Kearney, Mo., January 26, 2024: In alignment with our long-term strategic goals, Kearney School District will begin to phase out the LENS program in the 2024-25 school year by offering programming only to current LENS students entering the fourth and fifth grades. In the 2025-26 school year, all elementary students will be served in their home school.

In 2019, the district implemented LENS as a place-based program that offered a unique instructional approach through project-based learning focused on nature and science. The programming has consistently illustrated the benefits of building critical thinking skills, communication, and collaboration.

“We have seen the value of this instructional model, and it is time to take the next step to implement this model of instruction district-wide for the benefit of all elementary students,” Superintendent Emily Miller said. “Over the last three years, the district has systematically provided elementary teachers with professional development in project-based instruction to implement universally.”

LENS has 127 students this school year and is located in a wing of Kearney Junior High. This transition for the program aligns with the district’s goal to help ensure that we are meeting the educational needs of our K-5 students in neighborhood elementary schools. It will also provide additional space at the junior high school for our secondary programs. LENS teachers and support staff will be transferred to other schools in KSD over the next two years.

We want to acknowledge and thank all of the LENS staff members for their vision and commitment over the last five years to this program, to our students, and to our families. Their hard work will have a positive impact on our entire school system.

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The KHS chapter’s faculty council selected the following new NHS members for meeting high standards of scholarship, service, leadership, and character: 

• Brodyn Baragary
• Lexie Barton 
• Sara Carr
• Kieran Cooper 
• Jolie Conner 
• Ella Conway
• Trenton Fritz 
• Rylee Johnson
• Johnathan Karr 
• Baylee Kuebler
• Savannah McDowell
• Parker Mendel
• Britta Nielson
• Haley Rudder 
• Colin Thomson 
• Ryleigh Van Emmerik
• Caitlyn Wood
• Madelynn Wymore 

“We are very proud to recognize these outstanding members of our student body. National Honor Society members are chosen for and then expected to continue their exemplary contributions to the school and community,” Chapter Advisors Elizabeth Mael and Mendy Salmonson said. 

The NHS ranks as one of the oldest and most prestigious national organizations for high school students. There are chapters in more than 16,000 high schools and, since 1921, millions of students have been selected for membership. Millions of dollars in scholarships have been awarded to senior members since 1945 by the sponsoring organization, the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

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LENS is an immersive learning experience for third, fourth, and fifth graders where student learning is prioritized to include engagement and authenticity. Located in a wing of Kearney Junior High School, LENS includes students from across the school system. Faculty at the school have played an important roll in the district’s focus on Project Based Learning.

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Kearney, Mo., November 5, 2021: Kearney School District fifth-graders Grant Buhman and Cole Langston became producers so that other community members could be consumers.

In this case, Grant, Cole and their LENS classmates researched their local ecosystem and created educational signage recently installed along the stretch of the Fishing River Trail that winds through KSD’s south campus.

Evenly spaced from the trailhead on East 19th Street and south to Meadowbrook Drive, hand-painted triangle signs and printed flowcharts portray and explain the cycle of life that joggers and walkers can discover in their own backyards.

The project started with a lesson plan by LENS fifth-grade teachers Jamie Luppes and Amber Hiley to teach students about how ecosystems are structured around producers and consumers, according to Grant.

“We researched on our Chromebooks about the ecosystem of the certain area that we got,” Grant said. “Then we would draw out our animals in their natural habitat, and then we transferred that over onto wood and painted it.”

Jaci Berntt stood with two of her classmates in front of their sign on a crisp, overcast Thursday and expounded eloquently about how the American Hornbeam bird helps produce the plant matter eaten by an herbivore Cottontail rabbit, which may, in turn, become fuel for a Barred Owl.

“Everything should work in balance, and it’s happening all around us every day,” she said.

The ecosystem exhibits are an ideal example of the Project Based Learning (PBL) that is the driver of all teaching and learning at LENS, according to Principal Rebecca Parker. As KSD rolls this instructional method out across other schools, the level of educational engagement among the students involved in this project is evidence that PBL works.

“This project is conveying so many important and foundational lessons and skills for our students that go beyond just the primary subject matter,” Dr. Parks said. “They are truly engaged in their learning.”

Dr. Parks’ assessment was reinforced by young Mr. Buhman.

“I feel like you’re out here in the wilderness, sort of, observing what’s happening on the board, instead of just sitting there on the computer. It’s hands-on,” he said. “I have definitely learned more doing it this way than if we were just sitting in a classroom.”

The best part of the project for the students is knowing that their work is going to benefit everyone who uses the trail, according to Cole.

“Everyone should come out here and walk the trail now so that they can learn something new,” he said. “It’s always good to learn something new, and I think this is a really interesting topic.”

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