Grand Rapids — This summer, Grand Rapids Public Schools reimagined ways to help students retain the math, science, reading and writing skills they strengthened the previous school year.
Held at five schools over six weeks, the Ignite Summer Learning program was designed to enhance and expand hands-on learning efforts and combat “summer slide,” or summer learning loss, according to the district.
Each site brought local poets from The Diatribe into classrooms, took students on weekly field trips to the West Michigan Center for Art and Technology to explore art in four different studios — music, pottery, illustration and fashion — and provided the opportunity to get their feet wet in the Grand River while learning about water systems.
During one field trip, a group of rising ninth-graders dressed in waders and rubber boots explored the river banks at Riverside Park with employees of GR Outside, a division of Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation.
They searched for aquatic macroinvertebrates using long nets to sift through the water and took their discoveries from the water to the next station, where a different group of GRPS students used tiny nets to find bugs.
GRPS social and emotional learning consultant Alma Obande, who accompanied students to Riverside Park, said it was one of several field trips to explore the city’s water system.
“All of these trips are geared towards local community water, waste and recycling,” Obande said. “We expose them to these things so they can understand it, see it up close in person and get our scholars into subjects like science.”
Inspiring Future Passions
Diara Newman, WMCAT director of arts and tech, said this is the second summer they collaborated with GRPS to design summer projects that exposed students to STEM and creativity while also building their confidence.
“It’s been amazing,” Newman said. “Each week, students choose which studio to be in and complete a project that day, giving them the satisfaction of completion and a memorable day. …We want to be the highlight of their summer.”
Rising seventh-grader Dariana Wolf spent one Thursday morning in WMCAT’s pottery studio learning wheel throwing, the art of shaping clay on a potter’s wheel.
“I love this type of stuff, but this was the first time I’ve done pottery,” she said.
Dariana said WMCAT ceramics teaching artist Abby Cushway was “an amazing teacher” who made wheel throwing “look easy.”
“When I hear something about creativity, of course I want to be there. I want to be a creator,” she said.
District science curriculum supervisor Jessica Vander Ark led a hands-on experiment where students set out to determine the chemical composition of water from the Grand River.
When Vander Ark asked why it was important to know what is in drinking water, one eighth-grader said, “We need safe and healthy water to survive.”
In this experiment, students tested river water samples for pH levels, nitrates and turbidity.
“Turbidity is how clear the water is,” Vander Ark explained. “Sometimes it’s clear like drinking water and sometimes it’s clear like hot chocolate.”
Each station explained the connection between water from Lake Michigan and how it travels through rivers, filtration and treatment facilities to make its way into homes as drinking water.
She told students: “If you really like water or working outside, this could be a career for you one day.”
Other immersive and project-based learning opportunities during Ignite Summer Learning came from partnerships with organizations including Grand Rapids Community College Promise Zone, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids Public Museum and Kids’ Food Basket.
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