Learner Projects
Elementary Examples (4th-6th Grade)
Learners met authors who have overcome obstacles to become successful. In October, Sarah Crowther, a Central alumni with Asperger's syndrome came for an author visit. Ronnie Sidney, an author with learning disabilities and ADHD Skyped with our class to discuss his autobiographical graphic novel. In November, Cece Bell, an author with hearing impairment shared her experiences via Skype after our class read her award winning novel, El Deafo. We had a special visit and lunch with Special Olympian, Loretta Claiborne. Through this experience, learners will discovered how authors are able to use their personal struggles and obstacles to tell a story and empower others. Learners wrote their own personal narratives and graphic novel comic strips. They also collaboratively created posters and videos about what it means to be a champion.
Mrs. Antoun’s 4th and 5th grade learners were the service dog HEROes. Our project started with this question, “How can service dogs help people?” Our slogan was, “Be a service dog HERO!” What does HERO mean? Help Everyone Realize Opportunities
Our hope and dream was to raise money for Susquehanna Service Dogs to support people that do not have enough money for a service dog. We would also like to start a visiting dog program that helps students with autism increase their communication and language skills. Did you know that it costs $25,000 to train one service dog. It costs a family $5,000 to place a service dog with their partner.
Learners researched and created projects about service dogs. We read informational books about different kinds of service dogs and created our own audio books to share with other classes. Each month a different kind of service dog comes to the school for a demonstration for learners in Mrs. Antoun’s, Mrs. Ellwood’s, Mrs. Saylor’s, and Mrs. Dougherty’s classes. We have had presentations from Susquehanna Service Dogs, York County Sheriff’s K9, Loving Eyes Seeing Eye 4H Puppy Club, and KPETS Therapy Dogs. Learners created over 150 fleece tug toys to donate to Susquehanna Service Dogs and to thank our doggie visitors.
We started a Tabs for Labs collection program and collected over 138,000 tabs. Learners designed collection bins for each school, posters, and commercials. We also set up a campaign to get people to install and use iGive.com for their online shopping by creating QR code magnets and flyers and a GoFundMe page. This website donates part of your purchase directly to Susquehanna Service Dogs at no extra cost to you. Our class hosted a Rita's community night to benefit Susquehanna Service Dogs. We raised over $250 for the Susquehanna Service Dogs organization and shared a wealth of knowledge with our community and beyond about the important role of service dogs.
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Our hope and dream was to raise money for Susquehanna Service Dogs to support people that do not have enough money for a service dog. We would also like to start a visiting dog program that helps students with autism increase their communication and language skills. Did you know that it costs $25,000 to train one service dog. It costs a family $5,000 to place a service dog with their partner.
Learners researched and created projects about service dogs. We read informational books about different kinds of service dogs and created our own audio books to share with other classes. Each month a different kind of service dog comes to the school for a demonstration for learners in Mrs. Antoun’s, Mrs. Ellwood’s, Mrs. Saylor’s, and Mrs. Dougherty’s classes. We have had presentations from Susquehanna Service Dogs, York County Sheriff’s K9, Loving Eyes Seeing Eye 4H Puppy Club, and KPETS Therapy Dogs. Learners created over 150 fleece tug toys to donate to Susquehanna Service Dogs and to thank our doggie visitors.
We started a Tabs for Labs collection program and collected over 138,000 tabs. Learners designed collection bins for each school, posters, and commercials. We also set up a campaign to get people to install and use iGive.com for their online shopping by creating QR code magnets and flyers and a GoFundMe page. This website donates part of your purchase directly to Susquehanna Service Dogs at no extra cost to you. Our class hosted a Rita's community night to benefit Susquehanna Service Dogs. We raised over $250 for the Susquehanna Service Dogs organization and shared a wealth of knowledge with our community and beyond about the important role of service dogs.
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Each month our vertical team asks learners to do “One Good Deed.” In October and November, our learners donated almost a hundred pounds of candy to create care package for military service family members serving over seas. In December and January, learners donated crayons, colored pencils, markers, and coloring books to create Caitlin’s Smile Bags for children at York Hospital. The learners also created 2 craft kits for each bag. Caitlin's Smiles is a program to help children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses by giving them hope, laughs and smiles. In February, learners organized donations for our school district's Panther Pantry through advertisements, posters, and commercials.
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In 2017, 4th graders in Mrs. Antoun’s and Mr. Sweet’s classes organized a Socktober donation drive to help victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Learners created posters, announcements, and commercials to promote this event. Over 400 socks and underwear and 300 toiletries and baby items were collected during the month of October. The Centro Hispano José Hernández of York with amazing volunteers Delma Rivera and Jose Santiago hosted a second Relief Effort on November 4th and delivered donations to Puerto Rico.
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Secondary Examples (10th grade Global Studies)
Oppia allows the viewer to "choose their path" through a lesson, or in this case a story, to learn independently. This learner wanted to emphasize that choices made by individuals have dire consequences, even though they may not realize it at the time. Oppia is free to use and the "stories" or paths learners create could be added to the database. This tool is a great way to allow learners to creatively communicate their understandings through story-telling or demonstrations.
Scratch was a new program for me, but that's a cool aspect of PBL- you're asking learners to use their strengths to explore a topic! This learner had a background in coding and computer programing, so he was able to apply his knowledge to this project and create a way to explain the problems of climate change in Africa. Many of his peers were interested in his project because he was the only one who made an online game- the Oculus and other virtual tours like Google VR Tours/Tour Builder offer variations of this project for others that may not be as knowledgeable on coding.
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This #Syllabus is only the shell of the project- time restraints did not allow this to fully be expanded through Twitter like the original plan, but it is a good collection of the learner's resources and research. She created this to not only raise awareness, but to crowdsource and gather other resources that could be added to the syllabus. See our other page for info on what a #Syllabus is, its origins, and how you can join our #Syllabus on Global Collaboration!
I saw this project explained by David Lee for EdTech and decided it was worth a try and bought the template. Many learners chose to complete this project because it was a way for them to create digital history to preserve their research for the topic. They found it relevant to them and fairly easy to complete because the template is already linked and the video does a great job walking through the "how to" instructions. This project is able to be embedded on a webpage (like a #Syllabus or portfolio), shared through QR codes on a flyer, or shared through social media.
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