School Partnership: Rio del STEAM School 3rd Graders
School Partnership Spotlight! For the 2022-2023 school year, we worked in an ongoing partnership with 3rd grade classes at Rio del Sol STEAM school in Oxnard, California, that included class workshops, teacher planning sessions, and a co-created project developed over the final two months of the year. This entire project was done through distance learning using a variety of online tools to provide students with an opportunity to use technologies as part of the STEAM mission of the school.
The school partnership began in late fall 2022. We would meet once a month for check ins and collaborative discussions with teachers, and once a month with all four sections of students for hands-on online workshops. Our partnership centered on maps and placed-based learning, in connection with a year long project the teachers had developed that focused on the immigrant and indigenous communities and histories of their region of Oxnard and Ventura County.
The final project included class plays about these communities developed from interviews, readings, and field trips. During our time with the third grade teachers, we led several workshops on map making and place keeping, and worked with students to co-create a map to complement their plays.
The workshop themes included:
Learning about maps and map making as a form of “story telling”
Map making practice, creating maps of the classrooms and school
Workshop on the students’ urban watershed
Multiple workshops focusing on co-creating the final project: a “story telling” map about the Indigenous and Immigrant histories of their region.
The students performed their plays for their families and school community at the end of the school year. The Community Map (shown above) was given out to the audience during the plays. Three cheers for the 3rd grades as Rio del Sol for their hard work!