By: Olivia Manke
Olivia is a rising 10th grader who goes to Princess Anne High School for the IB program.
The most enjoyable assignments and projects done at school always include ways for students to be creative and expressive.
Expression helps students truly show who they are and how they think. An assignment that helped me see this was a project in seventh where we were to design and create a 3D model of a theme park based on a decade in the 1900s in my history class.
The Project
Using major events and ideas of the decade we were given we had to design certain aspects of an amusement park such as roller coasters, games, and food stands. My group was given the sixties for our decade and we designed each component to represent the visions of that era. We included the hippie movement, anti-Vietnam war protests, and civil rights through the names and décor of the roller coasters, shops, and games within the theme park.
The Benefit
We were able to learn at our own pace and direction through our own research and then apply our learning through using our imagination and creativity to come up with the designs and names of the attributes of the project.
I enjoyed this project because it was very personalized in a way that we were able to split up the work within the group so that we could all do something we had interest in and none of us were overwhelmed with so much work that it was unmanageable. It also allowed me to show my artistic skills and imagination while learning what was needed for the class.
The Result
Because we were learning about the decades in history class, the project tied in all the lessons from that unit in and brought it together in a way that we could make connections and fortify what we already learned. I find I have a better time remembering the information I am taught through projects like this one, where I can use creativity and imagination to make something that will help me learn in a hands on manner.