Winter 2024- Future Ready Spotlight

As a district, we want all of our learners to be #FutureReady so they can pursue their interests and passions throughout their educational experience in Piper as well as their lives beyond graduation. We seek to make this goal a reality though creating engaging, relevant learning experiences for ALL of our students, from the Piper Early Childhood Center all the way through Piper High School. In this edition of the Future Ready Spotlight, we want to showcase just a few of these experiences that are taking place within our district! Here are just a few of the things we've been up to this past winter!

Elementary students and teachers are currently immersed in their spring Elementary Future Ready projects! Learning goals for this year's projects are centered around three core elements: spotlighting individual student agilities (mix of skills and interests), fostering the attainment of Portrait of a Graduate age-appropriate competencies, and instilling empathy towards the issues being addressed.

One new topic this year includes 1st grade's focus on health, but uniquely differentiated for each class picking a topic to impact change in our community. Through hands-on experiences and real-world challenges, students are grasping the significance of their roles in shaping the future landscape of health care. Moreover, community engagement plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications. We will have a powerful medley of healthcare workers from doctors, to physical therapists, to mental health specialists coming to support their concepts for change. To facilitate this holistic approach, community members in all grade-level projects actively participate and share insights and perspectives with students. In turn, students reciprocate by articulating their ideas, seeking feedback, and engaging in meaningful dialogue. This exchange not only enriches the learning experience but also cultivates essential communication and collaboration skills vital for success in the 21st century.

The 6th grade Academy Prep students participated in their first Client-Connected Project (CCP) aligned with their investigation of the Piper High School Public Services Academy. Client-connected projects provide learners the opportunity to analyze and solve authentic problems with professionals from the industry. Our students used the Design Thinking framework to solve the challenges provided to them by the following community partners: the Kansas City Kansas Fire Department, Kansas City Kansas Police Department, the Wyandotte County Election Office, the Wyandotte County Health Department, and the Wyandotte County District Attorney's Office. On Thursday, February 29, the students pitched their solutions to the industry partners in a shark-tank-style presentation. This collaboration provided our business partners with tangible solutions and our students with a resume-worthy Real World Learning experience!

In the Fall of 2023, the district partnered with the Wyandotte County Unified Government Public Works Engineering Department to offer students a Real World Learning experience with significant community impact: designing the center of the first-ever roundabout in Kansas City, Kansas! The construction for the roundabout at Leavenworth Rd and Hutton Rd is already underway, and the anticipated completion date is near the end of July. However, full completion with the center design installed is anticipated to be completed in October 2024. As a part of their empathy work, our seven Senior PHS interns on this project have completed the following tasks:

• Consultation with the WyCo UG Engineering Department
• Consultation with Benesch Professional Services Firm
• Survey of Piper School District parents and guardians
• Survey of PHS students
• Consultations with landscape experts, artists and designers of large structures, and companies that create decorative rocks.

Once they have gained all the information they need, they will work together as a team to design a plan, pitch it to the Wyandotte County Unified Government, and create a bid for their project.

Please follow these future engineers, designers, businessmen, and project managers on the WyCO UG Website to follow the project. #FutureReady