Our flagship learning experience

I believe that there is an intricate relationship between experience and  learning. To “learn from experience” is to make backward and forward  connections between experiences, to discover the connection of things.  We have designed a path breaking “Exploratory Learning” approach based on  careful scrutiny of progressive methodologies and approaches as well as  diligent advice from experts in the field.

Our curriculum is a “planned experience”.

For  us this manifests as an integrated interdisciplinary curricular  organization which cuts across subject-matter lines to focus upon  comprehensive life problems or broad based areas of study that brings  together the various segments of the curriculum into meaningful  association.

Our  flagship learning experiences, the “Explorations”, are experiential, interdisciplinary and inquiry-based. These explorations transcend  disciplinary boundaries. Explorations are a combination of subjects with  an emphasis on projects utilizing sources that go beyond textbooks and  exploring relationships among concepts.

Exploratory  learning is the foundation of the cornerstone learning experience at  Northstar, the Exploration. Exploratory learning refers to deep and  meaningful “planned experiences” that kindle the  innate curiosity and sense of wonder in children. Exploratory learning  allows children to wander through and wonder about unknown territory in  ways that motivate inquiry and the having of wonderful ideas. These  inquiries and ideas need not look wonderful to the outside world, what  matters is that they are meaningful to the child and its development.

Over the next few weeks I will share our explorations design principles and some examples of ongoing explorations at the school.