Expedition Exhibition

Every year our Charter School holds an "Expedition Exhibition," where the students display the projects they have been working on to family and friends.  Our Charter School is an Expeditionary Learning School, where our children work on project-based learning "expeditions" studying English, Math, Science, and Social Studies through in-depth study of specific topics.


Emerald's current topic is "Westward Expansion," and all of their writing and Social Studies assignments have related to an in-depth study of the Oregon Trail, the transcontinental railroad, and the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery.  For the Expedition Exhibition night, each of Emerald's classmates dressed as a different member of the Corps of Discovery and created a table display on that person for visitors to view.  Emerald's Corps member was Sergeant John Ordway, one of the recorders of the expedition.

Dallin's class expedition is "Butterflies."  They learn parts of an insect, life processes, and many other science topics by studying butterflies in-depth and recording a science notebook.  For the Expedition Exhibition, Dallin made a diorama of a butterfly life cycle out of clay, paint, and other materials.

I did not get a photo of Aysha's expedition projects.  I wish I had -- she has created some great work! In Science, her class is studying body systems.  She and a partner made a model of a liver for the class 3-D skeleton display.  She also made a drawing of lungs and wrote an essay titled, "My Beautiful Lungs."  In Math, she and another partner made a tin-man out of cardboard and tinfoil to study surface area.  In Humanities, her class has been studying the Vietnam War.  Aysha wrote an essay on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and made it into a display bordered by related photos and diagrams.

This school has been a blessing to our family in so many ways!  I am so grateful for all of the many skills that our students are learning there in a wonderful "crew" environment.

If you would like to know more about our school, here is a link to our web site:
Pocatello Community Charter School

Expeditionary Learning is a nation-wide approach to education.  There are more than 165 expeditionary learning schools in 31 states in our country.  Here is a link to the Expeditonary Learning web site:
Expeditionary Learning Education

Update:
I got a photo of Aysha with her skeleton at portfolio conferences Thursday, March 10!  Here she is: