{"id":12802,"date":"2018-03-05T16:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=12802"},"modified":"2018-03-22T08:19:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T15:19:05","slug":"student-passion-projects-push-for-connections-with-local-community-and-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/student-passion-projects-push-for-connections-with-local-community-and-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Passion Projects Push for Connections with Local Community and Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social Innovation Leadership Sabbaticals, a 2017 LRNG Innovators Challenge grantee in Antioch, TN, provides the space and resources for students to pursue their wild ideas, revealing a desire to do work that connects and contributes to the local community and local environment.<\/em><\/p>\n

Something was wrong: the pumpkins were dying. Some sort of fungus had infected most of the field, and no one was sure what it was, let alone what to do about it. The man in charge, middle school teacher Jay Renfro, was as clueless as his students about how to proceed, but luckily this was no ordinary class assignment. <\/p>\n

The students, determined to save the pumpkins that they had put so much time, energy, and learning into growing all summer, sprung into action. Soon, one of them had identified the fungus and found a cost-effective, organic way to treat it: milk. A few days later, armed with several gallons of milk that the school cafeteria had been about to throw out, the students were back in the field, rescuing their crop. \u201cI don\u2019t know how they thought of that but it worked! It was awesome!\u201d Renfro says.<\/p>\n

This pumpkin project was only the first in a series of interest-driven Social Innovation Leadership Sabbaticals, one of 10 projects across the country supported by a 2017 LRNG Innovators Challenge<\/a> grant. The project, housed at Knowledge Academies in Antioch, TN, a community just south of Nashville, aims to give groups of students and teachers the time and support they need to pursue ideas and interests that might otherwise get lost in the broader curriculum, sparking the learning and connections that deep interest and ownership create. \u201cDuring the normal school year you cover so many topics, but sometimes there\u2019s one where it\u2019s like, \u2018we\u2019re fired up about this.\u2019 What if they could do something about it?\u201d explains Renfro.<\/p>\n

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Knowledge Academy students survey the grounds of a future city park.<\/p><\/div>\n

The LRNG Innovators Challenge grants stem from a partnership between LRNG<\/a>, powered by Collective Shift<\/a>, the National Writing Project<\/a>, and John Legend\u2019s Show Me Campaign<\/a> to help educators extend time and space for connected learning<\/a>. The connected learning theory posits that learning happens on a continuum—in school, as well as at home, work, and among friends—and is driven by students\u2019 own interests and life experiences.<\/p>\n

To this end, the Sabbaticals project aims to support ideas that connect to the Knowledge Academy\u2019s \u201c4 Cs:\u201d college, community, creativity, and culture. \u201cThe kids, they\u2019re entrepreneurs and they\u2019re scientists and they\u2019re innovators at heart, because kids are,\u201d says Renfro, so these connections have emerged as students are given the time, resources, and support to pursue their passion projects. The pumpkin project, for instance, was the first such \u201csabbatical\u201d and grew in part out of a group of students\u2019 desire to grow fresh food for the community, much of which is occupied by food deserts<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Half a year and three sabbaticals later, a clear theme has emerged: outdoor learning and connecting to the local environment. For example, since the successful conclusion of the pumpkin project, a different group of 7th and 8th graders spent three days at a research facility in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains, training as citizen scientists<\/a>. <\/p>\n