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MIDDLE SCHOOL HOLDS EXHIBITION AT NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTER
Middle school students in Lancaster Mennonite School’s LMMSConnect! project-based learning program held an exhibition at Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on November 2. Exhibitions are opportunities for students engaged in the LMMSConnect! program to actively present projects to an authentic audience of family members, friends, and members of the community, showing their understanding of what they have learned throughout the quarter.
The first quarter of the school year challenged LMMSConnect! students to become active participants in their communities with the theme, “Putting the ‘I’ in Citizenship.” Teachers and students worked from the understanding that active citizens take responsibility and initiative in areas of public concern and use their gifts and talents to better their communities.
“As followers of Jesus Christ, it is our calling to be stewards, mindful of our local and global responsibility to care about our resources and well-being, as well as the resources and well-being of others,” said Liz Landis, Lancaster Mennonite Middle School principal and Lancaster Campus associate principal.
Students needed to think about the following questions: What is my role in the LMMSConnect! community? What are the Ten Daily Habits and how do they influence our learning and our community? How do I identify my communities and my roles and responsibilities in each of them? How do we identify needs and strengths of a community? How do we enact change in our community?
Service learning was central to this quarter. Each day, one group of students visited Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, building relationships with residents and participating with them in a variety of activities.
After conducting a needs analysis, students worked in groups to design and construct improvements for the residents of Conestoga View. Some of these improvements included a sensory garden, birdhouses, wall art, a wheelchair-accessible picnic table, cushions, a succulent planter and a wheelchair-accessible bench.
The quarter culminated with the Exhibition evening hosted by Conestoga View at which students displayed and explained their projects and what they learned in the process. Principal Landis says that Lancaster Mennonite Middle School plans to continue ongoing relationships with Conestoga View residents.
Lancaster Mennonite Middle School is on the Lancaster Campus of Lancaster Mennonite School, 2176 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, and serves 127 students in grades 6-8.
PHOTOS:
A crowd of residents, teachers, parents, grandparents gathers to see presentations of LMMS student projects at Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
A Lancaster Mennonite High School teacher listens to a group of middle school students explain a project at Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.