"How can we make a difference in the lives of teens who are going through the refugee, migrant, immigrant experience?"
Students used this question as a lens in each of their classes to study the lives and journeys of people going through these experiences. Students read novels and studied various groups of people who have gone through the refugee, migrant, immigrant experience in their English classes and then interviewed an immigrant in Spanish class to get first hand knowledge about the type of journey that they made. Students used this knowledge to create artwork to answer the question: How can we use art to influence our views and understanding of the world?
This artwork was painted on the bottom of the skateboards that were made from scratch in their physics class, along with the students learning the physics and engineering of skateboarding. Lastly, the students used their math knowledge to create sales proposals for the price of the skateboards and predicted the profits that we could donate to the non-profit. The students got to showcase their work at the DTLA Maker Faire where they ended up selling 13 skateboards and raising $1570. The remaining 21 skateboards will be donated to a group of teens in a shelter for unaccompanied youth who have recently arrived to the country.
We partnered with South Bay Sk8 Kids where the students all learned how to skateboard before starting the project. We also worked with Dwindle Distribution to visit a skateboarding gallery and learn from their artists. The last organization we partnered with is the non-profit Carecen, who came to speak to our students about the work they do with immigrants coming from Central America. We will be donating all proceeds and skateboards to Carecen.