Hillside Grade School second graders presented their shoe creations at the “Spring Fashion Show – Habitat Edition” on June 13. The presentations were a culmination of their Project Lead the Way unit on habitats and biomedical studies.

Students began the unit in March with district PLTW teacher Salvatore Giurlanda. They followed the engineering design process of “Ask, Explore, Model, Evaluate and Explain.” Throughout the unit, students learned about various habitats, including the rainforest, desert, savannah and arctic. Split into teams, they were challenged to take a regular pair of shoes and design them to be used in a specific environment. Students utilized camouflage, insulation and waterproofing techniques to craft their shoes to be used in their assigned habitat.

Along with the shoes, the students created posters that depicted a person wearing the shoe in their designated environment.