For one night only, the fifth-grade classrooms at 51风流's Olander Elementary School transformed into theaters where young directors premiered their films to an audience of families and friends.
Students worked as a team to facilitate and operate their theater, which featured students' stories demonstrating how they stepped outside their comfort zones this fall during their Eco Experience at Colorado State University's Mountain Campus.
Eco Experience (formerly known as Eco Week) is a longstanding tradition for students in PSD and is part of an incredible partnership with CSU. This year marks 50 years of Eco Experience. Multiple generations have now enjoyed this opportunity to learn outdoors.
Memories of Eco Experience live with students long after their journeys to the mountains are over. Olander takes this to the next step by connecting this experience to Project Based Learning.
PBL projects are the heart of the educational experience at Olander. Each grade builds its academic year around three or more projects that address Colorado Academic Standards while incorporating student interests, and this Eco Experience Film Festival is one project fifth graders complete.
To prepare for their trip and the project that would come after, students began with a driving question: how can we, as storytellers, inspire people to challenge themselves and step outside their comfort zones?
A driving question guides students throughout the PBL process. Before stepping foot at the CSU Mountain Campus, students learned the differences between a comfort zone, a stretch zone, and a panic zone in class. They also discussed the importance of stepping outside of your comfort zone.
After returning from the mountains, students practiced narrative writing. Learning how to develop a story, how to write showing instead of telling details, and hone all of these skills into one story before integrating technology and turning these narrative stories into films.
Elsa Han shared her story about the B-17 Plane Crash Hike in her film, "The Flying Fortress." The lesson she took away from this challenge was that you can succeed if you try hard enough.
"Eco [Experience] kind of means to me that we're maturing more because we got to go without our parents," Han said, reflecting on her experience. "It's a big opportunity to go up to Eco [Experience], not everyone gets to do it."
For some students, stepping out of their comfort zone took on an entirely new meaning. Sofia Balderas Izquierdo shared her journey of courage and teamwork in her film, “The Ultimate Swing,” which captured a particularly memorable moment: tackling the ropes course with the help of an adaptive harness.
“I am happy, I feel big, I feel excited,” Balderas Izquierdo said in her film, the text accompanied by photos of her smiling while in her adaptive harness next to physical education teacher Makenzie Stevenson.
"Getting to see Sofia's smile, getting her out of her chair, getting to be independent and have a little bit of freedom and still be included was the greatest thing to see," said Stevenson. "That pretty much made my Eco [Experience]."
This climbing harness is new to Olander this year. Stevenson teaches a climbing unit in PE, and after realizing some of the students in Integrated Learning Support (ILS) programs could not participate, she worked with a parent to raise money and get this brand-new adaptive climbing harness to include students who could not participate in these activities before.
Experiencing the ropes course was more than a personal achievement for Balderas Izquierdo. She also inspired her classmates and teachers alike.
"It's always great to see kids included. All of the kids smiled when they saw [Sofia] in her harness and they were cheering her on," Stevenson said. "To me, it's a big, big thing to create those memories for someone who might never get to experience any of those first-time memories."
While the ropes course and hiking were challenges for many, student films highlighted other experiences, such as being away from family for the first time or staying overnight somewhere new.
Fifth-grade teacher Eryn Burge was impressed with the challenges students identified and chose to highlight in their films. She said they took ownership of the driving question and took time to think about this experience.
"The PBL aspect is just so wonderful, seeing the creativity and the problem solving that they have to go through and then bringing in the community," Burge said. "In this case, it was the families and some grandparents and neighbors coming to practice presentation skills, practice owning what you do. [This project] is not just something in your desk and we put it away, it's a product."
For student Jude Dowhaniuk, the project came with challenges but was well worth the effort. After sharing his film and serving as an emcee for his group, Dowhaniuk reflected on his project, troubleshooting technical hiccups and perfecting his voice-over for the film.
“It’s one of the most fun projects I’ve ever done,” Dowhaniuk said. "I really love [Eco Experience]. I wish I could do it all again. I loved the ropes course, wading in the stream, the hike, everything."
As the evening wrapped up, Olander students and families were proud to see the culmination of months of hard work saved in a project and experience they will remember forever. Olander fifth graders showed that sometimes, the most meaningful learning happens when we dare to step outside our comfort zones and inspire others to do the same.