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‘Engage!’ program reaches out to middle schoolers digitally

Five people gather around a desks and look at papers.
Mount Allion’s “Engage!” program is still connecting with middle schoolers, just digitally. Photo from Mount Allison University website.
Meg Cunningham - CHMA - Sackville • NB | 19-02-2021
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Dr. Barb Clayton, associate professor of Mount Allison’s Religious Studies department, is sad that students in her Community as Classroom course are unable to visit the local middle school this semester.

Clayton’s course is a part of Mount Allison’s “Engage!” program, which aims to connect Mount Allison students, middle schoolers, and community members with projects based on shared interest.

COVID-19 prevents interschool mingling, so her students are brainstorming ways to digitally engage with Marshview Middle School’s kids as they have for the past three years.

The program aims to “cultivate skills like communication, creativity, collaboration, [and] critical thinking."

Clayton’s students are making videos and other forms of digital outreach to hopefully get the kids just as excited about the program.

Their focus this semester centres climate change.

“We’re not able to go into schools right now,” says Clayton. “So what my students are actually right now in the process of doing is coming up with lesson plans on different aspects of climate change. That will provide project ideas that the students at Marshview Middle School will choose from.”

Their outreach efforts appear to be successful, as several projects have emerged over the winter.

Despite being unable to visit the classroom, students from both schools have continued to pursue collaborative passion projects.

Clayton says that middle school is a challenging time for students, even without COVID-19 rules.

Students in middle school are generally between the ages of 9 and 14, which marks the transition into adolescence.

Clayton says that Marshview Middle School’s principal Heather Dixon conducted a school-wide survey, which indicated that students start to disengage from school during those formative years

“They didn’t really want to be there, they were noticing more behavioral issues and this kind of thing," Clayon says.

The “Engage!” project will continue to connect with both the middle school and the Sackville community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the level of restrictions.

Clayton is crossing her fingers for the possibility of an outdoor activity this summer, as long as it’s safe.

Hear this story as reported by CHMA: