Year 7 PBL Term Two Wrap up- Celebrating the Amazing PBL Projects!

As Term Two comes to a close, it's time to celebrate the remarkable work done by our fantastic Year 7 students for their PBL projects.

Check out below the wide range of PBL projects completed this term.

From building innovative models to giving time in community projects, our students have truly outdone themselves. The passion and effort poured into these projects were truly inspiring.

In Room 6 we have been working with the Anatomy museum this term to focus on body systems and education. The students in Room 6 have created body system models or an organ and then made these interactive through the use of makey makeys connected to coding and recording information in Scratch. Last Tuesday our clients - Year 6 students from Wakari school and lecturers from the Medical school came and viewed our finished "LAB -learning about bodies - our own version of an Anatomy museum. We also shared with our buddy Year 8 class and syndicate. Next term our work will now be on display in the Anatomy Museum!

Room 7 and 8 have been focusing on Philanthropy and the link that is had to wellbeing for our PBL this term. Our driving question was ‘How does positively contributing to our community also enhance our own sense of wellbeing?’. We explored the concepts of philanthropy and wellbeing before splitting into three groups: Gardening at the Shetland Street community gardens, helping with the Pataka Ora programme, and creating toys for the animals at the SPCA. 

Our gardeners went down every Thursday for 3 weeks to help the volunteers complete various tasks. Students learned new skills, challenged themselves and helped with a range of jobs including mulching, planting, composting, and more. If you walk along the reserve you will see some of our hard work along the track! Some students were also in charge of fundraising a small amount of money to put towards resources for this project. We would like to thank OFS for their generous donation to the Shetland Street Community gardens. With their help, we were able to contribute essential supplies for the work completed.

Our second group spent a day at Arai te uru marae volunteering at Pataka Ora. This is a volunteer run organisation that provides free meals to those who need them. Students were able to help prep the food, help with service, and then tidy up after the meal. We had a small group who performed different waiata and our school haka during the service. After this day, the group created resources such as menus and information leaflets that would promote this organisation to others. 

Lastly, we had a group that used their time to create toys for animals at the SPCA. They gathered their own resources and were able to create over 30 toys for animals in need. Alongside this, they were able to create advertisements for some of the animals currently looking for homes at the Dunedin SPCA. 

Students really enjoyed doing their bit to help out in the community and it definitely enhanced our wellbeing. There was a lot of pride in what they had done and the positive impact they had made. Thank you to the parents/caregivers who supported us at the gardens and at the marae, we really appreciate you giving up your time to help make this happen!

In the "Back Block" Room's 9,10 and 11 have also been working on Philanthropy and have had various departments at the Dunedin Hospital as clients. Room 9 created a care package for the nurses at the Oncology department of the Dunedin Hospital. We are aware of many of the challenges that Health Care Professionals face and wanted to acknowledge the amazing work they do every day. Room's 10 and 11 have been busy making, creating and putting together activity packages and care packages for the staff and patients in the children's ward including making games and activities to entertain siblings when they visit.

Room's 13 and 14 have been busy with looking at ways to support the wellbeing of our neighbours - the residents of Summerset Retirement Home. There PBL ideas are being developed to continue into Term Three. Watch this space!

As we wrap up Term Two, let's carry forward the enthusiasm and spirit of innovation into the next term.

Wishing everyone a restful break. See you all ready and refreshed for more exciting learning opportunities in Term Three!

Lisa Dixon

Year 7 Dean