ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT – Independent Reading Projects
In their ELA classes, students have been diving deeply into texts both in and out of the classroom. For their most recent independent reading book, they had to design a project that could tell the audience about their book, its plot, the author, and their own insights from the project. They were to present gallery walk-style to both their peers, their families, and the greater Jackson Campus community. Students did not disappoint! Audiences were graced with detailed dioramas of book settings, lego creations, clay models, video recaps, and string yarn models right out of your favorite true crime movie. There was an abundance of joy as students proudly shared about their books and allowed audiences to step inside of another world for a brief amount of time. Students will be doing more projects like this throughout the year and looking back to see how they’ve grown. If this is the first iteration, we can only imagine what the future has in store!
ELECTIVES IN ACTION – Innovative Work in Makers
The makerspace, new to the Jackson Campus this year, has already proved one of our more fruitful and popular additions. Students have engaged in a number of projects from designing their own designs for three-dimensional printing, soldering, designing boats and vehicles, designing hydraulic arms, working with CNC machines, and beginning to dip their toes into woodworking. They have not only learned about how to work within these realms safely but are developing ample experience with the design process. They are able to generate ideas, test them, learn from their tests, revise their ideas, and repeat the process, continuing to iterate until they have an improved product. Many students have become leaders in this space, displaying previously hidden abilities in engineering and problem-solving that makers is unlocking for them. The sky’s the limit for what students can do with the skills they are developing in this space. Keep an eye out for some student made products that may be for sale in the near future!
Image: Abby works diligent in the Makerspace.
COMMUNITY FOCUS
Our students have been producing amazing work in photography and art this year, but sometimes it’s helpful to learn from the experts! We recently took a trip to the National Museum of Wildlife Art to view a special exhibit titled “My Community Means Home”. This project was born from two National Geographic photography camps that took place over the past two years for middle and high school aged students from Wyoming. One camp was hosted on the Wind River Reservation, while the other camp was hosted on Teton Science School’s own Kelly Campus. The exhibit displayed photographs they took during the course of the camp that told a story about their community. A wonderful guide from the museum helped students engage more deeply with the photos to understand their specific composure, elicit the overt and subtle themes, and to develop an appreciation for beautiful art created by students that were their peers! Students also got to discuss the stories that were present and the stories that were absent from these photos, a topic we have been diving into in Project Lab as we confront the history of the Jackson and the stories that we are told about this place. We could not recommend the exhibit more!
Image: Phoebe and Olivia consider photos from various students from Wyoming.
JOURNEYS
We have been on several Journeys this year already, perhaps none more memorable than our Fall Backpacking Journey. We prolonged a middle school tradition of backpacking during a stretch of cold, wet weather and have now seen snow grace us in the backcountry for three years running. Despite the challenges the weather provided, spirits remained high and Moose Creek provided a welcoming and warm home. For some students, this was their first backpacking trip, and while they faced the challenges of heavy packs and longer walks than they were used to, the resiliency displayed by our students was tremendous. We learned that we can move between tears and laughter quite quickly and that they are both valuable parts of the experience. We nature journaled by a waterfall, learned how to identify the trees native to our ecosystem, and learned about a variety of native creation stories that tie people to the land. We even got to celebrate a birthday in the backcountry with cake and hot chocolate! If you ask a student about the trip, they may still complain about the rain, the cold, the wet socks, and the terrifying lightning storms, but if you look at the photos, the faces are all smiling. Here’s hoping next year brings more of the same (and maybe a bit more sunshine).
Image: On our coldest day, fire master Ethan kept a fire going for over 10 hours!
