Culminating Projects

All 8th grade students at Prairie Crossing Charter School, in order to graduate, must complete a year-long environmental project. The purpose of this project is to answer three main questions:

• How are you going to better the world in which you live?
• What are you going to do to positively impact the environment and your community?
• How is this project going to showcase all that you have learned about the environment in all of your years at Prairie Crossing Charter School?

Students can choose to work individually or in pairs on their Culminating Projects. The Culminating Project has three basic components: field hours, a paper, and a presentation. The students are required to complete a minimum of 25 hours outside of school for their project. The expectation is that with these field hours, our students will make an impact on the world/environment/community.

The Culminating Project paper is a formal typed paper that consists of six basic parts: a proposal, economic and social aspects, historical aspects, science aspects, survey and data analysis, and personal aspects. The final component of the Culminating Project is the formal presentation. Over the course of two evenings in late May, students present their projects to the community at large. These presentations are powerful representations of the environmental stewards Prairie Crossing Charter School strives to nurture!

Great Horned Owlets, first seen by two Prairie Crossing Charter School 8th graders studying owls for their Culminating Project.

Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of Roots and Shoots, signing the banner created by Prairie Crossing Charter School's
Roots and Shoots club.

During their Culminating Projects in the 2009/2010 school year, Prairie  Crossing Charter School students:

• Studied the habitats of owls and were the first people to see two Great Horned Owlets.
• Taught students in other area schools about composting.
• Studied "No Child Left Inside" and the detriments that occur in children's development due to a lack of exposure to the natural world, and conducted programs with young childen to get them outside.
• Learned all about bees and created an observation beehive to be placed outside of a Prairie Crossing Charter School classroom for all students to be able to learn about bees.
• Started a Roots and Shoots group at Prairie Crossing Charter School. The group conducted recycling drives, gathered gently used toys to contribute to kids in needs, conducted a fundraising drive to help Haiti, shared Environmental Tips of the Week, and served as true leaders for our student body.