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The Junior High Crew completes two expeditions for the 2011-2012 School year.

1. Identities Expedition

   Language Arts and Social Studies Expedition

   This year’s expedition begins by examining our students’ personal identities, Anser’s cultural identity and the Expeditionary Learning institutional identity. We start close to home but quickly move to ancient Greece to examine our roots of democracy and subsequent forms of government (institutional) identity. This sets a foundation to examine World War II and how these identities impacted each other in one of the greatest events of modern history.

   Our guiding questions will be:

   - Why remember these events?

   - What empowers us to act?

   - What impacts identity?

   - How is power created, shared and protected?

   Our big ideas include:

   - Social Responsibility * European Geography

   - Propaganda / Rhetoric * Power/Authority/ Governance

   - Cause / Effects of War * Bystanders/perpetrators/rescuers/victim

   - Identity (Cultural) * Leadership / Power

   - Genocide * Forgiveness / Reconciliation

   - Prejudice * Choice / Motivations

   - Stereotypes * Universe of Obligation

   - Immigration Policies * Racism

   - Universal Human Rights * Isolationism

   - Nationalism * Xenophobia

   - Women in the Workforce

   It is said that WWII was the turning point of humanity in the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was established after WWII in a response to the inhumane treatment that so many people suffered prior to and during the war. We ask students to become keepers of these rights; and as a result, we see students taking a greater interest in human rights violations, not only during WWII, but in today’s world. They come to understand that all humans are protected by these rights.

   Our culminating project is the Annual Youth for Human Rights Celebration, where students examine human rights violations in our own community. This presentation, open to the Boise community, has garnered much attention and many accolades. The power of youth is stunningly obvious as we go through this expedition.

2. Science Expedition

   Learning to think and act as scientists involves skills that we will develop and practice this year as we use scientific tools, field work, computers, textbooks, labs, videos and our brains to explore topics in Earth Science. We will examine the earth from many perspectives by looking at global and local issues and concepts. Properties of matter, weather, climate, geology, plate tectonics and space are just a few topics that may be covered as we build our understanding of how cycles and systems on earth interact and change over time.

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