Celebrating With Champagne at School

We are now entering the end of school year celebrations. Today was the celebration of end of year capstone project for elementary students. 

In order for the students to graduate elementary school and move on to middle school, they have to complete a capstone project. This project takes place over 8 weeks. Students have to choose one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Then they choose a topic they want to address. They research their topic, talk to experts, then make an action plan. Topics this year were varied but included topics such as Negative impacts of oil spills on the ocean, Impact of air pollution on nature and wildlife, Respecting LGBTQ+ Rights in a country where it is illegal and culturally unwelcome, and Understanding Poverty. 
 
The group Lucky Dragon was in chose SDG #14-Life Underwater. Their focus was the impact of overfishing and the effects of trash and plastics in the oceans. Their action plan was to visit a fishing village to discuss over fishing and learn how trash in the ocean has impacted their work. This was highlighted in another blog. Some of the students also arranged for beach clean up. They created an active game to represent overfishing and Lucky Dragon used his new found love for coding and coded a video game for younger people to have an interactive way to learn about overfishing and ocean pollution. This was something I was so amazed by and proud of him. 
 
Their presentation to the school and parents was yesterday. Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is where I used to work and I was able to connect the students to the education department of the aquarium.
 
This group had children from all over the globe. India, USA, Israel, The Netherlands, Brazil, Japan and Korea. Each of them were able to talk about fishing practices in their countries. So if you, or anyone at the Aquarium, feel they are not making a difference, this is proof that you do! 

When we arrived, they had an opening ceremony which included music highlighting advocacy and the importance of making a stand for what you believe. Then they broke up into small groups and presented to parents and peers the results of their projects. 

At the end we went back for closing ceremonies and I had to laugh that here we were in a group of 5th graders who are drinking sparkling cider in champagne glasses to celebrate. 

It was so fun to watch Lucky Dragon take a leadership role and explain their research. 

This game was geared towards showing people the impact of overfishing. 

Koala Bear was able to come up and see her brother present. She loved playing the video game that he created. (Note the colorful sling that I crocheted. I learned how to crochet just to make it). 

Trying to find out how remove oil from water for an oil spill.