It starts with a SPARC

SPARC stands for Student Projects Advancing Real Change. At the beginning of the term, each student from Grade 6 to Grade 8 selected which SPARC group they wanted to explore.

The inaugural term of the Middle School SPARC program wrapped up in January with the completion of five projects to help community partners.

The options were Identity and Community, Environmental Stewardship, Technology, Social Justice and Advocacy, and Designing for Now and The Future.

“SPARC is an experiential learning program that allows our students to engage in creating authentic solutions for community partners. The five SPARC project areas are based on skills that we believe students are going to need for the future and on our Quaker values and what we believe our students should focus on to make the world greater, better, and more beautiful,” said Julie Clement, Director, Middle School.

Every Wednesday, students learned about their specific project area through excursions, guest speakers, and hands-on learning opportunities. Over the course of about five months, the students developed their solutions or end product.

The Designing for Now and the Future group worked with Paws and Boots on the Ground, a non-profit organization that provides youth engagement to help train service dogs. The students were tasked with designing and building various items such as name plates, whelping pens, and enrichment and training tools for the dogs.

“It was a fun, engaging experience where we got to help people from outside the PC community,” said Felix Chen, a Grade 8 student in the design SPARC group.

Felix and his partner developed a crate name plate using a whiteboard and 3D printed elements so they could easily label the dogs’ crates and add other information such as feeding times.

“I developed more creative thinking, I can process solutions a lot better now, I can brainstorm a lot better,” Felix said about the design process.

The students visited Paws and Boots on the Ground, which is led by Jane Boake and Dana Sheehan. On their first visit they were able to meet the dogs and learn more about the organization, which is newly formed.

On their next visit they brought prototypes of their products, asked questions and got feedback from Boake and Sheehan to improve their designs.

“It was really, really lovely to see the curiosity from the kids and the questions they formulated. It was hard to even believe they were in Grade 6, 7 and 8,” Sheehan said. “It was really interesting to see them develop.”

She said the students were receptive to feedback and wanted to make sure they met the needs of the organization. Boake added that she could tell the students were really serious about the project.

“We’re so grateful to have them. It was a really nice time to see their products and hear about the evolution they went through and to show our gratitude to them. Because we’re a new charity we have a lot of needs.”

In addition:

• the Identity and Community group worked with partners at the Town of Newmarket and the Elman W. Campbell Museum to develop a historic walking tour of Newmarket.

• the Environmental Stewardship group partnered with Aramark to host a farm festival focused on sustainability.

• the Social Justice and Advocacy group worked with Blue Door to write a book raising awareness and advocating for unhoused people.

• the Technology group worked with seniors in the community who they called 'wise ones' to develop computer games to address isolation.

"Our partners from term one have shared how impactful the work is that the students have been doing, they have shared that they've enjoyed engaging with our students. Our students have represented our community so well in the way that they are asking questions, supporting, showing concern, and then developing products to the specifications that that partner needs," Julie Clement said.

In the second term, the Grade 6 and 7 students selected new project areas to explore while the Grade 8 students worked on their MySPARC project. All three grades are continuing to focus on experiential project-based learning and working with partners in the community.