Engaging hands-on lessons are just what you see in Raney Shattuck and Melanie Berlin’s seventh grade social studies class at Valley Springs Middle School. Students are excited as they enter the classroom to see what new challenges await them.
“Our social studies team is always looking for opportunities to connect students with what we are studying in social studies,” Ms. Shattuck said. “Doing engaging, student driven lessons allows students to explore history in a way that is personal, engaging, and in-depth.”
As a way to learn about Leonardo da Vinci and the simple machines he designed in the Renaissance era, students were challenged to recreate some of those same inventions.
“As part of this project, students conducted ‘market research’ and created advertisements for their simple machines,” Ms. Shattuck explained. “This task not only allowed them to explore a career field; it also challenged them to consider how the inventions they built could be used in the course of modern, everyday life.”
Ms. Shattuck was impressed by the work and effort students put into their projects.
“Our students did an absolutely fabulous job researching, sketching, and creating their inventions,” she said. “I was struck by the quality of construction across all class blocks and student groups.They were intrepid in their exploration of unfamiliar (to them) machines, and I was super proud of the work that they did.”