A Different Look to Learning

Today we had some visitors in the Lab Class from around the country.  Members of the EdLeader 21 STEM NIC came to visit and see some of the great things that are going on in our class.  The students were working on their climate projects where they were looking to design solutions to their global climate problems.

One story that was shared from one of the visitors was from a conversation she had with a student.  The student said that his parents thought that he wasn't learning very much this because he didn't have homework like they were used to.  Because he wasn't bringing home math worksheets or problems out of the textbook, his parents felt like he wasn't learning that much.

It wasn't until his dad showed up to our student-led parent night that he realized how much his son was actually learning.  At our parent night, parents were asked to do various activities from number talks and blogging to science experiments and building a spaghetti and marshmallow structure.  Some students even led a discussion on showing "grit".  There were several comments from parents about how much fun they had and how much they learned.  Parents could see how rigorous the class was despite the students not bringing home their textbooks and not having pages of worksheets to do.

Post by @MrSorensen805