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.
-
STEAM Project Turns “Paradise Lost” into Innovative Exploration
When sophomores at Stone Ridge School begin their foray into John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a unique STEAM project encourages their scientific exploration and inquiry in a cross-disciplinary context — “something like Satan on the brink of the Abyss embarking on his own epic journey,” says Upper School English teacher Stephany Fontanone. In this lesson, traditional […]
-
Thinking Outside The Box
Riverdale Country School is constructing a new classroom building on its Lower School campus so students will be “camping out” in temporary units this year. Temporary but not ordinary. Using creative design and input from the students, Riverdale has turned the Learning Complex into a fun and funny place to learn. The students may never […]
-
New “Innovation Station” Will Put Creative Thinking into Action
This fall, students will return to Ranney School, an Age 3-Grade 12 independent school in Tinton Falls, with a physical space to execute their most innovative and creative ideas. The new “Innovation Station” is modeled after the “Dream Labs,” “Fab Labs,” and “MakerSpaces” that have been popping up across the country since 2005 as part […]
-
Musical Fun With Science or Scientific Fun with Music?
What might a song have to do with science? A lot…when you’re a sixth grade science learner asking: What can we learn about science and culture through listening to music? Especially if, as their science teacher noted, students are using the right lens. Students tackled the query as analytically as possible in their study of […]
-
Students Create Chihuly-Inspired Artwork
Students in Old Trail School’s Early Childhood Program classes have been studying the works of Dale Chihuly, a glass artist who has installations all over the world including: Venice, Finland, Jerusalem, the ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and even one at The University of Akron. Students learned about glass blowing and watched […]
-
The Lindy 500 Kinetic Sculpture Race
This contest wasn’t just about speed, or style, or creativity, or engineering integrity, or wit. (Although those attributes earned points.) Riverdale’s Lindy 500 this year honored sustained effort, and the winning entry, The High-Top, earned its place through hours of out-of-class time on designing and building a fleeter sneaker. Named for the school’s Linda M. […]
-
Kent Place Junior Advances to the National History Day National Competition
Kent Place School is pleased to announce that junior Lauren Burr of Maplewood advanced to the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest’s National competition. National History Day (NHD) is a non-profit educational organization based in College Park, MD. NHD offers yearlong academic programs that engage middle and high school students in conducting original research […]
-
Laurel School Students Express Concern for Human Impact
Fifth Graders at Laurel School, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, learn about renewable energy sources and human impact on the environment through a project inspired by the work of Ansel Adams who used photography to capture the beauty he saw in nature and to share with the world his environmental concerns. Laurel Fifth Graders do the […]
-
Aspen Academy Presents . . . .
Aspen Academy students performed in two school-wide musicals this year. “The Sound of Music” was presented in the fall and just last week, “The Little Mermaid” opened. Our theatre program brings together actors ranging in age from second grade to eighth grade. The students offer support to each other and work together as a team […]
-
Kent Place Senior Presents One-Woman Show For Independent Study Project
Kent Place senior Katie Moore-Gillon will present her Independent Study project, a one-woman show titled What’s That, Mr. Jazz Hand?, on Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Kent Place School Hyde and Watson Theatre. The opportunity to participate in an Independent Study at Kent Place is offered only to seniors. The projects allow […]
-
Concert Choir Helps Students Learn Through Living
The commitment cuts their hour-long lunch break by half, but each day 120 students in grades 8-12—more than 40 percent of the Indian Springs School (ISS) student body—file into their Rehearsal Room or Concert Hall. Many are already fine singers; others simply love music and want to participate in the school’s most popular and longest-running […]
-
Beyond STEM- St. Andrew’s Design Thinking and Innovation Initiative
So much of school is educating about the known, not the new. There is a thousand years of the known at our backs and a planet full of novel opportunity before us. To venture in the threshold of originality means to sometimes step into uncertainty and away from the traditional methods that often govern our […]