THE TRAVELERS
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he notion of letting students design their own school trip is in the spirit of much that happens at SCH, especially within the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. “When students feel strongly about something, we listen,” says Jenn Vermillion, director of Innovative Teaching. “So, when students expressed a desire to play a greater role in planning future school trips, Vermillion and Upper School entrepreneurship teacher Rahilla Zafar decided to give them that opportunity. Last fall they offered Global Innovations, a new course in which students were asked to research and design a proposed class trip. Twenty-eight students enthusiastically signed up for the course and have been working intensively ever since. “In the early part of the class we broke up into teams and did interviews with other students to find out what they ideally wanted in a trip,” explained junior Rachael Carter. “Then we used design thinking to sort out what would meet their interests while fitting with the travel safety and affordability guidelines set up by our teachers.” In addition to designing the trip itself, the students had to come up with a fundraising plan and then execute that plan by the fall of 2013. “It’s a major commitment for the students,” explains Vermillion, “but they’re learning incredibly valuable skills along the way: how to articulate their program mission, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and ultimately how to transform their vision into a reality under a myriad of constraints.” Rachael’s team partner, sophomore Emily Kunkel, says the course has been a real learning opportunity for all of them: “It’s made us appreciate how difficult it is to make something happen. It’s a great experience that not many students get to have. Everyone I’ve told about this trip thinks it’s so cool.”
THE ARCHITECTS
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fter studying the Pantheon and other landmark Roman buildings in their Prima Lingua class, a group of 6th grade boys asked their homeroom teacher, Sarah McDowell, if they could do an independent study on architecture so they could learn to design their own structures. “I knew nothing about architecture, but I thought it would be fun to learn along with the boys,” says McDowell. The small group began meeting once a cycle during activity period. McDowell invited SCH parent and architect Courtney Kapp to come in and give the boys an overview. Over the semester, they researched and discussed interesting examples of architecture; constructed 3-D cardboard models of iconic structures such as the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, and Burj Al Arab in Dubai; and designed their own dream houses using the 3-D modeling program Google SketchUp. The group also made a field trip to the Barnes Foundation, where they saw how old and new architectural styles can be blended together. After all this study and work, the boys came away with a new appreciation for the buildings all around them. “It made me realize how much goes into designing and building something,” explained Will McHugh. “And how long it takes,” added Nate McDowell. Their teacher also came away with a new appreciation: “This kind of discovery activity makes teachers push themselves and helps students learn what questions to ask,” says McDowell. “The teacher is not delivering content but helping the students find it for themselves; we become a facilitator in the process.”
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