Research shows that children learn the broadest range of academic skills through meaningful, hands-on project work. children apply their skills to accomplish personal goals, such as:

• Using simple-to-complex science and math skills to plant a community garden by researching indigenous plant life, planning the garden and developing a workable budget.
• Using a broad range of academic skills to write, direct, and produce a play by gathering stories from community members that portray significant events from local history.

Projects such as these combined with explicit skill instruction enhance children's abilities to master successfully the following curricular areas:

• Communication/Language Arts: to read with comprehension, to write with skill, and to communicate effectively and responsibly in a variety of ways/settings
  
  
• Mathematics: to use mathematics to solve problems, to reason mathematically, to communicate mathematical concepts and processes, and to apply and extend mathematical concepts and processes
  
  
• Science and Environment: to use scientific concepts and principles, to conduct scientific investigations, and to know and apply core concepts/principles of social, physical, and life sciences through experiential learning
  
  
• Social Studies: to synthesize, analyze and interpret historical accounts and artifacts from multiple perspectives, to understand how social systems operate in order to live, learn, work and play in increasingly complex social systems
  
  
• The Arts and Humanities-visual, drama, dance, music: to image, create, perform, and respond effectively, and to know and apply core concepts and principles of the arts
  
  
• Health, Fitness and Safety: to maintain an active life ( movement, physical fitness, nutrition), and to maintain a healthy life (p