School-wide project, Sanfordville Zootopia, continues to grow

Fourth graders at Sanfordville Elementary School have been designing and building zoo enclosures for animals!

It's part of the Sanfordville Zootopia project, a school-wide project to which each grade level will be contributing as part of their Encore classes. The project is designed to demonstrate the topics and techniques learned in each specialty through collaborative, project-based learning.

_{See a gallery from the process below this story!}

The students had to research a particular animal and learn all about its biome. A biome, they learned, is a distinct geographical region characterized not only by the specific animals (fauna) who live there, but also what's there for them to eat, the climate, and the plant life (flora).

"With these three facts, they had had what they needed to help them design their enclosures," said Sanfordville teacher Casey Besimer. "The students could chose an animal from biomes including aquatic biomes, the Arctic, a desert, a grassland/savanna, or the forest."

The students started their projects by creating a virtual model on the Delightex platform, a web-based 3D creation platform that allows students to build, code, and explore interactive worlds. The images they generated using the software were then applied as blueprints for their actual designs. Students received animal figurines and unlimited physical supplies to design and create their own animal enclosure.

"Some animals are trickier than others because they require both land and sea representations," explained Ms. Besimer. "The students have been doing an amazing job and have really dedicated themselves to this project."

Each fourth-grade class made five animal enclosures, making it a total of 45 projects... a veritable Zootopia, indeed!

Next up, Sanfordville third-graders have will be creating animal informational cards using the graphic design program, Canva. Their cards will be based on the facts gathered by the fourth-graders. The third-graders will also design and create magnetic gates for the fourth-grade enclosures.