Grade 8 Students Host Pop-Up Museum of Citizen Action
On Tuesday, May 23, 2017, Grade 8 students presented their capstone project – The Museum of Citizen Action – to the entire Sewickley Academy community.
The Grade 8 class began working in January to design and interpret a museum gallery that would be part of a larger pop-up museum. Students identified social issues that were presented through the literature they read in their Middle School English courses and incorporated the content of their civics courses. Students then identified ways that real citizens took action to positively influence communities to make them fairer for all citizens.
Over the course of this project, which provided opportunities to learn in the Makerspace, students selected a topic, researched historic actions by citizens, and evaluated the extent to which these social issues had been resolved. Working in groups, students identified a related contemporary issue and strategies for addressing that issue. Each student designed an artifact to represent either their historic research or their contemporary issue. They prepared their presentations by reflecting on the connections between past and present problems, as well as considering how literature reflects challenges within our society. Presentations included topics ranging from disenfranchisement, gender wage gaps, and religious intolerance.
