This article was written by Susan Breedlove, and CCA staff Jill Hartmann Arielle Rocca
The Community Connected Academy (CCA) is a program at Henry High School for some juniors and seniors that puts an emphasis on project-based learning, social justice and community engagement.
Students learn through authentic projects. They learn how to critically think, what it means to be creative, what collaboration looks like, and how to communicate effectively while getting to know and advocate for themselves
The CCA Program at Henry has created a culture of family. And there is an emphasis on internships/partnerships with individuals and companies and establishments to explore careers of interest.
CCA group and individual projects were shared by Henry students at their CCA Exhibition of Quarter 3 on March 30. We had staff, underclassmen, district leadership from MPS, families and faculty from other schools learn from our students. Here are some of the student projects, and reflections that event coordinator and science teacher Jill Hartmann got back from visitors:
Creation of a National Park Portfolio in Environmental Science class as part of an advertising duo for the National Parks Service. The portfolio included a persuasive essay, poster and artist statement. “I never really knew about national parks before. They seem like a cool place to visit. I really want to visit the one in the U.S. Virgin Islands – it looked so beautiful. Plus, there is like nature and stuff that needs to be taken care of and that would be cool to see too before its gone.”
Design a slideshow and model for a Sustainable Farm based on the four tenets of agroecology. “You can have a sustainable farm in your own backyard?!”
Financial Exploration using college prep algebra and statistics to plan for future careers, budgets, housing, transportation, credit, debt, etc., sharing the plans through google slides. “I learned about how to get credit and how to get a good credit score. I’ve never learned about that in school before and it is definitely something that I will need to know about for my future life.”
Applying an Economic Justice focus on research of the Black Panther’s Ten-Point Program, created posters on collaborative economics. “I had really good conversations with seniors about community-based economics and how we could be doing so much more for our neighborhood. I also did not really realize how much things impact economics. Like police brutality is bad already, but then learning about how it actually puts Black people at a disadvantage to making money just makes it even worse.”
Using chemistry skills, design their own Periodic Table on a product of interest, such as a particular kind of breakfast cereal, to show patterns and relationships among elements. “I had to give my tickets to the periodic tables about cereal. How can you go wrong with something so delicious?”
Using chemistry skills design, conduct and analyze experiments in an Electrolyte Lab to determine if ionic bonds were present in a substance. “But like where did they get holy water for their lab from? And how is holy water different than regular water? I have so many questions.”
Designing unique Polynomial Art using algebra skills of polynomial equations. “I really thought the [polynomial] equation art was so pretty and the hacker one made me laugh. I can’t believe that upper classmen can just write their own equations and then know what that looks like in like art.”
Creation of an Encyclopedia of Religions specifically for young children to understand the ideas and perspectives of religion. “Hmong shamanism was really cool. Like it’s so different from my religion.”
For more info on the CCA Program at Henry, go to the Vimeo.com site. If you or your company would like to provide an internship for a CCA student or students, or would like to tell them about your career, contact Arielle Rocca 312-402-2664.