This two-week institute supports middle school teachers in designing two rigorous, place-based projects that connect academic learning to the people, places, and issues shaping students’ lives in Charlottesville. Teachers begin by examining their role, the role of public education, and community perspectives on flourishing through student-led neighborhood tours, conversations with industry partners, youth activists, and youth-serving organizations, and an asset-mapping process. They then move into sustained design, critique, and revision using content standards, computer science standards, the PBL Kaleidoscope, and community-needs skills to create project plans and interactive artifacts for the coming school year. The experience builds teachers’ capacity for collaboration, critical thinking, communication, content expertise, and self-directed learning while grounding project design in belonging, relevance, and community connection.

Participants will analyze Charlottesville community assets, perspectives, and local issues to design projects that connect required content standards, including relevant computer science standards, to students’ lived experiences. They will strengthen collaboration and communication by engaging in student-led tours, structured circles, daily peer critique, and feedback protocols with UVA School of Education partners, industry professionals, youth activists, and youth-serving organizations. They will apply critical thinking and self-directed learning to revise two high-quality project plans and create at least one interactive artifact that reflects community relevance, authentic audiences, and clear opportunities for student belonging and meaningful engagement.

Teachers will create a fieldwork journal during the Charlottesville Connection Crawl, an asset map grounded in student-led tours and community voices, and short audio reflections at the end of each week. Across the second week, each teacher team will produce two standards-aligned project plans that connect their content standards and computer science standards to local people, places, and issues, along with at least one interactive artifact for each project such as a prototype exhibition piece, community interview tool, student-facing launch experience, or feedback activity. They will also generate critique notes, revision trackers, and a shared rubric-based feedback record from peers, UVA School of Education partners, industry partners, youth activists, and youth-serving organizations. The culminating products are the polished draft project plans and interactive artifacts presented at the Charlottesville Learning Showcase.

Begin with a Charlottesville Connection Crawl where teacher teams rotate through short, student-led neighborhood stops and listen to local voices from youth activists, youth-serving organizations, and industry partners about what belonging, flourishing, and future-ready skills look like in the city. At each stop, teachers capture place-based observations, community questions, and possible links to their own content standards, computer science standards, and project-based learning design choices. Close the launch with a facilitated debrief and asset-mapping protocol that surfaces patterns across people, places, and issues, then introduce the driving challenge of designing two community-connected projects for the coming school year. End with a brief reflection circle and audio note so participants name how their view of public education in Charlottesville is already shifting.

Host a Charlottesville Learning Showcase as a gallery walk where teacher teams present their two draft project plans and at least one interactive artifact, such as a student-facing launch experience, community partner map, or critique protocol. Invite industry partners, local youth activists, youth-serving organizations, student tour leaders, and UVA School of Education faculty to rotate through displays, try the artifacts, and leave rubric-based feedback on community connection, student relevance, and feasibility. Build in short teacher talks that name how local people, places, and issues shaped each design, followed by a closing circle with audio reflections on shifts in their understanding of Charlottesville, public education, and student belonging.