Tag: Project Based Learning
Highlights from the Design Lab
January 12, 2017 by
The Design Lab has been full of exploration, experimentation and engineering this year! Read on to hear some Design Lab highlights from students on the North Campus: At the beginning of the year, Fourth Grade classes came to the Design Lab to collaborate on designing their “dream teacher.” Students worked with a partner to brainstorm […]
Sixth Graders Design Games Based on Greek Epic
December 23, 2016 by
Sixth Grade students hosted an Odyssey-inspired game fair yesterday. Each Sixth Grader made their own board game or card game based on The Wanderings of Odysseus, the shortened version of The Odyssey that we studied. Once we finished reading the book, we started working on our games. We first needed to decide whether to develop […]
Kids Delve into the Issues – An Election Project Update
October 6, 2016 by
As the JPDS-NC Election Project 2016 continues, students in all grades have been conducting research on their grade’s assigned topic and engaging in deep conversations with guest speakers, with students in other grades and at other schools, and with each other. Sixth Grade – Political Messaging: Sixth Grade students produced videos summarizing the positions of the major […]
Students Speak Out – An Election Project Update
September 29, 2016 by
As students delve into their grade-specific issues for our Election Project, they’ve also been exploring the question of whether adults should listen to the opinions of children when it comes to these important issues and the election in general. We asked the children: “You can’t vote, but should you have a voice in this process?” […]
Joy in Learning
August 25, 2016 by
Experience and research show that engaging students to follow their curiosity, to experience the joy in learning, and to enjoy the satisfaction of mastery ignites innate motivation and drives intellectual growth. Across the educational spectrum, this observation is often presented as a dichotomy: educators who emphasize joy and curiosity as the vehicles for driving enduring […]
In Case You Missed It: An Exploration of Outer Space
July 7, 2016 by
This week the world watched in delight as NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived in Jupiter’s orbit after a five-year journey. Some members of the JPDS-NC Class of 2023 may have been particularly excited at this news, after spending their Kindergarten year exploring the wonders of outer space. In case you missed it, please enjoy the article below about the hands-on and in-depth […]
Comparing Communities: Kindergarteners Engage in In-Depth Study of Social Insects
May 24, 2016 by
This year in Kindergarten, our Project Work curriculum was intentionally designed to use the theme of Community. In the second semester, we focused on comparing our community to those of social insects including ants, bees, and wasps. We specifically chose social insects because they naturally connect to humans as they share common characteristics that include […]
Sixth Graders Create Hebrew-Language Documentary Films Exploring Family Immigration Stories
May 19, 2016 by
This spring, Sixth Grade Hebrew students at JPDS-NC began a unit on their family’s history, roots, and journey to America, culminating in each student creating a documentary film in Hebrew about their family’s immigration stories. Throughout this project, the students practiced advanced Hebrew language skills, expressing complex ideas and using rich language in both their […]
Making Thinking Visible Through the Use of Materials
May 4, 2016 by
If you walk in the front door of South Campus this week, you might see First Grade students and teachers digging through big boxes and recyclables to be used for prototypes of homes in a polar climate. You also might see Kindergarten students manipulating clay to create their final model of a queen bee. In the sadnah (studio), you might […]
Sixth Grade Students Invited to Display Art about the Holocaust at Community Commemoration
April 20, 2016 by
A fishbowl, half-filled with dirt, with a paper butterfly inside. Taped around the outside of the fishbowl: the poem “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” which we read during our 5th grade Holocaust study. A tube of golf balls, 6 yellow for the Jews, 5 others in various colors for the gays, Jehovah’s witnesses and Roma […]
