ACTIVE EXPLORATION

Signature Projects are characterized by active exploration. In the classroom, students engage in academically rigorous and challenging activities. In the community, students perform service to benefit the community and apply their learning to solve authentic/meaningful problems. Career-related aspects of the projects support active career exploration and help students to make adult connections.

Signature Projects are academically rigorous applied learning projects that are a hallmark of School to Career practice in Boston. Signature Projects are characterized by six A's:
   Authenticity
   Academic Rigor
   Applied Learning
Active Exploration
   Adult Connections
   Assessment

Examples of Community Activities

Web Site Project
O'Bryant

• Students planned, designed, developed, and created the new O'Bryant web site.
• Students fixed a web site design for the Development Leadership Network. This is a non-profit, national coalition involved in community development, making sure those with less power are represented equally.
• Created a template of working non-profit site where website owners can easily create more pages.

School to Career Pathway Video Project
Brighton

• Select student subject
• Create content for student profiles
• Visit student at home
• Tape students with family and friends
• Tape students at internship placement sites
• Interview internship supervisor
• Share, distribute and present video

Westie Water Wars Project
West Roxbury

• Learning Festival with themes of Utopian Communities and Recycle
• Students conduct interviews with family, Ohrenberger Elem. School buddies and professionals.
• Game show, Westie Water Wars, is part of Service Learning Festival.
• Exchange E-mail with new Mexican and local elementary buddies and share project progress. Products: E-mail letters including photo
• WHDH and WCVB partnerships offer regular program support
• Professionals offer technical and creative expertise and inspiration for students to aim for high standards
• Students meet with and visit professionals through shadows and see an expert in action
• Assemble E-Buddies mail and photos for publication Product: Chat books on water conversation
• Ohrenberger and Westie buddies share their activities with the parents at a community breakfast
• Student buddies create a bulletin board in the elementary school to publicize the activities of the two groups
• Students share their video products with Ohrenberger buddies

Business Plan (NFTE) Project
East Boston

• Students look at the community to determine a need as a focus for their business
• Develop contacts with business people and present entrepreneurship idea to them
• Individuals from the community act as judges for the business plan competition

One in a Million Class Fund Project
Charlestown

• Inform community about the class fund.
• Invite community to invest by holding an informational session with a short presentation and Q&A session.
• Students sell shares of stock in class fund to the public - members of the school faculty and staff, as well as students at Charlestown. Outside of school, they tap their friends, parents, relatives, neighbors, and employers. In each case they have to explain the fund and "sell" the idea by explaining our investing strategy. In one case students make an oral presentation to faculty at a small breakfast seminar before school. Each student is required to sell at least 3 shares.
• Create share certificates and contracts and answer questions about these documents to investors.
• Provide community with investment reports on the growing portfolio.
• Ultimately share this product in the School to Career Showcase.

ETA / City Build
Mary Baker Eddy Entryway Structural Design Project
Dorchester

• Students work in groups to complete the project and make presentation.
• Students work with an engineer to develop a floor plan for the project.
• Students develop a sample model of the structural landscape of the Baker House.
• Students make projections of the overall impact of new structure of the Mary Baker Eddy Library on the surrounding environment.

From pH to Parkland Project
Charlestown

• Use professional scientific protocol to complete field studies
• Visits with Ann Silva, Lynn Morgenstern, Ivey St. John, and an environmental lawyer introduce students to careers and avocations in community environmental activism
• Complete resume detailing skills gained during the project

Books and Bookings Project
East Boston

• Visit neighborhood historical and literary sites to better understand the impact of changing landscapes and populations within a diverse metropolitan area.
• Plan tours of Salem, Boston, Cambridge, and Concord on busses, trolleys and ducks (Duck Tours).

Children's Books - Read Them! Share Them! Write Them!
Boston High and West Roxbury

• Students volunteer to read aloud to young children at an after school program or learning festival
• Students read a loud at an elderly home to practice their reading skills and connect with their community
• Students email college students who are enrolled in an education program to investigate the career of teaching or related fields
• Students prepare a read aloud lesson for younger children and then implement that lesson at a learning festival
• Students create "refrigerator art" for elementary school children that gives tips to parents on how to make reading a priority in the home

Codman Square Lead Contamination Initiative
Dorchester

• Guest speaker provides students insight into organizing communities into action around issues of environmental concern.
• Students develop action plan for a case study with the guidance of guest speaker.
• Student teams gather and map samples from assigned sites around the school.
• Students research different levels of government and analyze the impact that each has on lead issues.
• Students read and analyze and determine the impact of proposed legislation.
• Students work in small groups to collect and organize information to present to the public about lead, through brochures, posters, and presentations.

Narrowing the Digital Divide by Building Computers Project
J.E. Burke

• Visit the Recycle Center/ Extras for Education - Enabling Center, Dorchester to collect used equipment and parts
• Develop action plan for distributing extra computers to other students or community organizations
• Present video to Roxbury YMCA After School Program
• Present to school community and other interested community groups

TechAssist - Helping Schools Help Themselves
Madison Park

• Students provide school classrooms with more and better-working working computers.
• Students restore formerly unusable computers to school service.
• Students provide more developed computer tech support service to the High Tech academy at Madison Park Tech Voc HS.
• Students provide valuable assistance to Teachers in the high tech academy who are having problems with the computers they are using.
• Students endeavor to provide well-developed computer tech support service (Help Desk) to assist smoother running of Madison Park Tech Voc's different academies' computers.
• Students endeavor to provide a model of Student Tech Support for other schools throughout the Boston Educational Community.
• Students endeavor to provide well-developed computer tech support service (TechBoston Consulting Group) to assist smoother running of Madison Park Tech Voc's different academies' computers.