Creative Change and the River Rouge School District partnered on a project-based learning initiative focused on food systems and community health in the 2011-2012 school-year. In this one-year initiative, Creative Change supported teachers in grades K-8 to plan, implement, and evaluate a project-based unit designed to 1) boost student achievement on power standards and 2) improve teacher practice in the areas of project-based learning and other approaches.  Thanks to our friends at Michigan Now,  you can watch a short video about this initiative, developed Chris McCarus.

Creative Change provided a customized program of planning, ongoing professional development, instructional redesign, and evaluation assistance. This systemic approach ensured that the instructional change supported the district's other efforts, particularly those related to STEM and the Promise Neighborhood Initiative.  In each grade, teachers worked with us to create a unit and an assessment designed to teach and evaluate specific English Language Arts (ELA) and math "power standards." The units supported students' development of these standards through topics ranging from local food systems, nutrition, geography and global trade, soil science, and the price and external costs of producing food.