Culminating Projects

Culminating Projects
at Prairie Crossing Charter School

What is a Culminating Project?  The PCCS Culminating Project (CP) is an extended Service Learning Project.  Students spend 2 years working on a project of their choosing.  Through work on the CP, students will address two main questions:

• How will I improve the world in which I live and positively impact the environment and my community?
• How can I showcase what I have learned about the environment and other subjects in my years at PCCS?

Students will identify an environmental issue – a problem that they want to address – and a project – a specific action that they will take that will help fix the issue they identified.
The CP has 3 main components:

• Fieldwork/Service hours, earned through meaningful service towards completing project (50% of final grade).
• Paper, divided into 6 sections that address the critical aspects of the issue and project, including its history, its impacts on society and economics, its scientific and environmental implications, its mathematical connections, and its personal impact on the authors (30% of final grade).
• Final gallery-style presentation, including tri-fold board and 5-minute talk to be delivered to small groups of audience, through the course of one day at the end of 8th grade (20% of final grade).

Tasks and timeline for CP:
CP is broken down into small steps for students. First, they will go through a process of assessing both community needs and their own interests and talents to determine what issue they want to address and how they want to address it (their project).  Before Thanksgiving of their 7th grade year, students should have a project identified and approved by a panel of 7th and 8th grade teachers and the Dean of Environmental Programs.

Students are then assigned a mentor — a staff member who will coach them through the process of their CP through monthly meetings. The mentor’s job is to provide resources, suggestions and directional advice for the students, not to complete their project.  

Students accomplish their paper and project by working through manageable chunks.  The final paper is comprised of several small sections which are assigned throughout 7th and 8th grade.  For each section, students will receive an assignment that guides them as to what questions to address in the research and writing of that section.  Students will complete an outline of the section, and then turn in a paper. Students have the opportunity to improve upon each section with a re-write if needed/desired. The sections of the paper include:

• Historical — students will research the history of their issue, how it became a problem and how others have tried to solve it in the past.
• Social — students will discuss the impact that their project and issue have society (people, government, etc.)
• Economic — students will address the financial implications of their project and issue.
• Data collection and analysis — students will collect data associated with, or as part of, their project.  They will do statistical and graphic analysis of their data.
• Scientific — students will research the scientific underpinnings and implications of their issue and project.
• Personal — Students will reflect on how their project affected them personally.

Field hours — service hours that the students put forth, both during and outside of school hours, toward actually addressing their issue — are monitored in 5-hour increments.  Ten hours must be completed by the end of 7th grade and an additional 25 hours by the end of 8th grade. In addition to completing the required number of hours, students must accomplish a goal that makes a difference to the community.  Students, with adult advice, set their own goals — they decide what the outcome of their project will be and their hours are assessed based on their accomplishment of their own goals.  Goals can be modified throughout the process if students set goals that are either unattainable or too easy.  

Examples of past CPs:
  

Over the years, students have completed many varied projects that addressed different community needs and worked for different student personalities and preferences.

To address the issue of habitat loss, a pair of students built and installed bat boxes in their commmunity.  (Other students have done bluebird boxes, wood duck boxes, owl nests, and animal-specific habitat restoration.)

To address the issue of children spending too much time inside, a pair of students taught outdoor lessons to students at another school that doesn’t include outdoor learning/EE in their curriculum.  (Students have gone to city schools, local schools, and have taught at churches, pre-schools, and run after school classes.)

To address the issue of water pollution, a student conducted water quality experiments and presented the results to his homeowners’ association to convince them to treat their lawns differently.

To address the issue of invasive species, students removed targeted species from specific areas.  (Students have removed buckthorn, milfoil, and garlic mustard.  Other students addressed this issue by installing boot scrapers to prevent seeds from traveling.)

To address the issue of reliance on non-renewable energy, two students worked to get a wind differently.

To address the issue of invasive species, students removed targeted species from specific areas.  (Students have removed buckthorn, milfoil, and garlic mustard.  Other students addressed this issue by installing boot scrapers to prevent seeds from traveling.)

To address the issue of reliance on non-renewable energy, two students worked to get a wind ssue of lack of awareness about environmental issues, two students created a newsletter that they distributed via email to inform the public about various topics. (Students have also created websites.)

And many more… there are many successful CPs that aren’t in the spotlight, but nonetheless precipitate great change.  Our students have been teachers, art gallery curators, engineers, researchers, builders, consultants, event planners, community organizers, and more.   The possibilities are endless!