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Commons Documentary Project
The Commons Documentary project was the first official project at The Greenspire School. In the fall of 2011, students filmed a documentary about the Grand Traverse Commons. After filming the flora and fauna of The Commons, students learned and used editing skills to finalize and add facts to their documentary. Filming included shots of many different forms of wildlife, such as wild edibles, many types of trees, insects, and an array of squirrel shots. -
Civilization
Students were sorted into groups based on interest to study the civilizations of ancient Rome, Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia. Each student picked a project to do from a menu of options and then presented in groups..Students participated in literature circles, reading novels based on their civilizations. . Novels: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Greece), Hunger Games (Rome), The Iron Ring (Mesopotamia) and Mara Daughter of the Nile (Egypt). -
Bacteria/Virus Project
The bacteria and virus project started in January 2012, year 1.
The students looked at bacteria under a microscope and some of them drew the bacteria on paper. Theycultured bacteria and ate the good bacteria like kefir smoothies, raita and fromage blanc.They even went to the pathology lab at Munson to look at their plates under a microscope with microbiologists. In science they learned about cells and built them with pipe cleaners.
Student’s split up into groups of three and they each studied di -
Reduce Reuse Recycle
The Reduce Reuse Recycle project was in November 2012. Greenspire students visited the American Waste company. Students studied trash and recycling. They also created board games and had a school-wide game day. -
Colonial America
Greenspire students studied Colonial America and the original 13 colonies. They created a giant map of the 13 colonies. They also created clothes out of trash and had a trashion fashion show in November 2012. -
Cantruction
In Canstruction, they spent several weeks calculating volume and surface area and physics of form wrote informational signage, blogged about justice, and studied civil rights, the bill of rights and economics this project was completed with the Canstruction of three green spires built with over 1,800 food cans and 150 pouches of tuna at the Grand Traverse Mall. Then all materials were donated to the Father Fred Foundation. During Canstruction they examined geometry in nature. -
Planet Greenspire
Greenspire students were divided into groups in which they created there own fictional utopian or distopian countries. -
GTSI Project
During the second year, students did a project called GTSI which stands for Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative. They picked seven destinations in the Commons to talk about. One of the destinations was about tree harvesting. They also researched, planned, and designed a trail hike for the community with QR codes. Above, is a map of the 4th destination -
Bees, Blooms, and 'Shrooms
In the third year students began a project called “Bees, Blooms, and ‘Shrooms. Students looked at how species interact and create ecosystems. They drilled holes into logs to grow mushrooms and created paper honeycomb where each student was given a cell to decorate. They then created a nature guide showcasing bees, flowers, and mushrooms and what they learned about them. -
Greenspire and the Temple of Doom
One of the events at Greenspire during year three was The Temple of Doom project. Students studied ancient civilizations of Central and South America.
Here are the driving questions:
How do ancient civilizations of the past affect present day Central and South America?
How do archaeologist use artifacts from the past to better understand ancient civilizations?
The project took place in January of 2014. Most of this project was about geometry and in English, students had to write a paper. -
Migrations
In the Migration project we learned about the Migration of insects, animals, humans, and birds. Each student got to choose a bird and then do a independet study on that bird. To wrap up the project we did bird plays. Each pod was given a biome and then the pod broke in half and one group did a tragedy play and the other group did a comedy play. -
Media Wise
The students of Greenspire studied different forms of media and made presentations that included social studies, math, science and ELA. In social studies we studied a country in central or South America. In math we made algebraic expressions, in science we made prehistoric films and in ELA we made Gruen Transfer rooms. -
Bridge Project
In this project we built bridges based off what we learned in math and science. In science, we learned about tension and compresion. We also learned about the types of bridges. In math we learned about shapes and which are strongest to build our bridge. At the end we took our bridges and tested them againest each other. -
Human Flipbook
The human flipbook is a study about five people for different fields. The art part of the project is the kid drew a scale model of a person from that time era and on the back of the picture there is a description. This project taught kids about history in a fun way. -
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The first project in the 2014-15 school year was Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Each student researched a bunch of giants that represented all the different subjects. Then they chose a giant that represented a subject. For the project the students made a resume, a timeline, a scale model, and interview questions for the students parents to ask them on portfolio night. -
projectXistence
Project X was a very fun project. We built settlements and built everything we would need to survive in that settlement. The biomes were savannah, tundra, rainforest, desert, and forest. After we built all of the biomes we made speeches for our biome and said the good parts about it and the bad parts about the biome. -
Citizen Greenspire
Students wrote letters to either people in their family, teachers, or people who take part in local, state, and federal governments. They had certain opinions on the things that should change in their lives, and they tried to persuade the letter recipient to go with what the students should change. They also learned about morals and values and how they affect people. -
Circle of Life
The students wrote poems about the residents at the Pavilions. They got a little bit of information about the person's life, and attempted to write their story in the form of poetry. They also made bookmarks about men and women of early America. When these things were done they shared them with the students at Glenn Loomis and the residents of the Pavilions. They also went Christmas caroling in the commons.
