Mission: Explore
Centennial students get hands-on learning
Centennial Middle School students have been having fun “exploring.”
The school’s Explore classes, which are offered every-other quarter, let students have hands-on fun in the classroom while exploring various subjects such as coding; automation and robotics; web design; capturing reality; spheros; immune system; fab lab; trebuchet; journalism; band; Lego League; film in literature; and eco gardening.
According to Principal Helen Coffeen, there are actually more than 30 classes, and students put on a learning showcase Wednesday night to show off what kind of fun they’ve been having.
“There are many things we can do with the projects,” said eighth-grader Angelica Sigala, who was helping out in the GAP lab with robotics and automation. “There are four to six kids in each project, which makes it more fun.”
“Once you start, you don’t want to let go,” said Theresa Torres, who was demonstrating how to control a sphero ball through an obstacle course.
The students take an advanced science or math course prior to the explore classes, said student Julia Whitson, then apply what they have learned in the elective course.
“It’s pretty cool...,” she said. “But sometimes the teachers aren’t allowed to learn about it, and that definitely makes it more of a challenge, but it does give you some hands-on experience and you learn how to do it yourself.”
But the classes aren’t focused solely on the middle schoolers, said student Abril Aguirre, who has been taking a nutrition science class.
“We got to go over to Pueblo (Elementary) yesterday and we got to talk and to share food and discuss why your diet shouldn’t be all junk food and how to incorporate healthy eating into your life.”
The classes have been a joy and a release, Aguirre said, from the mundane stereotype of middle school.
“It’s a nice relaxation — you get to work with your friends on fun stuff instead of writing until your hand hurts like most kids do in every class…. which kind of gets tiring period after period.”