BY KARISSA MILLER
Fifth-graders at Coddle Creek Elementary recentlyshared their International Baccalaureate exhibition projects with younger students, faculty and staff.
According to Instructional Facilitator Lindsey Mehall, this year’s project challenged students to engage in an in-depth inquiry on a United Nations global issue and identify an action.
As an IB school, Mehall explained, Coddle Creek incorporates the exhibition into the fifth-grade curriculum to prepare students to become caring, lifelong learners who are able to better understand the world around them.
“It’s also a culmination of all of their IB skills — research, presentation and learner profile traits. They work hard on these projects and put in a lot of time,” Mehall said.
Students Jordynn Russell and Jonessa Conley’s project identified the steps that they are taking to reduce plastic pollution.
“Our project is based on recycling and reducing plastic in the world, which is key to fixing it,” Jordynn explained.
In their classroom, students bring in a case of plastic bottle water for their classmates. They observed that the class consumes an average of around 24 plastic water bottles each week.
“If we don’t recycle them properly then they could end up in places that they don’t need to be. That creates more plastic waste,” Jordyn explained.
Jonessa and Jordynn held a fundraiser to raise money to purchase one or two water filtration stations for the school, which would reduce overall plastic waste at their school. They hope to raise $1,000 to $2,000, which will cover the maintenance and installation of the system.
Once they reach their goal, students will be able to bring in their own reusable water bottle, which will eliminate the wasteful use of single-use plastic bottles.
Lexi King’s project addressed homeless in the community.
“It’s not fair that some people get a home and some people don’t,” she said, noting that she first saw a homeless person when she was 9 years old.
Lexi feeling sad for that person as well as a desire to help that individual.
When asked if she believed homeless individuals could find a job and not be homeless, Lexi explained that her parents taught her not to judge a book by its cover. She believes that this applies to homeless people that you may encounter in life.
Lexi encouraged students to donate food, clothing and other resources to help the homeless in the community. She wants younger students to know that more people than they may realize are homeless in the world, and that sometimes everyone can use a helping hand.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, parents could not attend this year’s presentations. Fifth-graders presented their projects both virtually and in person to other classes in small groups throughout the day.
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