Chartered schools, alternative education programs, and magnet schools
As Grace Rubenstein, a staff writer and multimedia producer for Edutopia, walked around a busy classroom, sophomore Maya Walden took a break from researching the root causes of genocide. Maya wondered what Grace planned to do with her recordings. Grace explained that [she] would use editing software to meld the best clips into a soundtrack for an audio slide show, to appear online. "Oh," Maya said. "We could probably do that for you." And they did. At San Diego’s High Tech High, students prepare to become “professionals in a modern world”, and every part of the textbook-free school fosters “personalized project learning with pervasive connections to the community”. To read more about High Tech High and to see the audio slideshow the students put together for Rubenstein, click on the link above.
Seattle’s Aviation High School is open to anyone with a “passion for aviation”. This project-based learning school demonstrates that textbooks are not the only way to learn. In this web-video, students show how they solve real world problems such as designing wings on an aircraft to bear a weight load, while proving that science and engineering is do-able for high school freshman. In the end, students presented their ideas to aviation experts. Assessment included the experts’ score on presentation and teammates’ scores for each other’s efforts.
Seniors at High Tech High, a San Diego charter school, regularly complete projects that "mesh principles of art, physics, engineering, and other sciences. Teachers from the different disciplines co-lead this effort.” Student designers describe each science-art project in these web videos.
The Oregon Department of Education asks students about personal, academic, and school issues influencing their participation in alternative high schools.
A compilation of thoughts and work of students at chartered high schools.
Seth Reiman of Minnesota New County School (a project-based learning environment) prepared his senior project on the connection between gaming and education. In this Power Point presentation, Reiman discusses how today's students have changed and are different from students of previous generations. He also describes how we can use existing technology, including current video games, in the classroom by demonstrating what students can learn from them.