Level Up Village

As part of our 2018-19 OPEF grant to develop a STEM and Storytelling program to help engage our girls, we participated in a Level Up Village course this fall.  I have had my eye on Level Up Village for years - they partner students with groups from around the world to study and collaborate on a global issues.  The culminating project is some sort of STEM or Tech project that both schools work on simultaneously.  Participation has been cost prohibitive in the past, so when we were writing our grant proposal, we knew this was  one thing we really wanted to include. 

We were able to enroll one second grade class, and they participated in the LUV course called "Global Storybook Engineers".  During this six week course, we read folk tales from around the world, and identified the problem the characters faced.  The students then applied the engineering design process to make a creation that would solve the problem.  We were partnered with a class from Singapore and had a great time learning about them. 

We read Streganona and built towers out of spaghetti that would withstand an avalanche:

We read Fox the Trickster and built boats

And we read Jabuti the Tortoise and made "shell protectors" (aka egg drop challenge!)

The kids loved watching videos from our partner class in Singapore and talking about how we're alike and different.  We're so appreciative of OPEF making this possible for us!

Looking Good!

Little by little we are updating the library furnishings and arrangement to make it more of a flexible learning space.  We were given a Donor's Choose grant at the end of last school year in order to purchase some flexible seating.  It's a great start, and the kids are loving it!