Enrichment classes team up for park websites

Enrichment students are teaming up to shine a light on national parks. Branching off a year-long unit studying national parks, 3rd-grade enrichment students at Oak Grove, Sara Harp Minter, and Huddleston elementary schools are working together to build websites highlighting the country’s gems.

All year long, national parks have been a focus, with each student picking a park to study in-depth, learning about its natural features, history, plants, animals, recreation, weather patterns, and more. They wrote a letter to the park and also created maps, graphs, timelines, and art projects to showcase their expertise.

Fast-forward to February and enrichment teachers Heather Price at Oak Grove, Amy Hudson at Sara Harp Minter, and Dr. Sally Meyer at Huddleston decided they should enhance the unit by incorporating a digital component. Hudson created a Google site template to share with students, and digital learning specialists Mike Fricke and Matt Jackson have also been instrumental in helping the students create their websites.

Price is thrilled that they have been able to adapt to make the most of the situation.

“The ultimate goal is for students to share all their park knowledge and completed research projects at Ranger Day in May when we invite classmates, teachers, and parents to attend,” said Price. “Implementing Covid protocols this year does not allow us to invite our parents in, so we’ll bring Ranger Day digitally to those at home!”