LaGrange Middle School students present interdisciplinary "passion projects" to board

LaGrange Middle School presented the structure and educational goals of a 6th-grade pilot “passion project” program to the Arlington Central School District Board of Education, and several students described their projects during the meeting.

Principal Richard told the board the program began as a pilot two years ago and seeks to use student interest to drive interdisciplinary learning. "My goal is to help everyone understand what a powerful learning experience these projects can be," Richard said. He described goals including increased student engagement, improved attendance, stronger parent partnerships and the integration of core disciplines with music, art and technology. Richard said teachers used a model inspired by Google’s "20 time" and that teams at LMS are exploring how to scale the program and integrate it into the master schedule.

Students who participated presented short summaries of their projects: Evan Cave (7th grade) described a research project on the history of the trumpet and the use of audio examples; Owen Hastings (7th grade) spoke about climate change and community conversations; Jen Walker (7th grade) discussed aerospace and aerodynamics; Jackson West spoke about creating a video game and the coding skills he acquired; and Annika Andren (7th grade) presented on dog health and diet.

Board members asked operational questions about teaming, scheduling, student independence, equity of materials and community partnerships. Principal Richard said he expects student independence to grow as teachers and students gain experience and estimated a target balance of about 50/50 instructional support and student independence as the program matures. On pure teaming — the model in which a cohort of students share the same core teachers — Richard said scheduling constraints make pure teams challenging under the district’s current 2.5-team model, but staff are exploring adjustments next year.

Richard discussed facilities: the district hopes to include a maker space in planned building renovations to support hands-on elements of passion projects but warned that staffing and inventory for such a space will require additional planning. He also said presentation formats are flexible and can include digital projects, models or videos; the district provides display boards to ensure equitable presentation resources.

Why it matters: The program aims to foster creativity, project management skills, collaboration and STEM/STEAM competencies in middle-school students. Board members suggested linking the projects to science fairs and other county-level showcases to expand student opportunities.

Next steps: The board asked to be invited to the passion project showcase; Richard said invitations will be sent and that he will continue discussions about scaling, teaming and maker space planning with building and district leadership.

Direct quotes used in this story come from Principal Richard and named student presenters, as recorded in the meeting transcript.