Community Center Connections for All Ages
By:  Amy Van Allsburg

Project at a Glance :

There are people of all ages living in our community, but many of our older community members may not feel as connected and valued as they age, when they still have so many skills and talents to offer. Our goal was to create spaces and activities where people of all ages could interact together in fun and meaningful ways at our new community center.
       
Driving Question:

How can we create intergenerational partnerships for the Community Center?            

Standards:

• ELA W.4.7, 4.8, & 4.9
• ELA SL.4.1.C & 4.4

Team / Culture Building:

• Hashtag Mood - Students jotted down words to describe the mood we hope our solutions bring to those who use our new community center.

• Bug List - Students wrote down what bugged them about how some people might not feel worth or value as they get older, when they still have so much to offer.

Entry Event:

• The entry event was a simple storytelling activity of how Mrs. VanAllsburgs  father's life was so greatly impacted in his later years by the relationships he made with students. They made him feel important, valued, and needed. His interactions with students made him feel like he was still connected to his community.

Stakeholders:

• West Ottawa Students
• Park Township Residents

Empathy Building:

• Empathy Map - The class created Empathy Maps and chose an age of a member in the community in which to experience things from their perspective.​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Article Research - Students read articles on intergenerational relationships and wrote down the key ideas.

• Jigsaw Articles - Students rotated around to different small groups to read portions of the articles.

• Love/Break Up Letter - Students wrote Love/Breakup letters about the things we love in our community and the things we wish we could change. We shared our letters with the members of our class.

Incubation:

• Rule of Thirds - Students brainstormed ideas and divided them into three groups of obvious, breakthrough, and crazy ideas. We finally found our personal best, innovative ideas.

• Brainwriting - Students looked at their best ideas and tried to see how they could clarify the ideas even more. ​​

• Big Idea Teams - Students signed up in 2-4 person teams for the design aspect of the community center they most wanted to develop.

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Solution Building:

• Prototyping

• Gallery Walk & Stakeholder First Pitches​

Critique and Revision: 

• Fireside Chats​

Authentic Audience:

• Park Township Community Members

Final Presentation:

• Presentation Teams - The Design Teams worked hard to organize everything they needed for their final Open House Presentation.

• Presentation Storyboards Boards - The final presentation boards looked amazing.

Reflection and Feedback:
     "I loved being able to create the Chapter Chats Library for our new Park Township Community Center. I hope that people of all ages can sign up to be a part of book clubs no matter and older people and kids can be together."  ~ Olivia, Student

FINAL EVENT

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

Amy Van Allsburg teaches 4th grade at Lakewood Elementary, West Ottawa Public Schools.

     "Integrating curriculum through PBL experiences has sparked a passion for authentic, real world problem solving in my students. My 4th graders are more actively engaged and enthusiastic about the learning process since I began using the Creative Sequence and Design Thinking protocols. They are gaining empathy for those around them and building employability skills along the way. It is thrilling to witness their excitement as they connect with people from their own community and see the influence they can provide.  This project experience will always be a wonderful memory for all of us involved."