In October 2021, third grade teachers at Westridge Elementary started sending letters across the country in an effort to kick off second semester with a bang. Those letters were directed to park rangers at US national parks, and their purpose was to request informational documents and artifacts that students could use as they began their research project in January. In total, 30 packages were returned which teachers used to set up the first step of the research project – an “artifact walk” – where students had the chance to learn more about individual national parks and determine which they wanted to pursue as their research topic.
The project, which took six weeks of research, writing, and presentation board construction, culminated in a live presentation opportunity in front of families and various members of the school community. In addition to gaining valuable insight into their specific national park, students also learned how to safely navigate websites to find information, how to turn research notes into draft paragraphs, and the importance of good typing skills and public speaking!
“Our National Parks project has been so much fun for the students as well as the teachers! The third graders worked very hard on their research and paragraph writing, and we are so proud of each and every student”, said one Westridge 3rd grade teacher. Students agreed, saying things such as “It was definitely exciting!”, “I really loved it, especially learning new facts about unknown things!”, and “It was so fun to show what we worked on and having people come to see us present!”.
