Our Grade 4/5 students are part of our Math extended learning program for higher ability mathematicians. This Project-Based Learning unit is organizing a charity walk-a-thon for Hand2Paw, a Prem charity to help local stray dogs. This is a completely student-driven unit, where the students run the operation and make decisions to maximize profits that go to the charity.
We wanted to find out a bit more about this amazing initiative so we asked the students to give us some insight into what they are enjoying and what they have learnt being part of a team!
Why are you raising money for hand2paw?
We are raising money for hand2paw because we are trying to help the animals hand2paw is helping. We all care about animals so it made sense.
Who came up with the idea of a walkathon?
We all thought about ideas to raise money for hand2paw and then A. Benjamin thought of the walk–a–thon, but we organized everything else and A. Benjamin took down all the ideas.
Has it been difficult to organise?
It wasn’t too difficult. The difficulties that we faced were around having to delay the project because of online learning. Also, we weren’t able to do everything we wanted for instance because the dogs we wanted to bring might be scared of people so we basically had to abandon that plan. Also, we can’t organize the entertainment as we planned because it is hard to coordinate because of online.
What has been the most fun thing you learnt during this process?
We liked coming up with ideas and organising things because we could be very creative. Learning how to use Airtable to organize and Kanbans.
The bamboo structure that you walk through after every lap is a great idea! Who came up with that?
The group came up with the idea. We needed a way to celebrate finishing a lap and starting another one. So we came up with the idea of building an archway like one of those in front of Japanese/Chinese temples. We also wanted to promote the farm and what they do.
Thank you to all of the students who took the time to talk with us! We look forward to the charity event next week!
Jane Waterman
Admissions and Marketing