Best-in-Network Winner
Washington Discovery Academy
Teachers: Lindsey Risner, Lorien Goodwin and Courtney Young
Course: Math, Science, Language Arts, Physical Education, Career/Technical
Grade: 3
Driving Question:
How can we convince people to do something even if it is challenging?
Project Snapshot
This project was built to develop a sense of agency and perseverance while focusing on our strengths and viewing challenges with excitement and failure as an opportunity to learn.
Student Products
- Color Run inspired 5K
- 5 Paragraph persuasive essays
- T-shirts with handmade designs
- Commercial for the run
- Map of the path
Teacher Reflection
“This was a powerful project. It had a huge impact on student mindset. Students encouraged one another and were never afraid to fail. Instead, they were consistently uplifting. Dare to Dream had a huge effect on culture.”
“This project had learning opportunities in all subject areas including science, math, ELA and Health.”
“Dare to Dream fostered great community connections with guest speakers, we partnered with our local park and raised money for another local park to help build swings.”
Assessment
We used both the grade 5 oral communication rubric and the agency rubric provided from NTN below.
Student Reflection
“I will never forget this project.”
“I can do anything with agency and perseverance.”
“I like that we faced the challenge of weather (it rained :)).”
“I’m glad all of our hard work paid off.”
Community Reflection
Freedom park thanked us for our donation and our aspirations to view challenges in a positive light while focusing on those who face a challenge every day by donating our proceeds to this handicapped accessible park.
Teachers at New Tech Network can view the full project in Echo using the Community Tool. Search the Community using this code:
BZ349297301_3ccd5a393e6f47a7abe4c75c22247f8e
Projects Spotlights allow a glimpse into the great projects that are taking place in New Tech schools across the country. To learn more about Project-Based Learning or the New Tech Network, please contact us here.
This blog is part of our Top NTN Resources of 2017 list. You can view the entire list here.