Project-based learning at City View comes to life with ‘soil expo’

CEDAR RAPIDS — City View Community High School freshman Lorelai Slater helped guests plant lavender, cabbage or sweet pea seeds into degradable planters as a way to teach them how soil conservation can slow down — and even reverse — the effects of climate change.

Slater, 15, and the other members of her group — fellow freshmen Jack Stillmunkes, 15, and Jaelynn Tatro, 14— were putting their knowledge into practice Thursday morning at City View’s “Soil Expo: Fighting Climate Change Underground.”

As part of their science and Language Arts classes, teams of students researched different ways soil can naturally fight climate change in Eastern Iowa and became experts for the expo.

Forty high school freshmen were put into 14 groups that participated in the expo, inviting the community, their families and peers to learn more about how to combat climate change through the soil.

This is how City View Community High School — a new project-based school in the Cedar Rapids Community School District that launched in August — is engaging students in learning.

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Students are learning by applying their knowledge to real-world problems in Cedar Rapids and creating solutions.

“It’s not just for grades,” Slater said. “It’s fun to be able to have an experience. It’s experience-based learning more than grade-based learning. Of course, we’re encouraged to get good grades, but we get to pick our interests as well.”

For this experience Thursday, students researched, analyzed text, engaged in discussion, learned how to write professional emails and applied all this knowledge to a final project.

Angeline Troh and Precious Howard, both 15 and freshmen at City View, researched composting for their soil expo project. During the expo, they shared how people can start their own “composting journey.”

At City View, “I think I’m learning more about real-life stuff,” Howard said.

Other students presented on silvopasture, the deliberate integration of trees and grazing livestock to manage woodland pasture; green roofs, which adds vegetation to a roof to reduce building energy by providing shading and insulation and creating a new habitat for plants and animals like birds and insects; and the benefits of a plant-rich diet and reducing animal consumption.

“The things they’re gaining from these experiences are indescribable,” said Liz Deutsch, an English Language Arts teacher at City View who guided students through the soil expo projects. “There’s been a lot of building and planning and putting all the pieces together. It’s been fantastic, very creative.

“What we have done is show students how English Language Arts standards apply to more than just the English classroom,” Deutsch said.

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Deutsch and a few other City View teachers visited a school in Seattle, Washington, earlier this year that has been using the project-based learning model since 2016. One of the educators there told Deutsch the project-based learning model ensures students have “resumes at the end of high school that took me until my mid- to late-20s to develop.”

“How articulate and confident the students were there was impressive,” Deutsch said.

City View science teacher Ann Jameson said the educators at City View have been “building the plane as we fly it.” Students have a lot of choice in how they learn and apply their learning. “We’ve had some really cool ideas,” she said.

This project is an example of students meeting learning objectives in ninth-grade science and Language Arts by learning from experts in the field in Iowa and interacting with the community to show how they understand what they’ve learned, said City View Principal Dan DeVore.

“It’s one of many examples of community based contextualized learning,” DeVore said. “Students engage every afternoon in team based projects that solve real problems in our community.”

The school is located in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids on the first floor of the Metro Economic Alliance, 501 First St. SE. Staff at the Alliance occupy the second floor. While some classes meet in rooms that resemble boardrooms more than traditional classrooms, students mostly use tables in the open concept office.

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In researching for the soil expo, students reached out to experts in the community to learn what is happening in Iowa. One of these experts is Hailee Sandberg, Linn County director of the Iowa State Extension and Outreach.

“Working with the students at City View has been a pleasure,” Sandberg said. “They are excited and energetic, ask great questions and have big ideas. So much of the project-based learning that they are doing have a direct connection to the work we do at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and we are so glad they reached out to partner with us.”

Another group of students researching forest conservation reached out to Mark Vitosh, a district forester with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Vitosh said he met with City View students for about 30 minutes while they asked him questions related to the 2020 derecho, the impact of drought on forests and how trees help combat climate change.

Vitosh said it’s always great when students reach out wanting to learn more about their community. “It will help them as consumers in the future and may encourage them to consider a different career. I would like to see more and more of it,” he said.

Adapting to teach project-based learning

The school has adapted to the needs of its students and staff since it launched in August. They learned that the model requires a small learning environment to ensure every student “masters the core skills and content knowledge and can authentically apply these skills in community contexts,” DeVore said.

Enrollment into City View has dropped from 110 students to 74 students since the beginning of the school year. Nine students were accepted into the school but never registered. Eleven left before the end of the semester and another 16 left at the end of the semester, DeVore said.

The majority of these students that left City View transferred to another high school in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. Students left or “were encouraged to leave” for not attending, missing their friends at the larger high school, seeking more traditional experiences and opportunities and struggling to understand the project-based learning model, DeVore said.

DeVore said he anticipates a total enrollment of 150 students for the 2024-25 school year, including 75 school lottery spots, a randomized selection process for determining which students will attend. Students interested in attending City View next year can reach out to school leaders at 319-558-2093.

There will be two “big refinements” to student’s experience next year as educators continue to learn how best to deliver the project-based learning model, DeVore said.

Students will be offered opportunities for internships to “push students to find their passion areas and work on authentic community issues,” DeVore said. The school also will build on their advisory program to ensure every student is connected at school.

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