Declaration days

This week in Upper Elementary and Middle School students are meeting with collaborator teams to present their project ideas for feedback and the greenlight of approval!  

The projects are as varied and creative as the students presenting them!  We have crafty mathematicians creating models for how much yarn is needed to crochet a scarf. Young activists leading campaigns against animal cruelty in fashion and creating clothing to educate people about different social movements. We have designers creating clothing from trash, making accessories that help spca animals to get adopted and using software to create 3-d models of clothing.  We have biologists examining bird plumage, social scientists exploring the intersection of gender and fashion and material scientists testing new fabrics.  

This moment where students arrive at the table with beautifully fleshed out ideas to share is the fruit of so much brainstorming, soul searching and peer feedback.  As we are guiding students through the process of designing their independent project we are looking for a couple of things that often predict sustained motivation for a project.  

Firstly we want students to find projects that light them up, because we know that passion for a project helps sustain student’s motivation through the next 6 weeks of work.  We are also looking for projects that strike the right balance between leveling up new or emerging skills through practice and stretching themselves academically to learn something new.  When we strike that right balance students have a realistic understanding of the steps that it will take to do a project they are better able to right size their project and keep going when things get hard or go sideways.  We also know a huge motivator is when your project will have a positive impact on others so we are also looking for how projects might have a real audience.  

It takes a lot of creativity and resilience to put an idea you care about into the world.  As we sit with these students to hone their ideas we see them riding the emotions that come with being truly invested in your work.  The nervous excitement of explaining your project, the vulnerability of taking feedback and the celebration of getting the go ahead to work on your project!  We are so proud of these students in their bravery and passion.  I can’t wait to see what they create!