Their Final Project:
Explain It to a
Six-Year-Old
To prove they’ve mastered the material, these
seniors are returning to first grade.
Every high school teacher has a go-to lesson plan for combatting
senioritis: Some raise the stakes with a large-scale final project.
Others load a movie to engage relaxed students.
But for some seniors at Archbishop Wood High School in
Warminster, creating a lesson plan is the assignment.
The project is called Science is Fun. Its goal? Explain complex
environmental and health issues in a science fair, just a few weeks
before graduation. And the audience? The first graders of Nativity
of Our Lord Grade School, also in Warminster.
“I saw the need for a more dynamic
activity. I wanted students to
have something meaningful they
could remember, so they could
look back on this event to recall
what they learned.”
This interaction between younger and older students creates a
memorable exchange of ideas. Elementary students get excited to
see new concepts applied in real life. And the graduates-to-be are
challenged to research and showcase their favorite topics in a
new light.
“To teach the lessons to elementary students, we needed to have
a deeper understanding of the materials — and a more creative
approach,” says Kate Horan, a 2017 Archbishop Wood graduate who
presented a lesson on lungs. “We took it seriously because we were
responsible for teaching the kids what we were doing.”
Science is Fun began as a collaboration between first grade Nativity
of Our Lord teacher Mary Beth Conricode and Archbishop Wood
teacher Bridget McLaughlin, who teaches honors biology and
environmental science.
“I saw the need for a more dynamic activity at the end of the year,
where students could apply the concepts they were interested in,”
McLaughlin says. “I wanted them to have something meaningful
they could remember, so they could look back on this event to recall
what they learned.”
In that regard, the program has been a success. McLaughlin reports
that the novelty of filling the teacher’s shoes — along with the
freedom of choosing their own topics — motivates students to
produce some of their best work.
Each group of seniors must delegate tasks, write a central “take-
home message,” prepare presentation materials, and tie the lesson
10