Level Up Project sparks curiosity at MBE

Some Mountain Brook Elementary students have had the opportunity to visit Jordan and Colombia without ever leaving their classrooms. As part of the Level Up Village project, students in kindergarten and fifth grade are communicating with a partner international classroom.

The classes participate in coordinated STEM projects and then share their work via “video postcards.” Each program runs for nine weeks, with the first four weeks dedicated to preparation work, and the remaining five weeks to interaction and correspondence with the partner classroom. During the first semester, fifth-graders, under the leadership of science teacher Suzanne Andrews, worked to address issues about clean water and built water filtration systems. The fifth-graders were paired one-on-one with children in a class from Bogota, Colombia, and recorded individual video messages for their partners, discussing topics such as religion, sports, holidays, families, politics, and school traditions.

Thus, in addition to the science lessons, students gained knowledge about all aspects of Colombian culture. Mrs. Andrews also emphasized respect for other cultures, politeness when recording the videos and asking questions, and being a good representative of their school and community. At the end of the program, Mrs. Andrews’ group had a chance to talk to their Colombian partner class live, which was an amazing experience for all involved.

Kelsey Frey’s Kindergarten class began their Level Up work this semester with a project on coding via Scratch, a programming language created at MIT. The Kindergarteners have been communicating with a class in Jordan, and their communication is class-to-class rather than individual. Students have already learned how to work collaboratively to produce their video postcards as a class. As with the fifth-graders, the program has encouraged even the youngest students to be curious about different cultures. The activity even prompted one student to start learning a few words in Arabic, and to share what he learned with his class.

The Level Up Village work at MBE is a pilot program that was funded through the Institute for Innovation grant from the district and is focused on the district goals of student voice and diversity. For more information on Level Up Village, visit www.levelupvillage.com. 

-Submitted by Kate Mather.