MOKANE, Mo. - Schools in the South Callaway district have been showing off student problem or project-based learning (PBL) units to the district's board of education this year. Wednesday night's South Callaway school board meeting was the elementary's turn.
Kathryn Zimmerman, the elementary school's instructional coach, presented some of the PBLs the district's third, fourth and fifth graders have been working on this school year and highlighted student classwork. Her presentation, complete with photos and videos of student work, focused on how the projects were helping students become 21st Century learners.
Third-grade teachers have been using Destination Imagination's website to create instant challenges for students. Students work in teams to problem solve the challenges they are given through group discussion. Some third-grade students have also been working on a PBL with the driving question, "Why is the environment important, and how can we protect it?"
Last month, fourth-grade students presented, in costume and character, information on famous Americans as part of a biography project. The entire grade set up presentation boards, complete with photos, text and some with video displays on their iPads. Third- and fifth-grade students walked from display to display as the fourth-grade class taught their peers about their project's famous American.
Also, recently, fourth grade students had to present their favorite poems on video, using iMovie.
For the fifth-grade class, Zimmerman highlighted a video project they did using iMovie. Students had to create a video about their hero. Zimmerman played one for the board Wednesday night from a student -Heidi Benningfield - who said her hero is her 4-year-old cousin, who is currently fighting leukemia. Benningfield told her cousin's story through her video and said she is impressed with him.
"He is brave and fighting for something he can't explain," Benningfield said in her video.
She explained her cousin is too young to understand why he has to go through chemo, but he continues to fight for his life.
Additionally, Zimmerman shared some Leader in Me activities in which the elementary school has been taking part. For example, students had to write original lyrics to popular songs and perform their new version of the songs at morning meetings. Zimmerman played a video showing some of the student songs for the board Wednesday night.