Many elementary schoolers experience the shyness and uncertainty that comes with growing up – especially at school.
But watching SCVi Charter School fourth and fifth graders as they presented their hand-made model jets during the school’s TK-7 Aerospace Learning Showcase on Friday, fielding questions from parents, teachers and Rep. George Whitesides from behind a wide semi-circle of desks, it would’ve been hard to figure any of them as the shy type.
Students were eager to share the names and design quirks of their jets, taking form from materials that covered a range including Play-Doh and 3D-printed parts.
“We love to support project-based learning, because obviously it’s so important,” Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, a former NASA chief of staff, said after appraising each student’s model. “I know a little bit about aviation and space, and so it seemed like a great thing to come support the kids and the students and the teachers.”
Throughout SCVi, students from kindergarten through seventh grade had their first major project of the year on display, the results of several weeks of work meant to incorporate a spectrum of disciplines, from public speaking to chemistry.
Crystal Norris Van Lingen, who teaches fourth and fifth grade, said it was important for her to teach her students in a way that was especially interesting for each student – both through the customizable design process and the opportunity to spend time with their family members and co-builders.
“I really just wanted the project to be meaningful to them, and for them to take the learning and apply it outside of the classroom,” Norris Van Lingen said. “They could have done a Lego build. Some did clay. Some did Play-Doh … and that’s what I love about this school, is it’s not, you know, ‘This is exactly what you have to do.’ We let them truly be themselves and really take ownership of the projects that they do.”
Though many of the students had a significant amount of parental involvement in their projects, the kids never shied away from calling their models “my jet.” What they’d learned about their jet made it their own – a tiny tribute to weeks of their own hard work.
“I chose this jet because I thought it was cool … and it’s broken records for speed and altitude,” said fourth grader Benny Banuelos, who made his SR-71 Blackbird model with his father.
Each grade level’s projects incorporated this year’s aviation theme; while sixth and seventh graders built rockets, third and fourth graders made diorama airports. The projects’ multi-discipline approach meant that even students not especially captivated by the mechanics of flight could find some part of the lesson to love.
PTSA President Ever Mazza said that, as part of her daughter’s aviation learning, she was able to submit a video of her aerial silks work – a performance art where aerodynamics play a big part in staying in the air.
“She’s very much an artist, and I try to help her equate flight to things that she likes,” Mazza said. “It’s displayed when you first walked in the double door … There’s a QR code that you can watch the video.”
With so many entry points of interest, and so many ways for students to bring their own personalities to their instruction, it’s easy to see where the pride in Norris Van Lingen’s classroom came from.
“We have to get kids excited about the underlying material, especially at elementary and high school,” Whitesides said. “What matters is igniting a lifelong love of learning and also training them … (to) work in teams and projects, that is what people do out in the real world.”
