Christ centered Project Based Learning
Grand Haven Christian (GHC) 4th graders collaborated with Western Michigan Christian (WMC) high school and middle school students to exchange Christ centered project based learning.
GHC 4th grade teacher Dawn Rotman led the project and worked with WMC instructors to coordinate the learning exchange, “I have been wanting to do something at WMC with my students and it was fun to see this take shape. I was excited to see how many classes collaborated with us to make this happen.”
Teaching for Transformation is the West Michigan Christian Education Collaborative (WMCEC) Christ centered project based learning. Teachers craft a lesson plan that includes a learning target, a essential question/story line/deep hope, and real work for real people with a real need.
8th Grade Social Studies
The first learning exchange for Mrs. Rotman’s 4th graders was 2nd hour with Mr. Glass’s 8th grade Social Studies class. Mr. Glass’s class formed groups that organized political parties that had specific policies. Each group shared their campaign and policies with the 4th graders in order to win their vote. The middle school learning target was to teach the importance of voting, participate in projects to help inform, demonstrate knowledge of how, when, and where individuals would plan and conduct activities intended to advance views in matters of public policy, report the results, and evaluate effectiveness. The 4th grade learning targets included being able to write a well-organized opinion essay with reasons that are supported by facts and details and being able to explain the relationships between rights and responsibilities of citizens in the US in regards to voting. Essential questions/story lines and deep hope included learning the rights and responsibilities that we have to participate in government as Christian citizens of the United States, participating in joyful collaboration knowing that everyone has something of value to contribute regardless of age, experience, point of view and taking part in gracious communication finding out how can we graciously and effectively share our opinions. The 4th graders voted in favor of the Grandes. One of the reasons they gave was they felt they presented their campaign in the most positive way. Mr. Glass led the group in a discussion of the importance of voting and having positive campaigns. The winning campaign group handed out candy to the 4th graders before they left.
Middle School STEAM
Next, the 4th graders went to Mr. Waroway’s Middle School STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) class. Mr. Waroway’s class learning targets included being able persevere through the trials of being involved in STEM, document parts of the engineering design process, and create a display board of the steps to get to the end product. He was pleased with their hard work, “This Rube Goldberg FLEX project was an amazing all-around experience. The purpose of the project was to walk the fourth graders through the Engineering Design Process (EDP) while demonstrating complexity and creativity of thought in order to solve a problem. The 7th and 8th grade students worked vigorously for the last 2 weeks to design, build, test, modify, and retest their systems.” The 4th grade learning targets included understanding and working through the engineering and design process, doing hard things without giving up, and creating an automaton. The middle school essential questions/story line included being courageous designers (never backing down when our project was difficult to make work) and being joy filled collaborators. Deep Hope = WONDER – how we can use wonder about how God works to better understand His Creation? The 4th grade essential questions/story line als0 included being courageous designers (never backing down when our project was difficult to make work) being joy filled collaborators – everyone has something of value to contribute – regardless of age, experience, point of view, etc. The Deep Hope – I can celebrate my identity as a unique child of God and I can grow my curiosity in order to become a life-long learner – always growing, and therefore growing closer to Him. The real work for the middle schoolers was showing the Rube Goldberg machine projects and explaining the process for the 4th graders who have a need for learning and discovering. Both groups shared their projects with each other and shared thoughts and feedback. The middle schoolers were able to test their machines and make adjustments. The 4th graders demonstrated their automatons to the middle schoolers. Fourth grade student Harper, said the Rube Goldberg projects were a favorite, “I loved a lot of things, but my favorite was the Rube Goldberg projects. There was so much creativity! When I wrote [positive feedback] on a sticky note, they read it and smiled. When they wrote on a sticky note, and it was for my automaton, I smiled. ” Mr. Waroway looks forward to more opportunities to collaborate, “This was an excellent opportunity for both groups to learn from one another and to share God’s love. As a first year teacher, it was amazing to be involved in something like this. Mrs. Rotman was an excellent collaborator and I am so proud to have been part of such a great experience. I look forward to more opportunities such as this.”
“This was an excellent opportunity for both groups to learn from one another and to share God’s love.” -Aidan Waroway, WMC MS Science Teacher
AP U.S. History
Mr. Miedema’s 4th hour AP U.S. History (APUSH) class hosted the 4th graders in a study of African American history and primary sources. Mrs. Rotman’s class studied prominent African American people in history and the AP U.S. History class supported their project by doing research on primary sources. They got together in groups and worked to create posters to be presented by the 4th graders at a GHC Open House event later this month. The 4th grade learning targets included identifying people and events from African American culture that have shaped our country’s story, explaining how God has been and is working in both the beautiful and challenging aspects of the bigger story of African American culture and explain the difference between primary and secondary sources. The APUSH learning targets included finding, analyzing and explaining a primary source related to a famous African American, students becoming the “expert”, valuing the experiences and stories of others to determine how to show Christ-like love to them, evaluating how bias and perspective impact our understanding of people, events, and issues, recognizing the importance of and practice humility when studying and learning history and prioritize listening and understanding when engaging people we disagree with. GHC 4th grader Ellie appreciated the history class, “God used me to do good work in His kingdom by just learning about new stuff with the high schoolers – like when we did biographies and learned about someone back in history.”
Fourth grade students spent time in the gym between classes which allowed for breaks that would normally be a recess. Mrs. Rotman’s class also went to chapel with the high school students for a time of scripture reading and praise and worship.
“God used me to do good work in His kingdom at chapel. He used me to sing his praises.” – Charlie, GHC 4th Grader
AP Language
Mrs. Tyink’s 5th hour AP Language (AP Lang) class hosted the 4th graders for a session called Chip Smackdown! during which students compared Doritos and Lays chips. The lesson was about developing an argument based on evidence. Learning targets focused on backing up opinion with evidence and writing a well-organized opinion essay with reasons that are supported by facts and details. The essential questions/story line/deep hope included joyful collaboration, curiosity → discovery → awe → God, and graciously and effectively sharing opinions. The AP Lang class and 4th graders worked together in groups to decide the Dorito/Lays chips winner for their group by looking at things like nutrition, taste, and texture. Mrs. Rotman’s class will be working on their writing later in the term and this will help guide them. GHC 4th grader Lyla loved the Chip Smackdown, “I liked the Chip Smackdown because we got to eat!! I also saw God when we were graciously speaking to each other when we were in our groups.”
AP Chemistry
The end of the 4th graders’ day was in Chemistry class. This was hosted by Mr. Holt’s AP Chemistry students. Mr. Holt and his students wanted to get the 4th graders excited about Chemistry while showing them how to see God in science. Students participated in a lab experiment on discovery. What do you learn through each of your senses and what does that tell you? Students viewed a video on seeing God in science and then looked at how that happens through their own discovery. The AP Chemistry and 4th grade students experienced the learning targets and story lines together through curiosity → discovery → awe → God and joyful collaboration. As the 4th graders ended their day by watching chemistry lab demonstrations of bubbling chemicals, foaming test tubes, a fiery table, bright flashes, dragon test tubes, fireworks colors, volcanic eruptions and colorful changes, there was heard shouts of “Best day ever!” Fourth grader Nell really appreciated the Chemistry class, “I liked everything, but I’m going to write about chemistry. Just like we used a lot of ways to figure out what was in our box, we also use it to know if God is with us.”
Mrs. Rotman reflected on the day, “All year, my 4th graders have been learning how to be a “family” of learners! They have learned how to be curious thinkers together, and they have practiced how to be courageous designers together. They have learned how to collaborate with each other and how to communicate graciously with each other as well. However, they have also learned that God doesn’t just want us to keep these great habits of learning contained to our own comfortable classroom. Our Learning Exchange Day at WMC provided us with such an incredible opportunity to practice learning with people that we might not automatically think we have things in common with. What an amazing privilege it was to partner with these fantastic high school and middle school students!!”
“Our Learning Exchange Day at WMC provided us with such an incredible opportunity to practice learning with people that we might not automatically think we have things in common with. What an amazing privilege it was to partner with these fantastic high school and middle school students!!” -Dawn Rotman, GHC 4th Grade Teacher
Part of the Teaching for Transformation is looking at doing real work for real people with a real need. All of the teachers and students who were part of the Learning Exchange Day knew that was part of it. Trell, a GHC 4th grader, appreciated doing good work, “God used us to do good work in His kingdom by helping us show that we were responsible 4th graders in everything we do.”
Western Michigan Christian (WMC) High School and Middle School (7-12th) is located at 455 East Ellis Rd. Muskegon, including 355 students from 8 countries, 35 cities, and 75 churches. WMC is a member of West Michigan Christian Schools(WMCS), a collaborative system of five schools throughout the Lakeshore region, including Fremont Christian (PK-8), Grand Haven Christian (PK-8), Muskegon Christian (PK-6). The WMCS system works under a “Better Together” philosophy, offering a top-quality PK-12 Christian Education experience and a full scope of academic and extracurricular programs. Please >> click here to contact WMCS.
