to tiny houses. In research groups they designed and created a google site entitled "Living Big in Tiny Houses." The site explores the benefits of tiny homes as well how they affect our environment. Click on the picture to visit the site and explore the students' learning.

Eco-columns

Fifth grade students, created eco-columns where plants and organisms lived in a self-contained environment to observe how an ecosystem worked. These eco-columns were maintained throughout an entire semester.

Let's Makey Makey Music

Students spent several weeks studying sound. They learned about the different types of vibrations, frequency, and pitch. Students created musical instruments in the STEAM lab. They had to work together to design a musical instrument before connecting the Makey Makey kit. Once the Makey Makey kit was connected, the group created songs to perform for the rest of the class. These homemade instruments were super exciting.

STEAM February 11-15, 2019.pdf

Waddle with Penguins

The students completed a project on the life of Penguins. They watched videos and read books about their habitats, what they eat, their predators, and how they get around. They enjoyed practicing their waddles. The students also labeled the body of a penguin. Students took all of the information they gathered and created a My Penguin Report. After the project was complete, an anchor chart titled, "Would you like to have a Penguin as a pet?" was created. Students then discussed reasons why they would or why they would not want a penguin as a pet. It is safe to conclude that penguins became a favorite animal to many of these first grade students after completing this project.

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