Have you ever felt uprooted? Through this experience of displacement, what did you lose? What did you gain?

In this project, my 5th graders delved into displacement, learning about global refugee crises and unearthing personal histories. Children shared their experiences of the death of beloved pets, moving houses, parents’ divorce; the list goes on. We made rubbings from nature, reveled in the similarities between branches and vein formations, and embedded our core “uprooting” memories into intricate renderings of tree roots. We took these drawings to the laser cutter in our STEAM maker space, and children’s inner worlds came alive. Our laser-cut sculptures represented our roots, suspended in space, vulnerable yet strong. We perched mason jars atop the roots—spaces in which to illustrate growth and healing in the face of discomfort and change. Each piece is a little microcosm, a portal into the inner world of a middle schooler.

The video above walks you through each step of the project, from research to idea and technique development to our final showcase.