Stilwell Junior High PBLn 7th Grade S-Team

We are so proud of our 7th-grade PBLn Humanities students and their professional presentation of this year's Power and Government projects!

Through a combination of (sometimes difficult) collaboration, Critical Friending, lots of revision, sending emails out to organizations, conducting virtual interviews with community experts, non-stop rehearsal, and perhaps even a few tears, students presented their global issues research, mock organization logos/mottos/advertisements, and formal problem-solution letters, which they researched, wrote, and are officially sending to our elected officials today.

Topics included Affordable Housing, Minimum Wage, Mental Health, Habitat Preservation and Destruction, Water Resources, Pollution, Education, Police Brutality, and Affordable Healthcare.

To supplement their research, students wrote interview questions, sent emails, and conducted interviews with the following organizations (THANK YOU for your time!): The Nature Conservancy in Iowa, Kids in Need Foundation, Moms Clean Air Force, Bur Oak Land Trust, Water Alliance, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Joppa, Hawthorn Hill, the Iowa Water Environment Association, Trees for the Future, the Rainforest Action Network, Campaign Zero, Dollar For, Iowa Environmental Council, 4Ocean, the Low Income Housing Coalition, and No Kid Hungry.

As always, we are very grateful for our authentic audience members, which yesterday included WDMCS Board Members Fannette Elliott For West Des Moines School Board and Lila Starr, State Rep. Mary Madison, State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, WDMCS Superintendent Dr. Matt Adams, Stilwell Principal Mitch Kuhnert, several other supportive staff... and, of course, the PARENTS (an extra special thank you to the parents!)

Onto the next project!

Today, our 7th-grade Humanities students had the privilege to welcome and learn from several of our elected officials, including State Senators Claire Celsi and Sarah Trone Garriott, Iowa House Representative Mary Madison, West Des Moines City Councilmember Greg Hudson, West Des Moines City Councilmember Matthew McKinney, and West Des Moines School Board Members Fannette Elliott, Jeff Hicks, and Lila Starr.

We can't thank them enough for helping us kick off our Power and Government unit!

Discussions were engaging, inspiring, enlightening…. And most of all, EMPOWERING as each member continuously stressed that each and every student has a powerful voice that needs to be heard-- even as 7th graders in West Des Moines!

Today our 7th-grade Humanities Project-Based Learning students presented their Human Rights projects to invited guests.

THANK YOU to the parents, staff, and community members who came to support us.

We are very proud of the work and heart that our students put into this project... as well as their professional oral communication skills!

Winning PSAs will be shared next week!

Last night, four S-Team students attended the West Des Moines City Council meeting to witness Mayor Trimble read the proclamation for Human Rights Day. Thank you to Audrey Kennis from the West Des Moines Human Rights Commission who spoke to our classes earlier in the year to help launch our Human Rights Project!

We were so privileged to have West Des Moines Human Rights Commissioners Audrey Kennis (Director of Diversity, Equity, and inclusion, City of West Des Moines) and Rudy Trejo (Executive Director of Children and Family Urban Development) in our classroom to help us kick off our Human Rights unit today. Dynamic speakers and engaged students!

We are always so excited to learn from our community experts. Thanks to ALL who donate your time to our classroom!

The S-Team had a field trip to Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt yesterday. Students learned about and participated in fire making, canoeing, habitat preservation, and geocaching. We're glad the rain stayed away and it wasn't super hot!

Thanks to Ms. Judas who did so much planning and organization, to the park staff for leading so many fun and educational activities, and to the students who made the most of this opportunity with their engagement and behavior!

Refugee Voices Project Update!

Over the last two weeks, 7th-grade PBLn Humanities students successfully interviewed TWENTY local community members who were willing to share their experiences as refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants.

Interview participants originated from the following regions: South Sudan, Bosnia, Laos, Vietnam, Nigeria, Kenya, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Palestine, Cuba, and Afghanistan.

We were SO privileged to learn about our participants' journeys and will do our best to honor their stories through our upcoming children's books and graphic novels. Thanks to everyone who has helped and supported us along the way so far!

To supplement our current Refugee Voices Project, 7th-grade PBL Humanities students were privileged to learn important aspects of planning and structuring a story through both writing and art.

These skills will prove extremely useful as students conduct first-person interviews that will ultimately form the basis of refugee stories that will be re-told in either children's book or graphic novel format.

MANY THANKS to local author Ricky Jimenez-Dragoni (a familiar face at Stilwell) and local author/graphic artist Nathan T. Wright.

We were very luck to have you join our classroom today!

Hello parents, fellow students, PBL supporters, and friends! We are looking for some help in finding contacts for our current Humanities Refugee Voices project.

Specifically, we are looking to connect small groups of students with volunteers who are comfortable sharing their experiences as refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants.

Preliminary questionnaires would be sent out, followed by short interviews that would take place in person or via Zoom.

Once questionnaires have been filled out and follow-up interviews have been conducted, students would then write children’s books or graphic novels inspired by the lives of the interviewees. We hope to have the most professionally written and illustrated books "published" and available for check out at the West Des Moines Public Library.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in sharing their story or in helping our students out with this project-- in any way-- please send me a direct message, email me at [email protected], tag them, or comment below.

We are looking for 30 participants (we have 30 student groups). We currently have 7.

THANK YOU for any help you can give us.... and please feel free to share this post if you think you might have any community connections that could help with this project!

Check out some of the students' artwork and print campaigns!

In addition to video PSA's, students were required to either:

1) Write, produce, and publish an approximately 45 second professional-quality AUDIO Ad Campaign (commercial) over their focused Human Rights issue

2) Write, produce, and publish a series of 5 professional-quality PRINT Ad Campaigns over their focused Human Rights issue

3) Create a piece of art (sculpture, painting, etc.) that represents their focused Human Rights issue, accompanied by an artist statement explaining their focused Human Rights issue and how their artwork represents it

3) Together as a group, read a book (nonfiction OR fiction) over their focused Human Rights issue, complete a book talk over this book with Mr. Bissinger and Ms. Clayton, and create a professional looking tri-fold advertising this book, to be displayed in either the West Des Moines Public Library or Stilwell library

We are proud of their hard work and creativity!