Florida Department of Education Curriculum Collaborative Challenge Grant for the Gifted
This project will create an outdoor classroom providing enhanced learning experiences for students grades K-5 enrolled in Sunset Elementary’s gifted program. Students will take part in project-based learning experiences centered around environmental re-search activities in the outdoor classroom, which will serve as a hands-on learning labo-ratory. Projects will integrate standards-based mathematics, science, language arts and social studies activities, developing advanced critical thinking and reasoning skills among the target students while also enhancing environmental science learning opportunities for the broader student body. The nearby Miami Museum of Science will provide additional curriculum resources and teacher training, further enriching the experience.
Outdoor Classroom
Goals and Objectives
The overall goal of the proposed project is to provide enhanced science learning ex-periences for students at Sunset Elementary, in support of school-wide efforts to achieve and maintain excellence in all core academic areas. Specific objectives are:
1. To engage students enrolled in Sunset’s integrated science and mathematics gifted program in
in-depth, inquiry-based, age appropriate science learning opportunities;
2. To extend the benefits of the outdoor classroom resource to students school wide; and
3. To utilize the outdoor science classroom as a vehicle for engaging the broader community, including parents and children from other schools, in learning experi-ences that celebrate Sunset students’ achievements.