Listen to The Winchendon School | Brooklyn head of school Sean Duncan speaking about the start of the school year and the students at the school.
The students and teachers jumped right into exploring their new setting and classes.
In The Classroom
The Winchendon School’s Collaboration is Out of this World
How do two teachers who are teaching at the same school while in two different locations get students to collaborate on a lab? Teachers William Karis (TWS | Brooklyn) and Patrick Englehardt (TWS | MA) explored the possibilities.
Using the question (what is the size of the Earth), the students worked together by measuring the length of a shadow at the same time of day, only one group of students were in the City and one class was in Massachusetts. Students recorded the length of the shadow and the object creating the shadow (6 whiteboard markers) and set forth calculating the size of the Earth geometry.
In reflecting on the experience, Mr. Englehardt said, “It is a wonderful opportunity for our students to make connections and study science at the same time. What did we find, was our measurements came out to ~19000 km, while our percent error was high (~54%) students learned how to collaborate and the importance of precision in measurement.”
What’s the next collaboration? Stay tuned!
Physics | Inquiry In The Classroom
“An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
Newton’s Laws Come Alive
It begins with inquiry. At The Winchendon School (TWS), engaged student learning means more than asking “What do you want to learn?” At TWS engaged learning begins with asking “Why?” Inquiry-based learning triggers curiosity. Following that curiosity is the responsibility of the student while guided by the teacher.
What are the characteristics of an engaged learning environment?
- When students are engaged in their learning, they research, study, and present back what they have learned to their classmates.
- An engaged classroom is student driven. Every question and every answer is student-driven, student answered, and student-focused.
How does inquiry-based learning benefit students?
- As students follow their curiosity they develop information literacy skills.
- Students develop critical thinking skills
- Students develop a deeper understanding of the material and retain information longer.
Overall, inquiry-based learning is a characteristic of an engaged learning environment and our students learn deeper and wider. In the TWS Physics classroom, students model Newton’s Laws of Physics. By researching, designing an experiment, and demonstrating each Law, our students are engaged in the active process of learning.
