How to Survive AdVENTURE - 8th Grade

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            As an 8th grade AdVENTURE student at Herman, my class and I have had our fair share of middle-school experiences. Inside and outside of school, this class has survived and thrived the 8th grade together. From achieving efficiency in projects and schoolwork, to learning the importance of work ethic and diligence, I have found many tips and strategies to survive the 8th grade at AdVENTURE. Through the years, the class has gained experience in the different classes and aspects of school and how to successfully get through the school year. As an 8th grade student, I survived the year through the support of the the other student and teachers at AdVENTURE.

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            After being here for two full years, there are a lot of things I would keep the same and a lot of things I would do differently. For instance, with AdVENTURE having a project-based learning environment, students are assigned less homework than other schools. Looking back, I wish I could have used this to my advantage, putting additional time toward the projects we were tasked with. Furthermore, I wish I could have fully acknowledged the amount of homework we received as next year at a new school I predict I will not have the same luxuries as my previous years. Another change I would have applied at AdVENTURE is the time and grade I joined. Despite the quick acceptance and easy transition from my elementary school to AdVENTURE, I believe that I would have benefited even more if I had joined two years earlier, at 5th grade. Now knowing how good of a program AdVENTURE is and how much I benefited from it, I wish I could have known about it in 4th grade, so I could have had a full 4 years at AdVENTURE, starting my 5th grade year.

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            I joined AdVENTURE because I prefer project-based learning over “textbook and worksheet” learning. Because of this, I think the easiest part of 8th grade was complying with the projects the class was tasked to complete. Though many projects proved difficult, I found that learning through the projects came easiest to me. Rather than attempting to learn from textbooks, learning from projects helped me remember what I did, and what I learned months after when we did it. I feel that if I were to have covered the curriculum with textbooks and paper worksheets, much of what I had “learned” would have just passed through my head and I would have had to repeatedly relearn what I already had. Due to the projects and work students do at AdVENTURE, I found one of the easiest aspects of learning was the projects.

            I think the hardest part of 8th grade was performing something that was not STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). While AdVENTURE is almost entirely STEM based, there are somethings that are just not possible to base off of STEM. For instance testing must always remain testing and certain topics benefit from completing non-digital worksheets. While these are required, I still found it difficult to do. Being so accustomed to the STEM system, when the class and I were tasked with something not STEM it was often hard to complete. Part of the reason for this is the amount of STEM activities AdVENTURE does. When something is not STEM, it is new and different to, thus making me find it to be more challenging to complete.

            Surviving the 8th grade has had its easy and difficult times. AdVENTURE is designed for the students and their needs, though nothing can be perfect and meet the needs of everyone. While some activities such as non-STEM related ones can be found difficult, things such as learning through projects helps students and can be found to be easier. Although the 8th grade class had its difficulties, we learned and gained experience that we would never had elsewhere (outside AdVENTURE). No matter the easier and harder portions this year, the class and I survived and got to the end ... of the 8th grade.