Category: Community Partnerships

Muddy Sneaker Spring Expedition

Each year, our fifth grade students spend the year doing field work with Muddy Sneakers. The Muddy Sneakers program exists to enrich the standard course of study through experiential education in an outdoor setting where students connect with the land, become more active, and gain self-confidence while improving science aptitude.  Muddy Sneakers began as a pilot program in the spring of 2007 with Brevard and Pisgah Forest Elementary Schools in Transylvania County and has grown each year to now serve 36 schools across 12 counties and 13 school districts in the Carolinas.

Spring is here and students had a wonderful spring expedition with Muddy Sneakers in April. Students compiled a list of various indicators that spring has arrived.

3rd Grade Taking Lessons Deeper With Use of Pop Culture

Third graders at The Learning Center Charter School are immersing the pop culture phenomenon of graphic novels into their everyday studies and are learning language arts, science, and art as a result.

A graphic novel is a full length story published as a book in comic-strip format. In other words, graphic novels are book length comic books and subject matter can range from mysteries to superhero stories.

Teacher Kathleen Shook noticed student interest in graphic novels and decided to embrace it as a means to teach subjects across the curriculum.  In addition to fully embracing graphic novels as a means to learn topics in language arts, students have also created their own graphic novels as part of writing assignments, illustrated them in art class, and included science lessons as part of the novels.

“My class has been really into graphic novels outside of class,” said Shook. “Bringing that excitement into other areas of study has been a fun way to engage my students and deepen their learning in other areas.”

Shook added that students have even been writing comics at home and bringing them to school to share with the class. Plus, Murphy Public Library loaned twenty new novels for the class to enjoy.

“Learning should be fun and my students have been having a blast weaving graphic novels throughout their studies each day,” said Shook.

School Maker Faire Concludes Next Week

Are you sharing your projects with us via Facebook? We sure hope so! Remember to tag us using BOTH @TLCGrowZonePage AND @TLCSchoolMakerFaire. Don’t forget to check our page on March 17th to see all the projects and give encouraging shout-outs to all our Makers!

Reminder: School Maker Faire Now through March 17th

This is a reminder that our 6th Annual School Maker Faire is going on now through March 17th via our Facebook page. Anyone that wants to participate is welcome! Share your project and tag us using BOTH @TLCGrowZonePage AND #TLCSchoolMakerFaire. Then be sure to stop by on March 17th to view all the projects and share encouraging words with our fellow makers. W cannot wait to see how YOU help us make this online School Maker Faire a success!

Amazon Future Engineer Program

Starting in the 2021-2022 school year, The Learning Center Charter School will be participating in the Amazon Future Engineer Program. This program provides resources and support to teachers and students in the field of computer science.

Our middle school students will be introduced to the basics of computer science including Scratch coding language. In the first year of the three year program, students will be exposed to a variety of technological resources.

Using the curriculum provided through the partnership and our existing resources, students will learn the basics of computer science, practice using Scratch, explore robotics with Ozobots, and develop their understanding of technological concepts including vocabulary. 

The program will continue to expand in second year with exploring Artificial Intelligence using Scratch and App Inventor and in year three with computer science by means of using Creative Media and Python.

This partnership will help students develop skills and include experiences like virtual visits with an Amazon engineer, field trips to an Amazon facility, and ongoing opportunities for real-world experiences.

This awesome partnership is going to help our students be prepared to engage in higher-level computer science courses at the high school and college levels. 

5th Grade – Muddy Sneakers

Each year, our fifth grade students spend the year doing field work with Muddy Sneakers. The Muddy Sneakers program exists to enrich the standard course of study through experiential education in an outdoor setting where students connect with the land, become more active, and gain self-confidence while improving science aptitude.  Muddy Sneakers began as a pilot program in the spring of 2007 with Brevard and Pisgah Forest Elementary Schools in Transylvania County and has grown each year to now serve 36 schools across 12 counties and 13 school districts in the Carolinas.

In early February, students had a fun outdoor science excursion. Students trekked in the woods (The Outdoor Learning Center) to observe a flock of robins searching for food, then searched under the leaves to find a few myriapods (centipedes and millipedes), spiders, and other fun creepy crawlies.

Next, students learned about weather measurement tools, cloud types, evaporation, air density/pressure zones, and how all these factors play together to create the weather effects we are all already familiar with. Teacher, Mr. Fenris, was the “Sun, the Great Evaporator” evaporating our 5th grade water molecules in a Red-light, Greenlight style game.

Finally, they built and decimated a model city with EXTREME weather (handfuls of leaves).

Students had an absolute blast!