Room 14 Projects
Faces of ImmigrationStudents studied California’s history through the lens of immigration, focusing on the times in history when big changes in California were accompanied by waves of immigrants. Our work stretched from the Native American Era to present-day immigration. For each of these, we learned about the contributions and ethical issues related to the time period, and looking at multiple perspectives.
We read books, listened to guest speakers, painted a mural at Chicano Park, and interviewed first-generation immigrants in California to learn firsthand about their experiences. We wrote a collection of stories to celebrate the contributions and experiences of these diverse individuals. Click here for the news article published in La Prensa, a weekly, bilingual newspaper. |
Systems In & Out of BalanceIn this multidisciplinary project, the students of Room 14 studied global warming and its causes. We looked at the impact of climate change on different biomes. In science with Ms. Hutchins, and in class with Ms. Jones, we examined four biomes closely, the arctic tundra, the savanna, the rainforest, and the ocean. We looked at how each system works (the environment, animals, plants, food webs, etc.) and we looked at threats to each biome (deforestation, climate change, poaching, pollution, etc.). Students each studied an endangered animal from one of these biomes.
We also looked at California history from the ecological perspective. We looked at the way different periods of California history affected the ecosystems in California. We looked at the Native American period of hunter-gatherers, the Mission and Rancho period, when they shifted to agriculture and ranching, and the Gold Rush period when population booms created cities. We looked at the effects of the oil and military industry in California, and the rise of real estate and subdivisions. We learned from experts about our current energy use, and the rise of alternative energy. With Ms. Haden, we engineered solutions to some of the global problems we had learned about. We drafted blueprints, critiqued with peers and with engineers, and revised our blueprints. We created models of our inventions, using repurposed materials. We presented to our peers at school. Finally, we synthesized our knowledge to write scripts for our documentary. We gathered photos and video footage. In art, we created murals as our backdrops with 3D elements. We wrote more scripts memorized our lines and filmed our documentary. We edited our videos, and created a documentary film! |
The Truth About Food“How do we make informed decisions about the food we eat?” In this project, students learned to think critically about all aspects of food. Throughout this year-long project, we used the subject of food to talk about community, family traditions, sustainability and the environment, and health. We learned to think more critically about our food choices and the food industry. We worked to help those who do not have access to food. We used our learning to create products that educate others and push them to examine their relationship to food and eating in inventive and unexpected ways. Our resulting magazine publications and Food Day Event made a powerful impact on the way our community eats.
Teacher Reflection There were so many aspects to examine about food. Breaking it up into units of study that focused on different topics such as food and community, where food comes from, how food affects our health, food advertising, and food equity really made this project rich and enabled deep thinking. Our food day not only showed how the students could make a positive change in our community, but it also showed how they could organize themselves to put together an event on a grand scale. Student Reflections My favorite part of this project is that we get to teach people about how much sugar they were eating and to show them the sugar that was in their favorite drink. What I am most proud of in this project is that we finished and we all worked together. -Barbara J. I am most proud of teaching people how to read nutrition labels because before they buy food, they can read the labels. -Kaiden M. I learned that I didn’t eat very healthy because I would always have sugary beverages and not eat a lot of protein and fiber! -Zac C. I learned that I work well under a lot of pressure and with short or long deadlines. -Nikko G. |
Recent Projects
Name Tag ProjectThe Name Tag Project is a mini-project that started the year by introducing students to the process of creating beautiful work. Inspired by Austin's Butterfly, Students learned the benefit of critique and revision while building community in our classroom. They began to understand that we are a class that puts our best effort into everything we do.
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What's the Big Idea?This project is the first part of a year-long through-line about ideas. In this project, we explored what makes us think the way we think, and how different things can influence us to change our thinking.
In this first part, What's the Big Idea?, we examined how we see ourselves as learners within the context of our classroom community. Using idea mapping, brain research, and journaling, students gained a deeper understanding of themselves. Using Second Step, community building activities, and a group project that entailed creating a puzzle together, we learn what it means to be a community of learners. Our final products included a reflective writing piece about our identity, a clay self portrait, and a tangram puzzle representing our contributions to the classroom community. |
Ideas that Change the World-Part 1This project continued our year-long through-line about ideas. In this project, our ideas moved outward from ourselves to our society. For this project, we focused on city systems such as architecture and land use, transportation, water and waste management, communication, and power.
We looked at the evolution of city systems throughout California's history, and connected with experts to learn about the present day conditions of these systems. Our experts included a city planner, a transportation planner, environmental educators, a water authority expert, an energy planner, and some architects. Students used their knowledge of past and present city systems to design a city of the future, focusing on solving the problems of today. Their comprehensive project proposals identified current problems with our systems and proposed a new system with solutions for those problems. In addition, the whole class created a large scale architectural model of the city of the future. Each group presented their proposal to a panel of experts, and again to the wider school community. |
The second part of Ideas that Change the World is inspired by celebrations of innovation such as World's Fairs. In this project, we explored ways that ideas have changed the world, learning about the history of World's Fairs and the innovations that came from these, and debated about the impact of several life-changing innovations. Students wrote evidence-based opinion pieces supporting a claim that one innovation had a stronger impact than another.
We then used the Design Thinking Process to identify a current problem or need and design an invention that would help people. Students researched, brainstormed, critiqued, designed, prototyped, tested and iterated multiple times to create a working prototype that included at least one simple machine. Finally, we studied the curation of World's Fairs to design and curate our own version of a World's Fair exhibition at the San Diego History Center. |
In this project, students used human-centered design thinking to find the needs of our community, and develop solutions for those needs. Guided by the essential question: How can we effectively share space, equipment, and time with other students so that everyone feels safe and comfortable at recess?, students engaged in problem finding by collecting qualitative and quantitative data, brainstormed solutions, created action plans, critiqued and presented to a focus group, and then made their vision for recess a reality!
Working in groups, students created visual timers to help younger students with sharing playground equipment, set up clean up schedules and ordered trash grabbers to promote a cleaner eating experience, painted beautiful signs to help remind students of recess expectations, created a magnet board with activity choices for each grade level, and lasercut signs with various games and rules for the playground. |
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The Myths and Realities of the American Dream |
What's Your Compelling Story? |
This project was about how the American Dream shaped our nation's history as a driving force of hope, and how different groups of people have experienced inequitable access to that dream throughout the past and present. In this project, fifth grade students gave voice to diverse people whose stories needed to be told, with the hope that learning from our past can help us make a better future.
We started by modeling in-depth research about colonization, revolution, and independence. Students read articles and primary sources from multiple perspectives, looked at ethical issues within various events, and created a spoken word poem that portrayed the perspective of one group of people at that time. We then learned about each era of history more quickly, so that students would have an overview of the historical context, as well as a focus on the positive and negative effects of various events on different people. Students then chose their own historical era to focus on, and did independent in-depth research on the era, focusing on the experiences and the American Dream for three different groups of people. They synthesized this in an informational essay. We then worked with a spoken word poet, Gill Sotu, who worked with them on writing and performance. We wrote spoken word poetry to tell the story of one group of people of their chosen era. In art, we visited Chicano Park and learned about the history of muralism and Civil Rights. Muralist, Mario Torero worked with our class to teach us the history and to run a mural workshop. Students then created multiple drafts of art representing the American Dream for one group of people from their chosen era. We also learned about the history of hip hop and politics, and created original music, using Ableton beatmaking software. We presented our mural, essays, music, and spoken word at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park. Students performed their original poetry onstage and the event was live-streamed to the general public on the World Beat Center webpage. |
In this project, students looked at what makes a story compelling, and brought out their own compelling story, which they wrote for a collection of short stories that would be donated to Rady Children's Hospital.
Students read a variety of stories, analyzing for narrative structure, character development, theme, and other elements that make stories powerful. Students then used these structures and mentor texts to develop their own stories. Using design thinking, students thought about their end-users (children ages 9-14 at Rady Children's Hospital), and what kinds of stories they would need. They created storyboards using the Storyboard That program, and then went through many drafts, critiques, and revisions to create their final stories. The stories were compiled into a book published through CreateSpace and distributed through Amazon. |