Dive Brief:
- A youth leadership program in the Portland area, People Leading Across City Environments (PLACE), was developed by independent school Catlin Gabel and is open to students across the region on a sliding-fee scale.
- Edutopia reports PLACE has pioneered experiential, project-based, interdisciplinary and inquiry-driven learning opportunities for students, who have been placed in diverse groups to investigate community issues for real clients, first through a summer program and now through urban studies electives.
- This strategy for youth engagement and authentic learning experiences is also being done in Washington, DC, through The Washington program run out of Episcopal High School, in Pittsburgh through the City as Our Campus program at Winchester Thurston High School, in Cedar Rapids through Iowa BIG, and in Atlanta through the Lovett School’s Lab Atlanta.
Dive Insight:
Experiential learning is considered a best practice in many schools and youth-serving organizations as a way to engage and empower students. Giving students the opportunity to tackle real-life problems on their way to learning important research and collaboration skills eliminates any questions of relevance about their lessons. And it sets students up to become civically engaged graduates.
The World Ocean School aims its experiential learning opportunities at students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and struggle within the confines of traditional schools. By sailing and taking care of a schooner built in 1925, students learn math, physics, navigation skills, science and history. Behavior problems disappear when students step on the boat.