Creativity often conjures images of art, writing, music, dance, or theater, and not always math or science. As fifth graders recently experienced, creativity is woven throughout everyday learning and teaching across all subjects at Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School.

As part of an integrated sustainability project, fifth graders were challenged to thoughtfully reuse materials, reduce waste, and transform everyday items into something new, useful, and creative. Through this hands-on work, students explored how innovation and sustainability go hand in hand, an important focus across fifth-grade content areas.

“The Maker Market connects the fifth-grade economy system with sustainability, helping students understand how the choices we make today can shape the future,” said Ms. Camilo. “The project tasked our students with three goals: to make something creative, something useful, and something upcycled.”

Throughout the process, fifth graders applied math skills in meaningful, real-world contexts as they learned what it takes to create a business. Students designed products, created storefronts and catalogs, and determined pricing, drawing on their understanding of numbers, decimals, operations, and algebraic thinking to make informed decisions.

Looking through a sustainability lens informed by their current science unit on human impact and the environment, students selected both their products and the materials they would use. Each homeroom was assigned a recycled material, metal, cardboard, or plastic, and challenged to repurpose items that might otherwise be discarded. Instead of throwing materials away, students collected and transformed them into something purposeful.

“You can make awesome things even without buying stuff,” said PVC fifth grader Lola. “I liked that we were asked to make things out of recycled items instead of buying something. It showed us that you can make something amazing out of nothing. Each team had a different material, so nobody made the same thing.”

In preparation for the marketplace, students created a digital catalog on Ecozon, allowing them to preview classmates’ products and pricing. On the day of the sale, each classroom became a store. Students shopped using “money” they earned throughout the week for classroom jobs, completed invoices for their purchases, and checked out with student cashiers.

“This project intertwines multiple content areas across many subjects,” said Ms. Camilo. “Concepts like upcycling and recycling reinforce environmental responsibility as part of ethical business practices, while buying and selling models build financial literacy, planning skills, and the foundations of entrepreneurship. This is hands-on learning with purpose.”