Marblehead Community Charter Public School held its 25th annual Exhibition of Student Learning on Wednesday, June 14. Family and friends were invited to walk through the school and explore dozens of projects created and presented by the students.
This year’s event was the first full-school exhibition since before COVID. That’s partly why the school chose the theme of “community” this year.
“We try to make the projects themselves very big and very community-centered,” said Matt Taranto, seventh-grade learning specialist. “It’s the second word in our name — Marblehead Community Charter Public School — and we try to live by those values all the time.”
Each grade was assigned its own community-themed project. The fourth-grade focused on Native American archaeology and built a bridge out of craft supplies.
Half of the fifth grade gave presentations on outer space while the other half created their own story books, which they then read to children at local preschools.
Sixth-grade students created their own early civilizations modeled on Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. They built their own versions of the popular board game Catan, that they then played together as a class.
Seventh-graders incorporated their knowledge of Greco-Roman architecture into a miniature golf course that filled two classrooms. Students formed smaller groups and designed their own holes on the course, along with a displayed QR code that included a podcast on their specific theme of architecture.
Finally, eighth graders were split between building their own roller coasters, for which they had to calculate specific measurements to ensure the projects’ functionality, and a community service project in town.
No matter the subject of the project, Taranto said each student expressed levels of independence and understanding when presenting their work.
“The main appeal is that [the students] are the ones presenting,” said Taranto. “They’re the ones who work on it, they’re the ones who are proud of it, and we just want to give them the space to do it.”
