We Spark Creativity
Independent schools champion the natural creativity in every child, growing creative problem solvers and nurturing artistic skills.
Independent schools champion the natural creativity in every child, growing creative problem solvers and nurturing artistic skills.
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Park School & PSite: Rethinking Time and Learning
Imagine the impact on your child if he or she were given an authentic, real-world problem to tackle with one week of uninterrupted school time collaborating with peers and learning from outside experts. These are the goals Park School’s Institute for Transformative Education (PSite) strives to reach, under the leadership of Kimberly Formisano and Elaine […]
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Principia Students Connect Science and Art on Teton Trip
“It’s one thing to learn about nature in the classroom; it’s another to experience it. It makes much more of an impact on you!” That student comment hints at the enthusiasm and understanding generated by a recent interdisciplinary program, Creative Expressions in Nature. This weeklong experiential trip has been offered as an option for Principia […]
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#startupMMT
Newly offered at Marymount this semester, Entrepreneurship 101 is an innovative, collaborative class for students in Classes X-XII. Led by three academic advisors, the course is designed to provide students with a supportive environment in which they can brainstorm, explore, and develop ideas for startups. According to Don Buckley, the class “dramatically mitigates the risks […]
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Shadow Puppet Theatre Demonstrates Science Concept
Theatre Technical Teacher Robert Kallos worked with the 8th grade science team members, who were seeking a way to help the students internalize the concepts learned in Science, particularly how organelles, a specialized cellular part that has a specific function. After a discussion, a shadow theatre process was chosen as a vehicle for the students […]
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Invent to Learn – 4th Grade Engineering
In September, Hockaday piloted a new fourth grade course called Invent to Learn. The goal of the Invent to Learn course is to provide students with opportunities to imagine, design, and create solutions to problems in a hands-on, collaborative way. In the process, students will learn and practice new skills as they come to experience […]
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“Wisdom of the Hands” Provides a Pathway to Success
As first graders at Clear Spring School are studying ornithology, they’re also using handsaws to carve model birds. Upper schoolers have made cigar box guitars and pinhole cameras—one student, interested in baking, made his own dough board. This year, a dozen new Sloyd knives, each sharp enough to give a case of shivers to most […]
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Open Window School Eighth Graders Join Google Hangout with Dr. Hugh Herr
Open Window 8th graders recently received a special invitation to join a Google Hangout with MIT’s “Bionic Man” Dr. Hugh Herr. This was one of many opportunities these students received as a result of having their mobile app named “Best in Nation” in the 2014 Verizon App Challenge. Dr. Herr was one of the country’s […]
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I am artistic collaboration
The Montessori School of Raleigh’s students worked with parent and internationally known artist James “Dalek” Marshall to create a community art installation as part of the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the school. Watch the video documentary of the process to create this artistic collaboration.
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Aspen Academy Introduces Digital Music in the Contemporary Music Classroom
Music is arguably one of the most complicated and comprehensive subjects taught and it’s easy to understand why most schools adhere to traditional music programs. However, at Aspen Academy we are providing our students with a traditional musical foundation and expanding it to the music techniques, instruments and theories of the 21st century. This includes […]
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“Invention Convention” Sparks Ideas of New Safety Device, Sporting Equipment, and Solar-Powered Video Game System
After several weeks spent studying some of the world’s most influential inventors, students capitalized on their creative-thinking and problem-solving skills to develop their own devices for the second annual Invention Convention. Be it a piece of sports equipment, like the Lacrosse Boss or a child-proof airbag for cars, the student pairings exceed expectations with their […]
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Kindergarten scarecrows get techy
How do you integrate technology in Kindergarten? It’s actually pretty easy. When the fall season rolled around, scarecrows became a fun theme in Kindergarten. We began by talking about scarecrows and why they are created. Then we looked at pictures of actual scarecrows and imagined what it would be like to be a scarecrow ourselves. […]
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Burke’s Young Earthquake Engineers
Thanks to a grant from GirlsRISE.net and the California Academy of Sciences, eighth graders from Katherine Delmar Burke School participated in a day-long design/build engineering challenge at the Academy of Sciences. The activities for the girls focused on structural engineering and architectural design for earthquake safety.