Bringing It All Together with Biomes

At the end of November, the Upper Elementary students hosted an interactive biome display project in the classroom. Students and parents were invited to take part in presentations and interact with the students to learn more about the the biomes from around the world.

 

Each group of six students was designated a biome to study as part of their project-based learning for the first term. Each group had to brainstorm, collaborate, plan and execute several components for the projects. The presentations were varied and displayed in unique ways: some groups communicated the information they had gathered through plays and skits, while other groups chose to prepare Powerpoint presentations. 

 

The process of researching and creating the biome projects involved applying and integrating concepts and skills from both Math and Language to complement the more direct study of plants, animals, weather and geography that came with exploring a biome. Some highlights included students’ “Guided Walk Through a Biome,” which was a descriptive writing piece using the senses, as well as accurate bar and pie graphs illustrating precipitation or percentages of biomes in the world. Having Language and Math concepts woven into the project offered the child countless opportunities to make connections, and to gain useful and meaningful context for the learning objectives covered this term. 

 

Some of the key elements the students developed went beyond attainment of knowledge. During the process, the students became more aware of working as a team to reach a final goal. Collaboration with others is a huge learning curve, and learning to find the balance between effectively and fairly incorporating other team members’ ideas while putting your own ideas forward can be challenging. The Upper Elementary students grew to understand the difficulty of balancing ideas, others’ feelings, and time-management in a group setting. These tangible life skills are what we try to incorporate into the learning environment at MBTS.

 

It was a pleasure to see their hard work and dedication pay off during their presentations. We applaud the students on how they conducted themselves throughout this process, and the creativity that shone in their final products.