Middle School

Middle Schools Learn Through Play

Posted by Kristy Lundstrom, Head of Middle School on May 7, 2021

In 6th grade science class, students are not only playing.  They are also learning.

In a recent unit of study focused on electricity and magnetism, students built their own Operation Game.

To build their games, students followed the guidelines as laid out in KitHub.  As you know, in Operation, the goal of the game is to remove things like bones out of small openings without touching the edge of the opening. Like most things, it’s much more fun when you make your own!

Using an LED, a buzzer and other materials students made their own operation game. This was a great way to learn about parallel circuits. In a parallel circuit, each component has its own branch from the power source. If one piece breaks, the other one keeps on working. For this game, there are three branches: one for the buzzer, one for the LED, and one for the game pieces.

This process definitely involved design elements - form and function.  There was plenty of trial and error.

In the end, the final projects were amazing and functional!

When asked what they learned, students replied “you have to make sure that you connect the wires on the wire part to conduct electricity and not on the plastic cover or electrical tape”, “sometimes electronics don’t work like you want them to so you have to try again and see what mistakes you made” and “I learned about circuits and creativity.  It is actually pretty simple to make an Operation Game”.

Picture the Dream

Posted by Kristy Lundstrom, Head of Middle School on May 3, 2021

Inspired by the Picture the Dream exhibition at the High Museum of Art, 5th grade students have been creating their own art to tell the story of The Civil Rights Movement.  In Mrs. Mitchell’s ELA class, students worked thematically to:

1. investigate Jim Crow Laws and look at the causes and conditions that sparked the movement 

2. dive deep into the key people in and events of the movement

3. consider current events and their ability to be a change agent in their community and the world

Beginning with a study of human rights, students were asked to...

1. analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to understand the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
2. determine which four human rights are most important to them and create a poster display to visually represent their choices
3. read and analyze the short story Liars Don’t Qualify by Junius Edwards, a  story of a young black veteran trying to register to vote before the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts were passed

Then, students moved on to expand their learning by considering how art reflects society. Students were asked to...

1. think critically about the events, people, and themes of the Civil Rights Movement represented in illustrations in a variety of children’s picture books

2. create three original works of art; one that represents the causes and conditions that sparked the movement, one that represents key people and events during the movement, and one that demonstrates their understanding of current events with regards to race and equity in our world today

Finally, students engaged in a shared novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963,  a historical-fiction novel by Christopher Paul Curtis.

To showcase their knowledge, students created their own Picture the Dream exhibition. If you visit Mrs. Mitchell’s classroom today, you can see student art displayed.