Since 1999, the ADSOE Care Center College-Reach Out Program (CROP) has engaged sixth through 12th-grade students in activities that motivate and prepare them to pursue a post-secondary education.
Currently enrolled ADSOE students (CROP mentors) and Miami Jackson Senior High School students recently joined together to embark on an interdisciplinary learning adventure — "Ecosystem Design" — at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
Students rotated through hands-on, STEM-based activity stations. They learned to use tools, enhanced their critical thinking skills, and investigated current topics in science to explore how they can become part of the solution to some of our most pressing environmental challenges (i.e. adaptations and functions of desert and rain forest ecosystems).
Highlights of the initiative included:
- Based on their observations, students created their own nature-inspired inventions and reflected on how they, as individuals, can reduce resource consumption.
- Based on their observation of several ecological principles, students worked together to design and reflect on how their observations of nature can be applied to promote environmental sustainability.