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6th Grade  Project 9 weeks

Paws, Projects, and Purpose: Saving Lives Together

Laura M
Updated
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Driving Question

As animal-welfare design teams, how might we use research, data, technology, writing, music, and art to create and share solutions that help Bullitt County families make informed adoption, fostering, and pet-care decisions while increasing support for animals at the Bullitt County Animal Shelter?

Overview

Students will use human-centered design to learn from Bullitt County Animal Shelter staff, local veterinary clinics, fosters, rescuers, and families about barriers to adoption, fostering, and responsible pet care. Interdisciplinary teams will define community needs, generate and test ideas, and revise accessible solutions that help families choose pets suited to their homes, schedules, and experience. Students will create Scratch games, care brochures, artwork, music, media, and a project website for a Winter Concert and Adoption Event. Weekly feedback and reflection will guide revisions, while event participation, resource use, website visits, auction bids, and partner feedback will measure community impact.

Academic Vocabulary

  • Human-centered design - A problem-solving process that begins by learning about people’s needs, then creating, testing, and improving solutions for them.
  • Empathy - The ability to understand another person’s or animal’s needs, feelings, and experiences when considering a solution.
  • Criteria - The requirements used to judge whether a product, performance, or solution is accurate, useful, safe, and effective.
  • Constraint - A limit on a design, such as available time, materials, cost, space, safety rules, or user needs.
  • Prototype - An early model of a game, brochure, artwork, website, or other product created for testing and feedback.
  • Iteration - The repeated process of testing, receiving feedback, and revising a product to improve its quality and effectiveness.
  • Animal welfare - The physical and emotional well-being of an animal, including proper nutrition, shelter, health care, enrichment, and humane treatment.
  • Responsible pet care - The ongoing work of meeting an animal’s needs for food, water, shelter, exercise, training, health care, safety, and attention.
  • Adoption compatibility - The degree to which an animal’s needs and traits match a family’s home, schedule, resources, and experience.
  • Enrichment - Safe activities, objects, or experiences that support an animal’s natural behaviors and physical and mental health.
  • Toxic - Capable of causing illness, injury, or death when an animal is exposed to or consumes a harmful substance.
  • Reliable source - A trustworthy source created by qualified experts that provides accurate, current, and verifiable information.
  • Algorithm - A step-by-step set of instructions that a computer follows to complete a task in a Scratch game or other program.
  • Conditional - A programming structure that performs an action only when a stated condition is true, such as changing the score when a player collects safe food.
  • Debugging - The process of finding, explaining, and correcting errors in a computer program.
  • Sprite - A digital character or object that can be programmed to move, interact, and respond within a Scratch project.
  • Musical element - A feature of music, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, dynamics, tempo, or timbre, that performers use to communicate meaning.
  • Artistic statement - A short explanation of an artwork’s purpose, process, materials, meaning, and connection to its audience.
  • Curate - To select, evaluate, organize, and present resources or creative works for a specific audience and purpose.
  • Accessibility - The design of information, spaces, and digital products so people with varied needs and abilities can use and understand them.
  • Digital citizenship - Safe, responsible, legal, and respectful participation in digital communities, including protecting privacy and crediting sources.
  • Copyright - Legal protection for an original work that requires others to obtain permission or follow fair-use guidelines before copying or publishing it.
  • Sitemap - A visual plan showing how pages and information will be organized and connected on a website.
  • Audience - The specific people a message or product is designed to inform, persuade, support, or engage.
  • Community impact - A measurable change produced by a project, such as increased event attendance, website visits, brochure pickups, auction bids, or shelter support.

Final Product & Community Impact

Using human-centered design and input from Bullitt County Animal Shelter, veterinary clinics, fosters, and rescuers, student teams will create a coordinated adoption-support experience for the Winter Concert and Adoption Event. Final products will include playable Scratch pet-food-safety games, print and digital care brochures, a public project website, animal-themed performances and species-appropriate playlists, and an art gallery and silent auction featuring safely produced collaborative artwork. Families will use these resources to assess adoption readiness and learn about fostering, pet-home fit, and responsible care, while BCAS can continue sharing the digital materials after the event. Students will measure community impact through attendance, website visits, brochure pickups, auction bids, and partner feedback.

Exhibition

Students will host a Winter Concert and Adoption Event where teams perform animal-themed music and guide families through interactive stations featuring Scratch food-safety games, adoption and foster brochures, responsible-care resources, student poetry, and the project website. A gallery and silent auction will feature collaborative animal artwork, with proceeds supporting the Bullitt County Animal Shelter. Shelter staff, veterinarians, fosters, and rescuers will respond to student presentations and artifacts, while students document feedback and final revisions in their portfolios and Growth Zone reflections. Teams will measure community impact through attendance, website visits, brochure pickups, auction bids, and shelter feedback.