Project-Based Learning

City School uses a unique approach to learning: we ask our students to learn and demonstrate knowledge by completing projects.

Some projects are short-term assignments that occur in individual classes. Others are long-term projects that integrate knowledge and skills from multiple classes.

Students do have traditional day-to-day assignments, as are common in other schools, but our assignments typically link to overarching projects. We don't ask students to read a textbook and answer the questions at the end of the chapter, never to use that knowledge again. Rather, we ask students to find primary-source materials (via websites, personal interviews, field experiences) and use what they've learned from these resources to solve a problem, design new products, write reflective essays, or create new knowledge.

For example, students have conducted original research projects on local ecosystems, presenting their findings to peers via video podcasts. Students have created career plans, interviewing local business people and outlining plans for high school, college, and the workplace. Students have also completed eCyberMissions in which they have drawn on knowledge from all their classes to identify to solve a local problem (growth of milfoil in local waterways, fire safety at home, preventing sudden infant death syndrome, etc.) and create an online portfolio of their work.

Project-based learning at City School means that students have a choice in what they study, who they work with, and how they present their learning. We ask our students not just to memorize knowledge, but to construct new knowledge.