Past Projects and Products Gallery
Get Outside, 2022Title: Get Outside
Essential Question: How can we connect our community to our native plants and animals? Grade Level: 2nd Learn more about our conservation efforts by watching us on the news here. Complete our campus scavenger hunt to learn more about native plants by visiting the 'Campus Scavenger Hunt Tab'. |
Dribble and Rebel, 2019
Our Dribble and Rebel origami mural on the U.S/ Mexico border wall at Parque de la Amistad, Tijuana.
Title: Dribble and Rebel. From athlete to activist.
Essential Question: How have sports shaped communities? Grade Level: 4th Read about Dribble and Rebel, our fourth grade social justice project, in the book Changing the Subject, on the Changing the Subject Website, and on the High Tech High Projects page Student Work. |
Change Makers, 2021
Watch our California Change Makers video product here
Title: California Change Makers
Essential Question: How can we learn from the past to lead our community to a more just future?
Title: California Change Makers
Essential Question: How can we learn from the past to lead our community to a more just future?
Watch the process of how we created our mural while on fieldwork here. Our Freedom mural was on display at the Vista library in 2018, but has been reinstalled at HTeNC.
|
Freedom
2018 Folded paper, adhesive putty During our ChangeMakers project, we empathized with historical figures (both real and imagined), learned more about ourselves and our community, and in turn developed our beliefs about how we should treat others. We practiced the habits of skilled historians by examining diverse stories of Californians and analyzing patterns and issues around humanity. Through examining multiple perspectives, we honored the voices of people who are often left out of the dominant American narrative. Then students designed a collaborative public art installation, inspired by the work of French contemporary artist Mademoiselle Maurice, to express their beliefs to our larger community. Freedom is composed of over 800 pieces of paper, individually folded by fourth grade students at High Tech Elementary North County. To create Freedom, students practiced the art of traditional Japanese paper-folding (origami). We learned about analogous colors and contrast. We also learned that public art does not merely beautify a space, but can be a means to create awareness. |
Rock On! 2016-2024
Title: Rock On!
Essential Question: How has San Diego changed?
Driving Question: How can we connect our community to our geological treasures?
Over time this project and its products have evolved to meet the needs of our community, our expert partners, the students, and our changing world. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 We took our 4th graders on amazing field work to explore the geological treasures around us, including an overnight camping trip in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. In 2023 and 2024 we teamed up with the paleontology department at the Natural History Museum to excavate fossils to add to their collection in order to better understand the natural history of our area. Throughout the years, our students created various products including informational graphics, a website, fossil displays for our own geology exhibit, and virtual reality tours to explain the geological processes they studied and to invite others to get out into nature and make their own discoveries!
Visit our full 2016 project description on the HTH Projects Page.
While restricted due to Covid in 2020, our fourth graders created this Treasures of North County website to encourage our community to get out into a local natural spaces.
Essential Question: How has San Diego changed?
Driving Question: How can we connect our community to our geological treasures?
Over time this project and its products have evolved to meet the needs of our community, our expert partners, the students, and our changing world. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 We took our 4th graders on amazing field work to explore the geological treasures around us, including an overnight camping trip in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. In 2023 and 2024 we teamed up with the paleontology department at the Natural History Museum to excavate fossils to add to their collection in order to better understand the natural history of our area. Throughout the years, our students created various products including informational graphics, a website, fossil displays for our own geology exhibit, and virtual reality tours to explain the geological processes they studied and to invite others to get out into nature and make their own discoveries!
Visit our full 2016 project description on the HTH Projects Page.
While restricted due to Covid in 2020, our fourth graders created this Treasures of North County website to encourage our community to get out into a local natural spaces.
Our 2022 Rock On! Project was featured in the educational journal HTH Unboxed. You can read the article here.
You may explore our geology tours on the web here, or in virtual reality by following these directions and a VR headset such as this:
Save the Earth, 2017
Title: Save the Earth
Essential Question: How can we, as future citizens, minimize the impact that energy use has on the environment? Products: Persuasive essays and a model community of the future Raw movie of the process: Greenville Exhibition: After seeing our model sustainable community of the future and learning about clean energy from our student experts, our guests made a pledge to reduce their own impact on the environment. The pledges created an art installation, pictured below, at HTeNC. |
|
Portraits of North County, 2017 and 2020
|
Title: Portraits of North County
A collaborative 4th Grade Project Essential Question: How do we, as story tellers, create a more empathetic community? We repeated a version of this favorite 2017 project, renamed "Humans of North County" during distance learning of Fall 2020 with the revised essential question: How can we bring our community together while we are apart? Products: A collection of portraits exhibited at a photography exhibition and in a book (available to browse and purchase the book here) & Our personal narratives, portraits and the personal narratives we captured from our community members our exhibited on our classroom website here. Listen to a sample interview with Toussaint Bailey from the Just Listen Project here. Project Handout:
|
Photos from our 2017 exhibition
Listen to this sample interview with our expert Toussaint Bailey from the Just Listen Project.
|
Covid Times, 2019
How can we bring our community together while we are apart?
That was the essential question facing us in the spring of 2019 when we were thrust suddenly and unexpectedly into isolation. During this unique time we knew it was more important than ever to document our experiences and build connection. Our strong fourth grade community came together to exhibit a collection of essays about their experiences, reflections on this unique time, and art to inspire others in isolation in a digital newspaper, here.
That was the essential question facing us in the spring of 2019 when we were thrust suddenly and unexpectedly into isolation. During this unique time we knew it was more important than ever to document our experiences and build connection. Our strong fourth grade community came together to exhibit a collection of essays about their experiences, reflections on this unique time, and art to inspire others in isolation in a digital newspaper, here.
California Power
4th grade 2014-2015
Our model city above, and two sample pages from our book below.
Some photos from our process:
|
Essential Questions:
Where does California's energy come from? & How can we minimize the negative impact that energy use has on CA's environment? Project Overview: Students learned about energy with an emphasis on the different forms of power generated in CA. The students analyzed energy use and debated the costs and benefits of each power source, thinking specifically about California's energy needs and natural resources. Students chose an energy topic of personal interest to study more in depth. They then gathered information to inform and support their opinions using experts, news articles, internet research, books, and fieldwork. While learning about different forms of renewable energy, students worked collaboratively to design, engineer, and construct functional prototypes of each energy form, then put them together into a model community. Products: A model of an eco-friendly, sustainable community & A book called California Power: A Collection of Persuasive Essays available at Createspace.com. |
Happy Campers: Camp Survive and Thrive
4th Grade 2014
Essential Question:
How do the HTeNC’s habits of heart and mind help us survive? Project Overview: The fourth graders jumped into our first learning adventure! They are growing strong minds, hearts, and bodies. The goal of “Survive and Thrive” was to instill a culture of care and perseverance that sets the tone for a fabulous year. In this first project students participated in a variety of skill and confidence building activities and teamwork challenges. The focus was to get to know ourselves, our classmates, and how we fit together as a community of learners. Throughout the process we reflected on how our HTeNC habits of heart and mind help us to survive alone and together, both in our classroom and in the world, resulting in individualized Survival Handbooks. We used a variety of texts, including fiction and nonfiction, to deepen our understanding of survival. We explored our local habitat through experts and several field work excursions. We examined how early Californians used natural resources, reflected on our relationship with our natural environment, and analyzed how plants and animals are equipped to survive here. The learning, habits and sense of belonging that will emerge from this project will lay a foundation for our future rigorous and collaborative project work. Academic Standards Addressed: I can use my point of view with reasons to share my opinion. - W.4.1 I can research and use what I have experienced to gather information. - W.4.8 I can describe the different regions of CA. - HSS 4.1.5 I can explain the different structures that plants and animals have to survive in their environment. - NGSS-4-LS1-1. Products: The focus of our project was the overnight campout experience. With Mrs. Lee we created a calendar of plant sketches, made from specimens collected on field work in collaboration with our local rangers, to teach other campers about San Diego's native plants. Additionally the students created an art installation with a conservation message: the planet Earth made from litter collected on campus and on our field work to the beach. |
Some photos of the process:
Wild Pond Protectors!
Kindergarten 2013-2014
This project appeared in an issue of Unboxed: A Journal of Adult Learning in Schools. Read the published project card.
|
Essential Questions:
"How are plants and animals helpers in their communities?" and "How can we help protect our local ponds?" Project Overview: Leading up to and following our “Pond Protectors” spring exhibition, the students began wondering about how we could make our exhibition even BIGGER. We were so happy and felt so empowered to teach our families and friends about what we had learned, but we wanted to spread our message to even more people. We discussed how we could teach more families about our local ponds, the watershed habitat, the animals, and how to protect them. The students came up with a plan to create three new products: conservation posters for the park system, a children's book and an educational movie. Antes y después de nuestra "Estanque Protectores " exposición de primavera, los estudiantes comenzaron a preguntarse acerca de cómo podemos hacer nuestra exposición aún MAS GRANDE. Estuvimos muy contentos y nos sentimos muy capacitados para enseñar a nuestros familiares y amigos acerca de lo que habíamos aprendido, pero queremos difundir nuestro mensaje a más gente. Discutimos cómo podríamos enseñar a más familias sobre nuestros estanques locales, el hábitat , los animales, y cómo protegerlos. Los estudiantes inventaron un plan para crear tres productos nuevos: carteles de conservacion para los parques, un libro para ninos y una película educacional. Standards Addressed: Common Core Writing: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. Next Generation Science Standards: K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment. |
Sample Episodes of our Educational Children's Video Series Wild Pond Protectors!
Watch the Mule Deer episode of Wild Pond Protectors!
|
Watch the Horned Lizard episode of Wild Pond Protectors!
|
Watch the Bee episode of Wild Pond Protectors!
|
As the students and I discussed connections to our animals, the PBS show Wild Kratts was mentioned several times. We decided to use the show as inspiration for our own pond animal movies. If you are not familiar with the show, it uses a combination of live action footage and cartoons to teach kids about real “creature powers”. The students wrote and illustrated their own cartoons and filmed them using stop motion animation. Then they worked with partners to film live action portions on location. We held a movie premiere in to exhibit our work.
Sample Conservation Posters Created for the San Dieguito Riverpark
Working with our wonderful science exploratory teacher, Mrs. Lee, the students created conservation posters. Each student had perviously become an expert on the animal of their choice, utilizing a partnership with the HTH students from Matt Leader and Dr. Patton's classes. Students took their artwork through a series of drafts and critiques before creating the beautiful final drafts, using Eric Carle's artwork and animal photos as models. Using what they had learned about the interconnectedness of the pond habitat and the unique role of their animal, the students shared their own conservation messages with an authentic audience: visitors to our local watershed. We presented our posters at the Bird Wind Open Air Classroom at the San Dieguito Riverpark and donated our work to the rangers. The same artwork was compiled into a children's book, Wild Pond Protectors!
Interested in Seeing More?
If you would like more insight into the process of creating these products and how interdisciplinary skills were woven into the project, there are still many blog entries with accompanying pictures on the "Process Archive" page.
Community Superheroes
Kindergarten 2013
Essential Questions:
Who are the superheroes in my community? & How can I be a superhero in my school community? Project Summary: For this first project to kick off the year in kindergarten, the students started by getting to know each other and sharing their own strengths. We looked closely at stories to identify character strengths and story elements, then wrote our own comic book style stories with ourselves as the superheroes. Then we looked beyond our classroom to identify the helpers around us and appreciate the "super strengths" each community member possessed. Simultaneously, students worked in groups to identify a problem in our school community and develop and execute an action plan to address it. Products: A Kindergarten Superheros comic book, a school helper action plan, and a superhero cape. View and purchase: Kindergarten Superheroes Example pages below:
|