Mahopac’s schools aim to offer students a wide variety of educational opportunities to foster dynamic, well-rounded members of society, but that multi-disciplinary objective does not stop at the classroom level. Signora Tuccillo’s Italian students at Mahopac Middle School got a unique opportunity to learn about Italy as well as practice fundamental research skills this month at the Pop-Up Library.
“For years we’ve had our students research topics in Italy and some of them will even present them at the STEAM Fair. Students are learning to work together on a research-based project and tying their education in with the larger cultural, scientific, linguistic picture.”
Seventh and eighth-grade students select topics about issues facing different regions of Italy, such as the flooding in Venice, and then research the topics and propose solutions. Students combine fundamental skills required to write research papers with a cultural study of Italy and the Italian language and gain a new perspective on the challenges and lives of regular people just like them living in a country thousands of miles away.