The aim of a new Squamish school program is to create boredom-free, purposeful learning for students in Grades 7-12, according to educators behind the program.
Learning Expeditions will launch this September at Stawamus – the current elementary school that will be converted into the home for programs of choice over the summer.“We wanted to do something that is different from the traditional model,” Ryan Massey, principal of the new school, told a packed house of interested parents and students at the Sea to Sky School District Board Office Tuesday night.
What is different about the program is that it is project-based, said Massey.
“We really believe that if school is designed to improve critical thinking, designed to improve collaboration and designed to improve communication, it is really going to help our students with the challenges they are going to face in life,” he said.
The curriculum will be up to ministry standards, meaning students will graduate with the same prerequisites and Dogwood Diploma as students in any other public high school, according to Massey.
He said the transcripts students submit to post-secondary institutions after graduation will look identical to those from other schools, but students from the Learning Expeditions programs will probably do better in university entrance interviews and in the workplace because they will have developed real world skills at school.
The concept of the program isn’t new. It is based on successful schools in the United States, such as High Tech High in San Diego, which has been operating since 2000 and is seen as a model of how to engage students, according to Massey.
The classes will look unique, Massey said, adding he envisions the rooms will be a bit like Google offices with collaborative areas and standing desks and perhaps balls for seats. Details are still being worked out on exact class configurations, but will likely be multi-aged such as Grades 7-9 together and Grades 9-12 together, depending on the course of study and project, Massey said.
Student projects will involve mentors and will have real world implications, involve critical thinking, collaboration and will have a presentation aspect, Massey said, adding when most adults think back to their childhood education the moments that stand out are moments when these factors were in play.
Peter Jory, Sea to Sky director of instruction, said the students in Learning Expeditions will have opportunities for meaningful learning their parents never had. “If you are my age or older, and are thinking about your favourite learning environment… I would say you were very, very fortunate if you had even one or two experiences where you were actually going into something like this,” he said.
Eventually the idea is over the years to have the students in the new First Nations, outdoors-based Cultural Journeys kindergarten to Grade 6 program – also being launched at Stawamus in September – advance to the Learning Expeditions program and bring the cultural and language learning expectations with them, Massey said.
Grade 6 Mamquam Elementary student Cody Hanson-Sellers said he was excited about registering for Learning Expeditions.
“It is really just really good for me to go there for learning because I sometimes get really bored,” he said, as his grandmother picked up registration papers from the front of the room.
The program is a School District No. 48, Sea to Sky Learning Connections initiative.
For more information go to, seatoskylearningconnections.com.
