Eighth grade project

At Billings, the eighth graders do a year-long project on a topic of their choice. They write a research paper, interview a professional, create something physical like an artwork or a model, do a service project related to their topic, and present a poster at a showcase attended by the rest of the school (and whatever parents and friends want to come). It’s a great exercise in going deeply into a subject you care about, not to mention managing a long-term project.

Jordan’s project was on planetary exploration, focusing especially the different kinds of spacecraft and rovers that we have sent to look for life on other planets. I helped hook him up with a grad student who works on the “eyes” of the Mars rover (the cameras), who answered Jordan’s interview questions. His service project was to teach a short lesson to the Billings sixth graders, as part of their science unit on space. But surely the part he enjoyed the most was building and programming his own model rover, out of a Lego Mindstorms set. The tricky part was the steering: at first he designed it with a loose front wheel, intending to move two other motors in different directions to rotate the rover, but later he decided to add a third motor that rotates a different set of wheels to change which way the rover is heading. It also has a touch sensor with a large bumper, so that it knows when it hits a wall, and a color sensor pointed at the ground, so that it can stay within an area marked with tape. By the time he presented it, it was programmed to follow a line, and turn after bumping into things.



At the project showcase, Jordan had in-depth interactions with other students and with visiting adults. Another kid’s dad told me later that he was very impressed by Jordan: unlike some teenagers he knows, Jordan looked him in the eye and spoke to him as if he was a real person. I appreciate this about Jordan. I like to think it means he has had warm and respectful relationships with adults in his life.

Other students had some pretty fabulous projects too. Ciona researched sports medicine, and she was demonstrating how best to wrap a sprained ankle; this was really lucky for me, as I literally had a sprained ankle on that day, and her wrapping method is much better than mine.

Audrey, meanwhile, did a project on marine pollution, and made this astonishing artwork out of beach trash.