Hello and welcome to the first article featuring the 7th-grade S.T.E.A.M Magnet PBL! Now, before we start, what is PBL? PBL translates to project-based learning and is what the S.T.E.A.M Magnet students learn and work on with their semester projects. Each grade is tasked with a different PBL project, teaching new skills throughout the way. Some of these skills include public speaking, 3D modeling, story writing, and group collaboration. All of these skills are useful for future grades and career options

Let’s move on to why we do these projects. PBL addresses the common core standards and provides opportunities for students to use technology and collaborate with students in new ways. PBL projects are based on an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge. Currently, the Seventh-grade S.T.E.A.M Magnet students are working on their Future Cities PBL. This project is based on the driving question, In 100 years how will cities face the Climate Change Crisis? This is the base question that students are building their projects on. The students started this project on the 8th of September, and have been working on it ever since. The students will have to finish this project by the first week of December for judging.

Here is the perspective of a seventh-grade magnet student Zoe Brodin. “How are you feeling about the Future Cities PBL?” “I am feeling confident that my team will get the job done and get a good score,” says Zoe. “ For this PBL I hope to achieve special skills in sketch-up and to achieve more knowledge about what’s going on in the world, and how I can make a difference,” I asked many other students this question and a lot of students said the same thing, but many students were still confused but were looking forward to this project. Ethan Zamudio, another magnet student, was asked this question as well. “I feel confident and excited because I don’t know what’s in store for me yet.” says Ethan, “I feel kind of nervous and confident about working on this project because I’ve never really done it before and that’s something I don’t think you can prepare for.” Other students said similar things like Zoe and Ethan, but overall I think that the students are excited about this project.

On September 30th, 2022 the magnet seventh graders took a trip to downtown L.A. to visiting the Disney Concert Hall. The purpose of this field trip was to walk around Downtown L.A. on essentially a scavenger hunt to study the architecture of the buildings and how each building has its unique urban design. For their project, they have to design their unique urban design for each building and have its personal touch.

Well, that wraps up what the seventh-grade magnet is up to! Stay tuned for the next article to get the facts and the perspective of the students in the Seventh Grade S.T.E.A.M Magnet.

Gallery|10 Photos

Sophia Taylor

This is one of the designs of architecture in downtown LA.