Geography Final Project
Freshmen in Mr. Breedlove's Geography class began their final project. Students worked in groups to develop, design, and create board games about a region that they studied. Most students 3D printed landforms and game pieces. They also created game cards and the game boards. Students played their own games to make sure the directions made sense before rotating and playing another group's game! Quote of the day: "I'm having so much fun! They actually made a really fun game!"
ELA 10
We spent a lot of time helping sophomores in ELA 10 with research. We worked together to figure out what the articles they found said, how to incorporate those findings into analysis of All Quiet on the Western Front, and how to create a 2-3 paragraph essay about a theme from the book. We also worked together to properly cite their sources in MLA! This work turned into part of their final exam!
Sociology
Students in Mrs. Salimbene's Sociology classes came to the library to play a few games. They competed in scavenger hunts, played Clue, played BreakoutEDU, and made marble races. These challenges were all part of a semester-long team competition that students participate in to witness concepts of human sociology!
AVID 10
Mrs. Cornell's AVID 10 students came to the library to practice their interview skills. Each student participated in an interview with a librarian. We recorded the interviews so students could view themselves and evaluate their soft skills.
Senior Research Papers
On December 17th, we finally finished grading the bulk of the senior research papers. The process began on October 4th and most papers were due around Thanksgiving. We surveyed seniors to see what portions of the process were most valuable to them. This year, 67.4% of seniors said they feel prepared to write research papers in college.
The Hurdles
We noticed some significant changes in the papers turned in by seniors writing research papers. Perhaps the most disheartening statistic we collected was that upon completing the process, 85.2% of the Class of 2021 felt prepared to write research papers in college, while only 67.4% of the Class of 2022 reported feeling prepared to write research papers on their own in college. We feel like after the seniors finished the note taking activity with us, we kind of disappeared from them as we were busy in the library and couldn't go to their classes like we could when we had a single para last year. It is very disappointing that the "COVID seniors" that were sent into completely remote learning half-way through the research paper process, reported greater confidence in their research paper writing abilities than students that were in school every day. This is frustrating as the justification for eliminating the library para position was that "students would not be affected". This is clear evidence to us that students were indeed affected.
Credits:
Created with an image by kudybadorota - "white horse winter snow"