Models of Excellence

Water Wise Billboard

Grade(s):

6

Sixth grade students transferred knowledge about the properties and movement of water through the Earth's hydrosphere and grappled with the content of the hydrosphere on a smaller scale: our local Root Pike Watershed. Students took a deeper look at their watershed: Lake Michigan.

Bug Research Trading Cards

Grade(s):

2

Each second-grade student chose an insect to research. Students completed 6 research questions in order to become experts on their insect. Using the knowledge gained during their research, students were asked to make a "Gettin' Buggy" trading card.

Building and Maintaining a Compost System

Grade(s):

7

7th-grade students designed a compost system for the school based on research and worked with compost engineer experts as part of our soil expedition (Dead or Alive - the Dirt on Soil). Students first learned about soil, the importance of carbon in soil, what plants need, and nitrogen cycling.

Blueprints & Bees, Building a Community

Grade(s):

K

The kindergartners at Sierra Expeditionary Learning School are working to support declining bee populations by building bee hotels.

Ikezasso(Ikebana with weeds)

Grade(s):

7

Country: Japan

Chicago Water Quality Report

Grade(s):

7, 8

During the 2022-2023 school year, seventh and eighth grade students at Polaris Charter Academy focused on learning physics and chemistry through multiple lenses.

Advocating for Water

Grade(s):

3

For this final product we created brochures to pass out to our community for celebration of learning. Attached are the brochures.

A Day in the Life of Eastern Sierra Animals

Grade(s):

2

A Day in the Life: Eastern Sierra Animals was created by second grade students at Big Pine Elementary as part of their Wilderness Warriors learning expedition, in which students learned about local habitats and the plants and animals who call these habitats home.

Where in the World is Santa Fe? An Atlas

Grade(s):

3, 4

For their spring 2022 expedition, the Centaur class was asked the question, “Where in the World is Santa Fe?” During this expedition, we began learning about geography through the lens of the five Themes of Geography.