Students make presentations to administration for PBL class

Students in Ms. Amy Schwendemann’s Applied Science and Technology class made formal proposals to administrators on Sept. 19 to present what they have been working on in class. The students are planning to build a greenhouse and outdoor garden as part of the Project Based Learning course in its first year of being offered.

The year-long project is to build a greenhouse and outdoor garden behind the Activities Center.

“One of our main goals for this is to help provide fresh produce and fruits for the Operation Backpack program,” Schwendemann said.

The project allows the students to go through every step of working as a team to complete things for not only school, but everyday life as well.

“It was a stressful project, don’t get me wrong,” Henry Behlmann said, “but with everyone working together and doing their part, it was not a task I would consider difficult whatsoever.”

Students were required to give presentations to building principal Dr. Joe Dobrinic, Positive School principal Dr. Jon Fitzgerald, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Dr. Tim Pecoraro, and assistant principal Dr. Dana Burns. Fellow classmates were also in attendance.

“I knew what I wanted to say and I knew what I had to say so I just said it,” Behlmann said. “I wasn’t very nervous mainly because I knew that they truly wanted to hear what I had to say.”

Schwendemann is also going to try to make this project cross-curricular.

“We are looking at the Nutritional Food classes, Food Science classes and hopefully Woodworking classes as well.”