Here are some of the things we worked on during the 2012-2013 school year.
6th Grade: Community Service Project
Earlier this fall, the students decided they would like to gather supplies to support a local organization that helps animals. We invited Amy Heinz of AHeinz 57 in DeSoto to visit our classroom and share information about her organization. We learned why we have animal shelters in our communities, about responsible pet ownership, and how individuals can help their community when they see a need.
We delivered the supplies and met some beautiful and happy dogs!
7th Grade: National History Day
The 7th grade students continue work on our focus project this year, National History Day. Students have selected an individual subject they are interested in learning more about and have been applying what they learn to this year's theme, "Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events" They have learned about academic research, placing events in historical context, and creating a presentation to support a thesis they develop. They are developing a website to organize and present their research. Please browse through the website below to see what we have been discussing. This is the students "go to" site for helpful information, as well as to review things we discussed in class. Students attended a NHD Conference at Iowa State University in January where students had an opportunity to conduct research at the Parks Library. In April two students presented their websites at the Iowa National History Day Contest at Grandview College.
ADM Middle School was selected by the the South Central Iowa STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Region for a grant to start First LEGO League in our school. The students will be developing solutions to meet this year's challenge, Senior Solutions. The two areas we will focus on include a project designed to help meet the needs of a senior in our community and robotics missions designed to address aging concepts that affect or will affect all of us. In First Lego League (FLL), each student will have both group and individual responsibilities.
We attended a regional competition at the Science Center of Iowa and learned how students from other schools solved the robotics missions and developed concepts for Senior Solutions. We will be meeting with senior from the ADM community and a resident medical student from Des Moines University early 2nd Semester to learn about the needs of seniors as they age.