Our independent projects allow students to pursue their interests throughout the year.

These projects are generated by each student’s passions and interests. Each project is conceived of, designed and built by each individual student with support from our faculty. Each Individual project cycle culminates with a public exhibition open to our families.

The major goals of our independent projects are:

  • To give students an opportunity to research and develop a project based on personal interest and passion

  • To have students develop project management skills

  • To support students in learning in an independent, self-directed and sustained way.

Here’s how we guide the projects:

  • They stem from students’ personal interests;

  • Students start with a question that they want to explore or a problem that they want to solve;

  • We encourage our students’ projects to have a public purpose, either by addressing a larger problem or creating something that can be used by other people.

Students learn to work through a set of stages based on the Design Thinking process:

  • Brainstorm

  • Ideate

  • Research

  • Design

  • Prototype

  • Refine

  • Build

  • Exhibit

Students get feedback throughout the creation of their projects, and they share and collaborate with their peers as well. We encourage each student to keep process journals so they can reflect throughout their process.

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Teachers play an important role in supporting independent projects.

They serve as advisor/guide to each student as they progress through their projects. Teachers walk students through the process and help them through the phases of the project. They also give students advice and guidance about time management, process, and resources. They provide students with ongoing and consistent feedback about their projects. Students prototype their work and are encouraged to keep track of their progress in their process journals.

Each time we meet to work on our individual projects, every student is required to check in with a teacher to articulate their goals for the work session, and we then check in with each student to track their progress.

Independent Projects build towards our Independent Projects Exhibition Nights!