Science and Technology Academy

The Global Read Aloud (the GRA) was created with a simple goal in mind, “one book to connect the world.” Each year, students all over the world read the same book during the same 6 week period. Thanks to fourth-grade teacher Hilary Oliver, Sci-Tech has been participating since 2019. This year the GRA began on October 3rd. Second and third graders are reading Stunt Boy by Jason Reynolds and the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are reading Thirst by Varsha Bajaj.

These books contain diverse characters and real-world situations. Sharing these stories is not only enabling conversations about discrimination, racism, and misconceptions but Thirst calls attention to the very real global issue of water scarcity.

SciTech students are finding ways to contact to other students and classrooms in other parts of the world to share their thoughts and feelings about the stories. The Global Read Aloud has become a geography lesson as well. Both Ms. Oliver's 4th graders and Ms. Rosing's 5th graders have had Mystery Zooms in their classrooms, where Sci-Tech students and a buddy classroom in some mysterious corner of the globe have to guess each other's location before discussing key questions about the book. 

Additionally, Sci-Tech teachers Johanna Kyser, Erin Lovin, Carrie Rosing and Hilary Oliver have created hands-on science projects that are designed to allow our 4th, 5th, & 6th grade students to examine drought, water shortages, and the importance of clean drinking water for people all over the world.