Dive Brief:
- Fifth grade students from National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School in Akron designed a new "tween space" at the Akron-Summit County Public Library as part of their STEM curriculum, using the library’s IT department, technology and makerspace to create the new environment, according to cleveland.com.
- They focused on details including safety, technology and collections using design software to create three possible floor plans and a logo.
- When the space opened a year later, students were allowed to help write the press release and attend the ribbon cutting of the new area which they can now enjoy themselves.
Dive Insight:
Learning in school is certainly rewarding — at least educators hope students see their experience with that point of view. Embedding lessons into real-world opportunities, however, shows them how their skills will eventually apply as adults. Weaving these real-world learning moments into ways that can also benefit the community in which students live also opens windows into students' future.
Projects that build on local needs do require a bit of work on the part of educators, notes the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching at Harvard University. These kind of assignments require that learning opportunities dovetail with curriculum — and require management of both students and the end-client, whether that’s a school library or a duck.
The final result, though, is a chance for students to test themselves beyond a multiple choice test or an oral presentation, but in a professional manner, and with a present need. In this way, administrators and curriculum directors who make these opportunities possible not only enrich a student’s education but also show them how to apply what they are learning to the world in which they live.
