How Project-Based Learning Helps Students Find Themselves

Along with learning about academic subjects, students spend their time in school discovering who they are and who they want to be. Many students find that extracurricular activities give them the most opportunities for self-discovery. However, there’s another way students can learn a lot about themselves while learning about classroom subjects: through project-based learning. Here are some of the ways project-based learning can help students find themselves. 

Collaboration and Social Skills

Project-based learning requires students to work together toward a common goal. One of the best ways to learn about yourself is by working with others. Students learn how they can overcome challenges, from the intrapersonal to the academic. They learn the most effective ways to communicate, often through trial and error. At the end of each project, they build even more on these essential skills, gaining more insight into who they are.  

Building Autonomy and Self-Direction

It may seem to contradict the previous point, but in many projects, working independently is as important as collaborating with the group. Each student needs to build their part of the project so that the whole can come together. While working collaboratively, they learn what they can do by themselves and where they need to lean on each other. Once the project is complete, each student can take ownership of their contributions.

Developing Critical Thinking and Creativity

Children who learn in project-based settings often find themselves needing to think creatively and critically at the same time. Leaning too much on creativity can create beautiful end results that lack substance, while leaning too much on critical thinking can lead to too much thinking and not enough doing. Each project creates new opportunities to make informed decisions with the help of teammates, who learn from each other in the process. 

Cultivating Passion and Purpose

Finding yourself, especially as a young student, means discovering what you’re passionate about and where you excel. Project-based learning allows students to explore their personal interests in a way that relates to the subjects they’re studying. Rather than being abstract and distant, academic concepts become tangible, and therefore more relatable. Students may discover interests they never knew they had and talents that they choose to explore outside the classroom. 

At North Tampa Christian Academy, we believe project-based learning puts students on the path to success. Students at our Tampa private school thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

Spreading Love with Valentine’s Day Crafts

Valentine’s Day is coming soon! Children will pass out valentines to all their friends and classmates, and couples will exchange flowers and candy. It’s the perfect time to remember the importance of love in our lives. The holiday also presents an opportunity for making adorable heart-shaped crafts with your child. Here are a few Valentine’s Day crafts that we love.

Bird Feeder Hearts

Crafting projects often end up stashed away and eventually thrown away, despite your best intentions. What if you could make an adorable craft that could be put to use? These bird feeder hearts can do just that, making them more sustainable and fun than the average craft. They’re easy to make, especially with the help of older children. 

Recipe

• For the hearts

• ¾ cup of flour

• ½ cup of water

• 1 2.5 teaspoon envelope of unflavored gelatin

• 3 tablespoons of corn syrup

• 4 cups of birdseed

• Other items needed

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter

• Cooking spray

• Pieces of ribbon

• Gift tags 

Instructions

• Spray a spoon with cooking spray.

• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. 

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

• Spray the inside of a heart-shaped cookie cutter, place it on the parchment paper, then fill it with birdseed, packing it down as you go.

• Spray a second spoon with cooking spray to pat down the heart, making sure it’s really packed in. 

• Make a hole near the top center using a chopstick or similar object

• Remove the cookie cutter, fixing up the edges, then let them sit overnight

• The next day, put a ribbon through the center of each heart, and tie the ends together

• Tie a gift tie to each ribbon 

Perler Bead Valentines

Who says Valentine’s cards need to be made from cardstock? Playing with perler beads will bring you right back to the days when you were making cards for your classmates. It will also show your child a fun, easy form of crafting. For this project, you will need to use an iron, so you may need to help a younger child.

Items needed

• Perler beads

• Perler bead pegboard

• Parchment paper

• Iron

• Small 2.75-inch glassine envelopes

• Washi tape

Instructions

• Arrange beads on a pegboard into a heart shape, and build a square around the heart. Make the overall size 12 pegs across to fit into a 2.75-inch envelope. 

• When the design is complete, lay parchment paper over the beads

• Set the heated iron on the parchment paper, holding for 10-15 seconds

• Allow plastic to cool

• Once it has cooled, remove the square from the pegboard, and place into an envelope. Seal the envelope with washi tape. 

Yarn Heart Art

A staple of crafting, yarn can be used in many ways to create works of art with a homemade feel. You can dive into crocheting or knitting with your child, create a design using a board with nails, or do this simple project. These pieces of 3D art make wonderful decorative gifts despite how simple they are to make.

Items needed

• Red yarn, preferably in multiple shades

• Flat wooden hearts, various sizes

• Small canvases, around 6” x 6”

Instructions

• Wrap the wooden hearts with yarn, forming the round shape as you wrap. Be careful to make sure it holds the heart shape. 

• If you are using multiple colors, be sure to alternate between the two colors when you’re wrapping. 

• Tuck in the loose thread.

• Hot glue the hearts to the canvas.

If your child loves to paint, consider having them paint the canvas, making sure it fully dries before sticking anything on it. A bright solid color like yellow or blue can make the red hearts pop and add another dimension to this simple project. 

Crafting for Valentine’s Day gives you a chance to spend quality time with your child and allows your child to spread love through homemade gifts. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

4 Science Projects to Try at Home

Some of the best education happens at home. Teaching your child about science doesn’t have to mean buying a microscope kit, choosing a science camp to send your child to or taking trips to the science museum. Try these simple science projects with your child at home to make scientific concepts more relatable. 

Create and Play with Oobleck

Oobleck is a prime example of a non-Newtonian fluid. This means it acts like a liquid when being poured and like a solid when any amount of force is applied. Then, when the force goes away, it turns right back into its liquid form. Oobleck started out as a fictional substance that fell from the sky in the Dr. Seuss book “Bartholomew and the Oobleck.” The real-life version makes for an easy, fun science experiment. 

Here’s how it works:

• Slowly mix 1 cup water with 1.5 - 2 cups of cornstarch together. 

• You may need to add more cornstarch. Do so slowly until you reach the desired consistency, liquid yet solid. Due to the texture, you should mix it with your hands. 

• When you reach the solid/liquid consistency, add food coloring as a finishing touch. 

Try squeezing the Oobleck, making it into a puddle and dragging your fingers through it, or shaking it up in a plastic container. If you have older kids (and aren’t afraid to get a little messy), consider putting more Oobleck into a plastic kiddie pool and having your child run across it. You and your child won’t be able to help participating in this experiment together.  

Put an Egg in a Glass Bottle

Playing with food always makes for fun science experiments. The idea of this experiment is watching an egg peel itself to fit into a container. It will require your help or supervision, as it requires fire. Pick a glass bottle with a small opening, one that’s at least half the diameter of an egg. Birthday candles will make this experiment more visually exciting, but you can use matches if you have them. 

Here’s how it works:

• Start by boiling and peeling an egg. You may want to boil and peel a few just in case something goes wrong. Worst case scenario, you have a snack for later! 

• Next, stick one or three small birthday candles in one end of the egg, pushed in firmly, not deep enough to make the egg fall apart. 

• Light the candles. 

• Place the lit end of the egg/candle into an upside-down bottle, letting a little bit of air in for a few seconds. 

• Then, lower the bottle early, and watch the egg shrink to fit as it falls in. 

This experiment shows how liquid, solids and gasses work together to cause pressure as they react to one another. 

Homemade Lava Lamp

Some of the most fun home science experiments are done with items you can find in your kitchen. The homemade lava lamp experiment also uses an ingredient that most people have in their medicine cabinets: Alka-Seltzer. 

Here’s how it works:

• Grab a clean transparent PET water bottle or clear cup, vegetable oil, water, Alka-Seltzer and food coloring. You’ll also want a funnel to make it easier to pour in all the ingredients. 

• Start by filling the water bottle halfway with water and adding in a few drops of food coloring. 

• Fill the rest of the water bottle with cooking oil, giving the contents a little bit of time to settle and separate. 

• Next comes the Alka-Seltzer tablet. If you’re using a bottle, break the tablet into quarters before dropping it in if needed to make it fit. If you’re using a cup, drop the tablet in whole.

Then, watch the colored water swirl through the oil, creating a lava lamp effect! The Alka-Seltzer turned this basic water-and-oil project into a fascinating look into perpetual motion. This helps demonstrate what it looks like when multiple chemical reactions are happening at once. 

Sugar Water Density Rainbow

Creating a rainbow with sugar, water and food coloring will require a little bit of patience, but the end result will be worth it for an older child or teen. This experiment will show how different amounts of sugar and food coloring create different densities, allowing what looks like colorful water to be layered. 

How it works:

• For this experiment, you will need sugar, water, food coloring, five glasses, a tablespoon and a pipette or syringe. 

• Start by filling the first four glasses with water, leaving the fifth one empty. 

• Add two to three drops of red food coloring to one glass, yellow to another, green to the third and blue to the fourth glass. 

• Add one tablespoon of sugar to the yellow, two to the green, and three to the blue. 

• Stir the solutions in each glass until the sugar dissolves. 

• Fill ¼ of the empty cup with the blue solution using the syringe or pipette. 

• Then, fill with ¼ of the green, ¼ of the yellow and ¼ of the red. Do this slowly to ensure that the colors don’t mix. 

Then, voila! You have a liquid rainbow! This is because each of the liquids has a different density, which allows them to sit on top of each other as long as the experiment is done carefully. 

Our school encourages project-based learning in the classroom and at home. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

Helping Your Child Stay Safe Online

The internet can be a great resource for people of all ages, but it comes with inherent risks. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to online attacks, whether they’re by scammers, cyberbullies or others who are up to no good. You may be afraid to allow your child to explore the educational and fun side of the internet because of its dark side. However, as long as you work to keep your child safe, being online can be a positive experience for them. Here are a few ways you can protect your child when they use the internet. 

Learn About the Risks

To keep your child safe, you need to know about the potential risks involved with being online. The top three threats for children are cyberbullying, online predators and exposure to inappropriate content. Keeping your child safe from these and other online safety risks can feel overwhelming. Here are a few tips on how to get started:

• Tell your child never to share personal information, especially phone numbers, addresses, school names and photos. Their privacy is valuable, especially online.

• Don’t let your child use your credit card. If they want something that can only be bought online, buy it for them after doing your own research, confirming that it’s from a reputable source.

• Adjust privacy settings on your child’s profiles. This is going to be one of the best ways to protect them from unwanted online attention. Make sure they don’t accept friend requests from strangers. 

Get Involved

Set guidelines with your child regarding internet use and screen time. Help them understand that it’s important for them to spend time away from the computer and with others. Advise them on safety tips, like not responding to threatening messages and letting a trusted adult know if any communications are scary or hurt their feelings. If they talk about meeting online friends, don’t let them do so without being there with them — and make sure it’s in a highly visible public place. Spend time online together to teach your child appropriate online behavior. Knowing how to behave online is essential to staying safe online.

Check In

Ask your child what they’re doing when they spend a lot of time online. If the answer isn’t straightforward, it may be time to have a deeper conversation about whether what they’re doing online is appropriate. If they seem upset after being online, see if you can find out why. Cyberbullying is a common problem among children and teens, and in some cases, it can be worse than in-person bullying. Comments made online can always be returned to, and the bullying doesn’t stop when they leave school.

Consider Parental Controls

If it seems like your child keeps stumbling upon inappropriate content, or if they’re young enough that you want them to avoid the risk, consider setting up parental controls. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have built-in controls you can use. There are also several websites and apps that can steer you in the right direction. Keep in mind that when children and teens are told not to view something, they’re going to wonder why, and they may seek it out. This is one reason why it’s important to communicate with your child and keep tabs on their online activity. 

At North Tampa Christian Academy, we want to make sure the internet is a positive place for our students to be. Our Tampa private school allows students to thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

5 Fun Ways to Decorate Pumpkins

Fall is here, and suddenly pumpkins are all around us. Adults are enjoying pumpkin spice lattes in the morning, and kids are trying pumpkin spice snacks. One of the most time-honored fall traditions, however, is pumpkin decorating. Displaying a pumpkin inside or outside of your house is a great way to ring in the season and show off your creative side. Traditionally, pumpkins are carved into a facial shape, but lately, pumpkin decoration has gone to all-new levels. Here are a few fun ideas that anyone in the family can try.

Cover in Washi Tape

Washi tape was all the rage in DIY a few years ago, but it’s still around for those who like to be crafty without having to get their hands dirty. Teens may prefer this method of decorating, especially since it creates a cleaner result. Washi tape comes in all sorts of fun patterns, from geometric to floral to truly abstract. The great thing about being able to fully cover the pumpkin is that you don’t need to worry if your pumpkin is a little bruised. This strategy can also be used for plastic pumpkins if you prefer a reusable decoration. Just be sure to fill all gaps and spaces, and seal the tape in with mod podge.

Use Elements from Nature

The great thing about pumpkins is that they’re all natural. Whether you’re making your pumpkin into an animal shape or looking for a design that really says “fall,” dried leaves, acorns and more can all be used as decorations. Younger children will love going outside to collect crafting materials. Before using items gathered from outdoors, just make sure to look out for bugs. If you find leaves or pine cones that aren’t quite dry, take a few minutes to dry them in the oven at a low temperature. 

Nails and String

Poking nails into your pumpkin is a great way to achieve a 3D effect. If you and your child are looking to create a one-of-a-kind design, adding string to a simple shape can create the illusion of a spooky web texture. Simply find a shape, configure nails in a pattern around that shape, and tie string around the nails, making sure most of it crosses into the middle of the shape. As long as you have plenty of string, you can bring new textures and life to your pumpkin design. Paint around the design to create even more depth. 

Painting the Stripes

Choose two contrasting colors (or black and white if that’s what you’re going for) and paint over the pumpkin stripes. The best way to do this is by painting the lighter color first. That way, when you find a rhythm, you won’t have to worry about painting the light color over the dark color. Your pumpkin will look like a work of art, even though you’ve chosen a fairly simple way to decorate it.

Creating a Stencil 

If you love carving but aren’t a fan of pumpkin guts, there’s always the option of carving only the outside. You can create a work of stencil art, which involves less effort than conventional carving and leaves more room for detail and creativity in your design. You can find a stencil design online, print it out, and trace it onto your pumpkin. From there, you should have a fairly easy time making a fun pumpkin without worrying about your child carrying a large knife.

At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.