Expert Project / Hero's Journey Project

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share some information with you concerning our two projects: Expert Project on Ecosystems and our Hero's Journey Project.

EXPERT PROJECT ON ECOSYSTEMS

I am attaching the expert project documentation here and here. This is the same document I handed to the kids on Friday. The first document outlines the project.


  1. Research for the project will primarily be done at school (though your child can work on it at home if they would like). Research will be collected on a Google Document so I can keep track of their progress. Here is a link to that document. The research will is Friday, October 11.
There are two parts of this expert project which ask students to create a visual / creative representation of their ecosystems. All dates are tentative just in case we need an additional day or so.
  1. Diorama Tentative Due Date: October 18th
    1. This is to be done primarily at home. You shouldn't need to help them much in this area unless they ask. As we get closer to the due date I may open up time in class to work on this. 
    2. The requirements for the diorama can be found on the ecosystems expert project. The other form I included gives students a chance to map out their ecosystem before they start building it. This form should be used to guide the creation of their diorama.
    3. This is my favorite part of the project. I love the amount of creativity students use in the construction of their diorama. 
  2. Poster and Presentation Tentative Due Date: October 25th
    1. The poster is to support the diorama and will be done primarily at school. The poster will be used to explain the various parts of the diorama. See the expert project document.
    2. For the poster, students will need to print out pictures of their food chain, food web, etc. All pictures students collect should be put into ONE Google document they will share with me. That way I can print the pictures out at school (unless they want to print pictures at home).
    3. The presentation will most likely follow the poster. The presentation is for the expert project share fair. Once we have a date for this project I will send an email.

For the last several weeks we have studied the Hero's Journey. When authors write a hero's journey story, they typically follow a similar format. It's this format that we are studying. One of the ways students are to demonstrate their knowledge of the hero's journey is to create a visual representation of the modern hero's journey.

There is no start date as of yet. I want to make sure students have worked on a majority of their expert project before I have them dive deep into this project. We will probably start this project after their dioramas are completed.

Before we start this project, we will continue to go through various parts of the Hero's Journey in class. We will continue to look at the Hero's Journey in books, but will also watch a couple of movies so students are prepared for this project. One movie will be The Neverending Story and the second movie will be either Star Wars (the original movie we grew up with) or Toy Story 4. If you have any objections to these movie please let me know.
  1. Here is the documentation and rubric on our Hero's Journey Project.
  2. Students will be asked to watch a movie that follows the Hero's Journey format. I have included a list of movies, but students will probably know more movies than I, that follow the hero's journey. On the Hero's Journey Project sheet, I have a section that needs to be filled out before they watch the movie. While the ratings of the movies on the list range from G to PG-13, I want to make sure they have your approval to watch that specific movie. (I know that just because a movie is PG doesn't mean the movie may not have scenes or words your family may find inappropriate. )
  3. Students are to watch the movie twice: once to enjoy the movie and understand the nuances of the movie, and the second time to record 2-3 sentences describing each part of the Hero's Journey. They will record their information on the document I included here.
And as always, if any of this information is confusing, please feel free to email or come into the class to talk. But really, knowing the information should fall on the shoulders of your child. Since most of the work will be done in class, there should be no reason to not understand the requirements of both projects.



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