Making a Difference with VAEI Blue Apple's "What's In Your Water?"

Recently my 4th graders at Blue Star Elementary school completed the "What's in your water?" project-based learning unit.

Students learned about and traced our local watershed and the drain that empty our school parking lot leads to Lake Michigan. They tested several local bodies of water and learned about water scarcity on the Navajo Indian Reservation. As a culminating challenge, students created a fundraiser to support DigDeep and the Navajo Water Project. Students even planned and hosted a full-school kickoff assembly to raise awareness that people in the United States struggle to have access to water. In the end, Blue Star raised $275 for the charity.

As a teacher, I would highly recommend exploring this and other Blue Apple units of study from Van Andel Education Institute. Not only are the units well written and come with a full set of supplies, but the real-human support that Van Andel provides teachers using their curricula is tremendous.

Check out the video shot and produced by VAEI. The video really makes me proud to step back and not just think about the content mastered by these kids but the ways in which we see them interacting and going about that learning.