I will never use this information later in life. When are we ever going to need to know this in the real world? These are just some of the statements that all too often plague the minds of students as they sit in class, trying to memorize material for their upcoming test.
Computing teacher Flint Christensen said that this is one of the biggest problems high school students face; students aren’t using the information they learn in class outside of school, rather they only use it when they take the assessment their teachers give them. Christensen said he hopes to solve this problem with the EXPO project.
This February, PHS faculty, STEAM committee, and community members have finalized their plan for the 2021 EXPO project, a project-based event created in an effort to provide students with a better way to demonstrate their learning in an area that they are passionate about. Students will come up with a problem, solution, and create a compelling argument about their project within a ten minute WeVideo.
“The number one goal of the [EXPO] project is for students to have a more joyful experience in demonstrating what they’ve learned at PHS, and to focus it in an area that they have an interest in passion,” Christensen said. “About one of the greatest frustrations of students legitimately have is that they learn something for the sake of learning it for an assessment. And if they ever need it again, they’ll just look it up in Google in a split second.”
Christensen said the faculty has worked hard to come up with an essential question for the event that considers all different student interests and subjects. This year’s question, When an idea has been calcified into a society, how do we begin to see it again, address it, and change it for the better?, aims for students to address a social or societal issue that they feel strongly about.
“I think the EXPO project sounds like a really cool idea,” sophomore Alex Ware said. “I think this is something that a lot of people will want to do.”
According to the EXPO Project student guide, each student’s project must be submitted by Friday, May 21 before 10 p.m. Videos created by participating students will be viewed by a panel of judges on Friday, June 4 at 7 p.m., the date of the EXPO event.
“The fact that it can literally be anything I think is really exciting for students,” Christensen said. “[EXPO] is the intersection of what you like to do and what problem you’d like to solve and that’s the sweet spot. The EXPO was designed to let students choose both of those.”
The EXPO project gives students a plethora of possibilities, ranging from literature-based projects to engineering and robotics. For students who do not want to get involved by themselves, group projects are also allowed for submission.
“The most appealing thing to me about the EXPO Project is that you get the ability to use your voice to address a problem that you see in our society or school system and a solution of how you can fix it,” sophomore Sage Mosely said.
Mosely plans to use her EXPO Project to address the lack of diversity being taught in PHS curriculums. She also plans to incorporate computer science into her project.
“The EXPO project sounds really interesting, and there’s not a lot of limits on what you can do, which I like,” freshman Xander Sasse-Schulte said.
Christensen said that some teachers may choose to include the EXPO project as an assignment in their course, where students would be able to demonstrate their understanding for a grade in the class. Deadlines and grading rubric would then be subject to that specific teacher’s discretion.
“I would encourage [students] to look at the rubric for the EXPO whether or not they’re interested in EXPO,” Christensen said. “It doesn’t have any derivatives, it doesn’t have any English standards. If you analyze a problem well and propose a great solution for it in 10 minutes on a video, you could get a top tier award and your plaque could be on the wall forever.”
For the student guide, rubric, and essential question, go to the Schoology materials for the course labeled “EXPO.”
