Giving Compass' Take:

· Chalkbeat interviews a teacher in Detroit who helped her students make a movie about garbage. Through creating the film, students learned about zero-waste lifestyles and how to reduce trash output while incorporating their own real-life questions concerning the community.

· Allowing students to ask questions about the community should help them learn about current, real-world problems. Nonprofits involved in the education space could take some lessons from this project.

· Read more about Detroit charter schools.

Last year, a first grader at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit came into class with a question: What is the Detroit incinerator and is it polluting our neighborhood?

His question sparked the curiosity of his classmates and led to a teaching unit and a short film made with help from a local artist, said his teacher Kelly Rickert, 27, who teaches a combined class of first- and second-graders.

“One of my students came in really fired up about the Detroit incinerator, saying, ‘It pollutes the air! Why is it here?’” she recalled. “We researched the incinerator, learned about zero-waste lifestyles, and looked into the reduction of trash.”

Incorporating real-world questions about the students’ community into a lesson is known as place-based education — a centerpiece of the Boggs School’s philosophy. The charter school, on the eastside of Detroit, was opened in 2013 as a tribute to its namesakes, longtime civil rights and community activists in the city.

“A lesson should stem from a student’s inquiry. Then there’s some sort of civic outcome, usually tied to sharing your learning,” Rickert said. “So, we’re not just learning for ourselves, but there’s a purpose for it.”

Artist Matthew Daher worked with Rickert’s class to create a short film called “Trash Life” from what the children learned, through a media arts program called People in Education.

Read the full article about the Detroit teacher who helped her students make a movie about trash by Amanda Rahn at Chalkbeat.