CmPS Overview: “Beautifying Our Hearts, Our Minds, and Community through Student Leadership”

Community Problem Solving Project

Our 6th grade students recognized a need for student voice in our school. It was decided that to increase student involvement a Student Council would need to be established. This governing body would participate in meetings with school administrators to discuss a plethora of ways (e.g. school beautification, school spirit, unity, bullying prevention, promoting healthy habits, etc.) to improve our school and community. Teachers and administrators discussed the value of empowering our future leaders while educating them on the process of democracy.

The Student Council, elected by their peers, partnered with members of our academic team in an effort to create an inviting outdoor space for our school.

Students decided the addition of an outdoor learning space would be beneficial to our school. The space will have seating, an outdoor chalkboard, gardening space, and tools for observing nature. We are partnering with the local high school’s vocational department to make this project a reality. The high school carpentry students will be constructing the space our students have chosen. Our students will also provide the finishing touches, with tasks such as painting, decorating, and personalizing. An outdoor classroom will reach across the curriculum as students

can paint/sketch landscapes, measure, classify, complete journal entries inspired by experiences, and in many other ways. Students will create video tutorials of projects (gardening, science experiments, etc.) using this outdoor space. The video tutorials will be created to reach students within our school and to connect with students worldwide.

The project will be ongoing with completion anticipated for May 2016.