Projects
Strategy
Independent Study through Paideia Projects
Core Content Standard from Research and Technology:
Identify topics; ask and evaluate questions; and develop ideas leading to inquiry, investigation, and research.
Differentiation Activity: Paideia Projects
Each student designs and carries out an independent project.
Differentiated Content
The project is actually an enhancement of the typical research project. Students in all grades do projects, including the making gardens for International CyberFair about native plants and putting on an Egyptian "living museum" in sixth grade. For the senior graduation projects, students propose their project to a faculty committee and share their project or performance with an audience. The whole school is involved in the senior projects.
Project Strategy
Seniors must create a project that benefits the community, they must locate a mentor, and they must somehow present their project to an outside audience. They meet state standards for writing and technology through the project, and they exceed those standards by connecting with the community.
Resources: The main activity of a Paideia school is coaching of projects. These projects allow students to venture more deeply into an area of study, they are complex, as they are often interdisciplinary, and they provide widely varied resources including mentors. They are increasingly novel and personalized.
Product: Each project culminates in a product (T-Shirt, mural, greenhouse) or a performance (assembly presentation, coaching session). This is an independent study project, but students also have assigned student support teams to help them complete projects on time.