Addressing needs in the school, the local community, or globally
Amana fosters students’ abilities to produce high-quality work by using industry methodologies like the Engineering Design Process or Design Thinking techniques. Further, students are exposed to industry professionals through fieldwork in their community, and through expert visitors who come to the classroom and demonstrate how the standards students are learning are applied in real-world settings. These experiences allow them to produce high-quality products that address needs in the school, in the local community, or globally.
Mad Housers
Hope House
The title of the eighth-grade culminating project is Be the Change. Students study the stories of people who have lost their human and civil rights. The Hope House is one of the final semester-long STEM products that allow students to learn about homelessness and be a change in their communities. Partnering with Mad Housers, a non-profit organization that provides shelters and other services for unhoused residents in Metro-Atlanta, students use their math, science, and engineering standards to build and improve a free-standing shelter that they then donate to a homeless resident in our community.
Outside-da-box first lego league robotics team
Equitable parking solutions
Amana’s Outside ‘Da Box Robotics team not only took home the championship trophy at the Georgia First Lego League Super Regionals Robotics Competition and advanced to the state competition in 2020; they also had the opportunity to present their automated solution to illegal parking in handicap spaces to GA State Senator John Albers. This group of middle schoolers hope to have a chance to present their project to a larger group of legislators soon, in an effort to implement their solution in parking lots throughout Georgia.
Forces of change
Adapted playspaces
Throughout this expedition, students learned about historical figures who brought great change in our nation: from men and women who were fighting for independence from England to those who freed slaves and fought for voting rights for women. Students learned how even ordinary people can make big changes. Students considered how they, too, can have a big impact at both the community level and the global level. They engaged in personal community service, as well as collaborative efforts to improve the lives of children who have difficulty using playground equipment. They utilized their science standards around simple machines and force and motion, along with the engineering design process, to develop plans for adaptive playground equipment in our local public park.