International Baccalaureate School Demonstrates Learning Power
Stowe Elementary School 5th graders put three-months of research on display for family and friends, confidently presenting findings on their chosen topics.
“People kill bears for their gallbladders and sell them for $21,000 each,” Alyssa Bales said, standing in front of her anti-animal poaching signs. She went on to show a video she had created and offered visitors a card that said, “Stop poaching, save our animals.” She also has advice for would-be researchers.
“Don’t search, ‘poaching’,” she said. “Search ‘animal poaching’ otherwise you get the egg. I made that mistake a couple of times.”
Stowe kids spend a lot of time digging, finding very few of their answers in traditional books.
“We use the computers a lot,” Armando Guzman said. “Really, I’m a tech whiz.”
Charity Bos, who partnered with Guzman on a hunger project, said what they found surprised them.
“When we researched, the things that came up were shocking,” she said. “One in four Americans is hungry, and there are even more hungry people in Africa.
Stowe is an International Baccalaureate school. The IB program helps kids identify their interests and learn how to build on them in the classroom. Learning about their chosen topic may encompass math, science and reading and stretch on for months, involving field trips to visit with experts and community service work.
IB Coordinator Michelle Anderson-Kunz says the program is preparing kids for a changing world. “The big thing we know is that a lot of these kids, the jobs that they’ll be doing, they haven’t even been created yet,” she said. “So, instead of just teaching specific skills, we want to teach them to be thinkers and learners so they will be able to face whatever challenges they have in the future.”
Sydney Williams, Stowe’s AmeriCorps service worker, said she’s proud of this year’s crop of kids. “The kids are pushed to be more mature and think about real world issue and push the boundaries of their thinking,” said Williams. “They’ve taken on topics far beyond their years.”
Guzman said he is exhausted after all of the hard work but doesn’t mind at all when his friends make fun of his commitment to school.
“They think it’s all nerdy stuff,” Guzman said. “But it’s really fun.” “It is fun,”
Principal Jennifer Williams added, “We love nerds.”
