Iowa BIG’s ‘grander’ purpose forms rural partnership

ALBURNETT — Alburnett students will get to participate in Iowa BIG’s project-based learning in their own backyard this year with a new satellite location open today for the first day of school.

The location is opening in partnership with the North-Linn Community School District, giving North-Linn High School students in Coggon the option to enroll in Iowa BIG for the first time.

Trace Pickering, Iowa BIG executive director and co-founder, said the Alburnett and North-Linn partnership is a great example of how the program could continue to expand to more rural school districts.

The Alburnett center will be staffed by Alburnett and North-Linn teachers. They will have access to professional development through Iowa BIG and Pickering will provide some administrative support. The teachers are “really solid folks who understand the mission,” Pickering said.

The program gives students a “playground” to experiment with their own interests, passions and abilities, said Matt White, a secondary social studies and Iowa BIG teacher at Alburnett.

“One of the bigger differences I’ve noticed teaching at Iowa BIG is a lot of the work and learning that takes place is impacting somebody other than the students themselves,” White said. “The purpose is much grander and bigger.”

Last year, Iowa BIG students in Cedar Rapids produced a documentary that explored youth gun violence. Another group created a podcast called “Power and Peace,” which dived in to the relationship between Cedar Rapids police and the community.

In Alburnett, students partnered with Tanager Place to create design plans for remodeling a space at the Estle Center, 1030 Fifth Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, for LGBTQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer — youth.

Through this project, students learned about the construction process including electrical and plumbing work, and gained skills in public speaking when they presented their model to the Tanager Place board, White said.

While students in the Alburnett Community School District have had the option of enrolling in Iowa BIG in the past, they had to travel to Cedar Rapids to take the course. The district decided to open its own location this year after the Linn-Mar Community School District ended its five-year partnership with Iowa BIG to start its own project-based learning program available to all their high school students.

Iowa BIG closed its location off Blairs Ferry Road, at 5313 N. Park Place NE, Cedar Rapids, which primarily served Linn-Mar and Alburnett students. This left Alburnett students needing a closer location for the Iowa BIG program.

About 20 Alburnett and up to five North-Linn high school students are enrolled in the Alburnett Iowa BIG location at 115 S Main Ave., Alburnett. The building is owned by the Alburnett Community School District.

“I have a passion for making sure we have many pathways for our students, and Iowa BIG has been a part of that for many years,” Alburnett Superintendent Dani Trimble said.

The cost of the program is $120,000, which includes the salary for three part-time teachers. Alburnett will pay 78 percent and North-Linn will pay 22 percent of the cost of the program.

“I think it’s a program kids can get a lot out of. They find a project, get motivated to do it, and that type of learning is not what they would get in a typical classroom,” said North-Linn Superintendent Dave Hoeger.

Brian Moretz, Alburnett secondary principal, is glad students will continue to have more learning options.

“We hear in business that what employers want from employees is collaboration, being given a problem and coming up with a solution,” Moretz said. “Iowa BIG is an opportunity for students to work on those skills. The teacher doesn’t give them the answer.”

Alburnett also is launching an exploratory program for sixth- through eighth- grade students to introduce them to the Iowa BIG concept.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com