One of the best ways for students to learn is by doing hands-on activities. MICDS has excelled in project-based learning (PBL) throughout all three divisions, and shortly before spring break, Middle School students launched into a new PBL project that encouraged them to explore their own interests, skills, and curiosity. Sixth-Grade Passion Projects have been going strong for five years now, and students are just as excited about them today. How can they make their own mark? Well, in many creative ways!
“Projects are designed to create personal connections to student learning, and students have complete freedom and control in the direction of their project experience,” said Sixth-Grade Dean Mark Duvall. “Project topics cross disciplines, and students build skills that are relevant to the classroom and the real world.”
To begin, students were presented with a variety of options. They selected what appealed most to them and formed small groups before getting started with planning.
Passion Projects
Installation Art
What is installation Art? It is a piece of public art that is created for display in a specific place. The art is designed with the space in mind and often “interacts” with the space. Students in this project go on a site hunt on the MICDS campus, specifically the sixth-grade area, looking for a space where an art piece could live. Then they work in groups to design and create an art piece to be installed in the space.
Fix This
Have you ever recognized a problem and thought, “There must be a way to fix this!” For this Passion Project, you will do just that: identify a problem (one that you face or others), brainstorm solutions, and build a prototype of the device that solves the problem. The project concludes with a Shark Tank-style product pitch of your device and how it solves the problem you identified.
Design on a Dime
Have you ever looked at some of the spaces on the MICDS campus and thought, “Wow, this would be a great space if only we could…” In this course, you will create, design, and put into action a real proposal to landscape the outside area in between the fifth-grade science room and the Freeman Arts building (that big mulchy area). Through interviews with various members of the MICDS community, along with your own creative ideas, you will draw up plans, determine the cost for the resigned space and present your final proposals. After the proposal is approved, you will help with the building of the new plans.
Travel Sustainability
Have you ever wanted to travel the world, discover new and exotic locations, or plan your family’s next summer vacation? If yes, then this project is for you. In this course, you will be researching the various cities and destinations that you would like to see and experience. From there, you will develop a travel plan that combines eco-friendly and environmentally safe travel, along with a service learning part of the experience that helps the traveler learn about the people and culture that live in the area. The experience will combine fun travel along with helping, supporting, and learning about the people who are a part of the community you are traveling to.
Storytelling Using Minecraft
In this project, you will explore and research important moments in your own life that have impacted you. Using Minecraft, you will design moments, settings, and artifacts that help illustrate and tell your story from birth to your future self. This project involves learning about who you are and what is important to you and your story.
Once their plans were complete, several groups presented their ideas to “clients,” which included Head of Middle School Jen Schuckman, MICDS Chief Financial and Operating Officer Beth Miller, and Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning Dr. Sally Maxwell.
The Student Experience
Shayaan Merchant ’29 and his team chose the “Fix This” project. He explains, “I had trouble with navigating MICDS when I was new and my parents frequently got confused when they visited. Because of this, I knew that navigation was a common problem at our beautiful but large school. So, I decided to try and help this digitally, and having a chatbot that generated a map seemed more suited to my limited coding knowledge than making a whole interactive app from scratch. My goal with this was to help the many people visiting our large but beautiful school with getting around well.”
Their chatbot would allow visitors to scan a QR code with their phones upon arriving on campus, and after entering their desired location, the bot would give specific instructions on where to go. “My favorite part of the project was figuring out how to code the chatbot, learning many new things along the way. This was because it was interesting for me, and also wasn’t mechanical like finding a template or copy-and-pasting parts of code throughout the project,” he said.
He also gained important experience with collaboration. “I learned how crucial teamwork is. I learned this because if it wasn’t for my two teammates, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much done. Besides this, the project was more fun with them figuring it out and working with me.”
“The biggest impact for me is that I will know that ‘if there is a will, there is a way.’ Our project seemed very complex, multi-faceted, and hard on first sight. However, by breaking it into smaller parts, collaborating with my teammates, and taking it one step at a time, we figured it out in the end,” he said.
Max Fehniger ’29 and Val Landrum ’29 chose to learn how to tell stories using Minecraft. “For our project, we were supposed to make a book based off of our life memories and experiences,” explains Landrum. “We made an item that represented those memories in Minecraft, along with the memory descriptions in our books. Our goal was to share our life memories and experiences with our classmates.” She enjoyed the experience of building representations in the app. “My favorite part of the project was building items that represent our memories in Minecraft. It was really fun and I liked that we could use our creativity.”
Landrum notes that she improved a number of skills through the project, in addition to reflecting deeply on her own life. “I learned more about myself while doing this project. I reflected on my past memories and experiences. I also achieved better writing skills, and got a lot better at Minecraft!” she said.
“I will definitely remember doing this project because it was really fun and I had a great time. The biggest impact of this project was definitely learning more about myself.”
Other students tackled improving the fifth- and sixth-grade hallway, while more sought to improve the space between Danforth Hall and Freeman Arts Building. Several planned out spectacular travel trips that were meaningful and promised a variety of rich memories. All the students presented their work to their peers.
Well done, sixth grade students! Whether you worked on external or internal projects, you all made a difference!