School of Education Welcomes Middle School Students to Campus

March 16, 2014

BUFFALO, NY – The Canisius University School of Education, in collaboration with its professional development schools (PDS), Tapestry Charter School and the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center, Buffalo Public School #99, will showcase the academic projects of the schools' fourth, fifth and sixth grade students during events on March 18 and March 21.

On Tuesday, March 18, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., more than 100 fifth and sixth grade students from Tapestry Charter School will display their works from “Believing in What You Cannot See” in the Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center (Regis Room, North).

During this three month learning expedition, students followed in the footsteps of famous historical scientists and transformational thinkers, asking questions and seeking answers to things that were way too big or too small to see with their own eyes. Tapestry students applied measures of analytic thinking and imagination, logic and intuition to answer such fundamental questions as: What are the suitable conditions to sustain life; How do we know the Earth revolves around the sun; What causes the moon to stay in orbit with the Earth; and How many stars are in the universe?  

As a culminating project, Tapestry students utilized skills and content obtained in science, mathematics, humanities and English language arts to demonstrate their understanding of intangible science concepts. Students created scaled models or visualizations of the scientific ideas they investigated.

On Friday, March 21, from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., more than 130 fourth grade students from the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center, Buffalo Public School #99, will present “Research Exhibition”in the Grupp Fireside Lounge of the Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center. The exhibit is the culmination of an assignment in which students were asked to develop an interesting question, gather and analyze data to answer the question and to then develop a formal multi-media presentation based on their findings. The “Research Exhibition” is part of the school's International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum.

The Canisius University School of Education adopted the professional development school model in 2008. The program emphasizes strategic educational partnerships between a collegiate education program and K-12 schools, to jointly meet the needs of teacher-candidates and improve student learning, overall. In addition to Tapestry Charter School and the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center, Canisius maintains PDS agreements with Lindbergh Elementary School in Kenmore, Sweet Home Middle School in Amherst and the Charter School for Applied Technology.

For more information on the academic projects that will be showcased at Canisius University, contact Nancy Wallace, PhD, director of educational partnerships, at 888-2768.

Canisius University is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier, private university in Western New York.

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