I am often asked for examples of project based, multi-disciplinary instruction. This past Friday, I was privileged to join our 7th grade history/social studies class as they presented the results of a 3 1/2 week project. Working in pairs or groups of three students, each group was to create a medieval castle, a story about the residents of that partiular castle and keep a builders' log documenting each and every aspect of creating their architectural masterpieces.The room was a buzz with parents, visiting classes and, of course, the 7th grade medieval Europe historians. Each group read their original stories, discussed the challenges and rewards of working together and commented on how problems such as building collapses were solved.
The excitement and pride in the room was palpable as these young designers and model makers displayed their work. Not only was there evidence of historical research, mathematical reasoning was employed to make sure that walls were parallel, physics concepts helped figure how to make drawbridges, language arts' skills of technical documentation was required to create the builders' logs and creative writing to develop the story lines for the narrative of daily life in the castle. But, perhaps even more important that this integration of skills and knowledge, was the fact that, just as in real life---teams of students worked together, solved problems, compromised and developed respect for each other.
This is what we encourage at Willow Creek----as a community, we believe that everything is connected to everything else---and it is our interactions with each other and our environment that make everything work. I am delighted that our future is in the hands of this particular group of young students.
