The 6th Grade Language Arts class atAlbert Einstein Academy Elementary School – a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering Art and Math) based school focused on hands-on project based learning curriculum – were recently involved in a novel study of a book called, The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate.  The book is about a real gorilla named Ivan who was kept in a small mall enclosure for over 27 years and never went outside. Eventually, he was adopted by the Atlanta Zoo. During their study of this novel, their teacher led them through a series of projects to answer a guiding question, “Do humans have a right to capture or cage wild or endangered animals?” Another guiding question that they explored is, “How humans can impact wild animals and their habitats?”

One of the projects was to create a music video.  For this project, the teacher asked the students to research organizations  that had similar goals to what they are portraying in their videos about the animals they have selected to focus on as the topic of their video. The students believed that Pandas International matched their message. Part of our project-based curriculum is that students make meaningful pieces of work that are then shared out into the world so that they learn beyond the book and worksheet and can understand that they have a voice and can contribute to society in a meaningful way.

The students shared their video with us and we would like to share it with the world!

—————————————————————————–

Count On Me  by Bea Tan

—————————————————————————–

  Have you ever found yourself caged in the dark and you can’t see

I’ll be the light to guide you

If you ever find yourself in a zoo and cannot flee

I’ll risk my life to find you

Oooh

Ill find out what your made of

and tell people to stop encaging you

You can count on me like 1,2,3

Ill be there

And I know when I need it i can count on you like 4,3,2 you’ll be there

‘cause that’s what keeps you from getting extinct

Ooooooh, ooooh yeah, yeah

if your searching and youre searching

and you just can’t find some food

ill feed you some to help you

And if you ever forget how much you really mean to me

‘cause everyday i will protect you

Oooh

Ill find out what your made of and tell people to stop encaging you

You can count on me like 1,2,3

Ill be there

And I know when I need it i can

count on you like 4,3,2 you’ll be there

‘cause that’s what keeps you from getting extinct

Ooooooh, ooooh, yeah, yeah

You can count on me ’cause I’ll take care of you

🙂