PHOTO: Kindergartners designed their own toys after learning about preferences and attributes of toys from their peers and preschoolers at Seeds of Learning.
Families, students and community members flooded the Pagosa Peak Open School lobby last week; ready to celebrate the first student projects of the year, eat delicious bites from Mee Hmong Cuisine, carve pumpkins and socialize with the school’s intimate community.
Students in grades K-8 address content standards through a nontraditional teaching model: Project-Based Learning. In place of flipping through a textbook to learn science and social studies concepts, students work through projects where they answer open-ended questions using research, data analysis and collection, field work and interactions with experts.
In the end, students create products to share their learning.
This school year started off with the ‘driving questions’ that would propel the projects forward:
- Which toys are the best options for PPOS’s future preschool, based on student preferences
- How tools can help us make magnificent things for our school
- How our school compares to others around the world
- How Ute history affects our perception of Colorado history
- How screen time affects the teenage brain
- How the world recovers from natural disasters
“I feel proud and accomplished,” fifth-grader Quinn said after the showcase. “Anyone here could see why this is the best school ever.”
Quinn’s class is working through physical and life science standards around energy, ecosystems and human impact by examining natural disasters. Students are using “I Survived” books as mentor texts to create their own “I Survived” stories around natural disasters that could happen in our area. Quinn’s fiction story follows a girl who survives a hailstorm.
“As a project-based learning advisor, it is my job to make learning come alive. It’s so much more than covering content standards in isolation,” Quinn’s teacher and middle school PBL advisor Rue Graham said. “Offering students opportunities to draw connections between subjects cultivates deeper understanding. As a teacher and curriculum designer I enjoy the creative challenge of developing meaningful, standards-aligned and engaging projects for students to get the most out of their education.”
PPOS is an intentionally small K-8 district-authorized charter school, where PBL is a cornerstone of the school’s curriculum and instruction.
Emily Murphy is School Director at Pagosa Peak Open School, the first District-authorized charter school in Archuleta County. Prior to her appointment as School Director, Emily filled various roles at PPOS including Project-Based Learning advisor, instructional coach, and assistant director.