MomentUS and The Tip of the I.C.E.B.E.R.G. Project
- Noa Daniel
- Dec 5, 2017
- 5 min read
From the moment I first heard of Hannah Alper as a blogger, I was drawn to her. Not only because is she the daughter of a childhood friend, but because she found her voice. She is a role model to many, of all ages, and I learn from her often. As an activist, speaker and WE Ambassador, Hannah has accomplished a lot in her young life. When I heard that she had a book coming out, I was eager to read it and thrilled that I was able to purchase one of the limited signed copies. MomentUS is a perfect book from this amazing leader because she uses her many role models to tell the story of what happens when passion meets action. She also reminds us that age is not a factor in leadership, and that you don't need to wait until your older to become the leader you want to be. A recent article in the Toronto Star quotes her on this. “Being the only young person (on the [Bloomberg One to Watch in 2018] list) proved that young people aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow but also today,” said Alper, enthusiastically. “I think that my generation is really the one that’s changing the world and I’m happy to represent it.”
After reading MomentUS, I wanted to do something with it in the classroom. Lucky for me, as I develop my Building Outside the Blocks practice in the morning, I have taken on an LTO in the afternoons in a Grade 5 class in the York Region District School Board (YRDSB). This was the perfect way to synthesize my love of project-based learning with the curriculum, using this book as as a catalyst and this author as a beacon. I was diligently developing the project, figuring out which curriculum expectations could be addressed, and determined that I wanted to the students to look at the Science unit titled Conservation of Energy and Resources while also considering the Social Studies unit titled The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship. I also knew that I wanted there to be a communication piece that students could select: to present orally with a slide show, through an experiment, a diagram, a model or a display.
Once I has written the outline, I needed a catchy title. As someone who truly enjoying naming a project, like a cherry on op of a sundae, I was drawing a blank. I brainstormed: innovations, conserving energy and saw the IC..E acronym unfold on my page. Then, I looked back at e curriculum documents and had a realization: like the melting icebergs which cause us to see the power of global warming, student exploring the I.C.E.B.E.R.G. project could focus on solutions. It made perfect sense that the project would use imagery of the acronym: Innovations in the Conservation of Energy, Building Efficiencies and the Role of Government. The I.C.E.B.E.R.G. Project was named.
In terms of the the project introduction, I began with Hannah's book MomentUS. I read the first chapter to the class, and they immediately inquired about who this Hannah Alper was and how she used her voice to make a difference. The class was amazed that she was a student in York Region, but they knew little about WE and some of the other things she was involved in. The message they got form their quick investigation was that from a young age, Hannah understood that small acts can make a difference.
Without any further context, I showed the students the video of Severn Suzuki (now Severn Cullis Suzuki) addressing the UN at the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992, at 12 years of age. It was a video I had shown for several years to my students as an exemplar of persuasive speeches. For this purpose, I was showing how Severn's passion drove her to engage and persuade a room full of adults. I went on to read the next chapter in MomentUS to the class, where Hannah introduces Severn Cullis Suzuki as her first role model. You should have seen the students' faces when they realized there was a connection between these two leaders.
I asked the class what the two advocates had in common, and they agreed that it was a deep feeling for their causes. It was the perfect time to introduce the I.C.E.B.E.R.G. Project. While there are many curriculum expectations being addressed through the project, there are even more learning skills being taught including: research skills, questioning skills, organizational skills and presentation skills. Students had to write a proposal to explain their topic of choice, how they wanted to present their learning including using a slideshow, experiment, model, science board etc and whether they wanted to work alone or in partners. So many students were immediately engaged and went off to investigate Tesla, the Soccket, airborne wind turbines and much more. Regardless of the learning outcomes, I wanted students to be excited about their topics and drive their learning. I was happy that so many students requested to work independently in their proposals, reasoning that they could work on their own schedule and at home as well as at school. The success of projects like this depend on student engagement and their willingness to persevere.
This project is more than a catalyst for learning content and skills. It is a way to engage learners in doing "cool things that matter". Here is a link to Hannah's TEDx Talk about finding your spark. Who knows what ideas or passions this project will launch. That's the tip of the I.C.E.B.E.R.G Project. While I witnessed some amazing successes, I look forward to evolving this project to make it a PBL offering to share. Here are some of the products the students created:
While the students were engaged in their inquiry during Social Studies/Science, I read chapters of MomentUS in Literacy and had the students engage. I introduced them to Craig and Marc Keilberger and the WE Movement. Sometimes, they responded to chapters on Lilly Singh or Spencer West in writing,. The text is a great provocation for discussing the importance of finding role models. After the school's kindness assembly in their pink shirts, I read to them on Travis Price and showed them a video about Pink Shirt Day. There were so many ways this book engaged the learners, and a few of the students even purchased the text to continue reading on their own. The school library now has a copy that they and any other student may borrow and learn from.
In the end, I have many next steps, but the student reflections were very positive. They used words like "cool", love learning, and "I didn't know school could be like this." Some people teach curriculum by subject, expectations after expectation. Others teachers use the curriculum to teach students. This is a powerful project that ignited something in the students and mattered a lot to them. Through learning about Hannah, they know that they don't have to to wait to do cool things that matter. I hope to have a chance to faciliate this project again, but I'm just as happy to share it. Can't wait to see where the students will take this spark.
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