Today marked the first day of what we call "senior project", or "project", at Detroit Country Day School. Each of our seniors seeks and finds a job shadowing type "project" experience with a professional / expert in fields of interest, and spends the next several weeks immersed in a work environment. It really is the ultimate example of a "project learning" experience as students have the opportunity to see first hand the application of the many lessons, academic and otherwise, that have been part of their experience at Detroit Country Day School. These projects will culminate with a "fair" style day on June 8th, during which our seniors will present their experiences to an audience of parents, faculty, fellow students, project hosts, and community members.
"Senioritis" is the term often used to refer to the kind of itch seniors have to leave high school. It sets in at different times for different people, but generally, sometime after first semester exams seniors at every high school across the country exhibit symptoms. Students care less about homework, grades and school, and more about what lies ahead - and that's natural. This itch to explore, to see the world, and to know what's beyond the cocoon of high school is a natural evolution. Senior project represents a safe, protected way to allow our students an immersion experience in the "real world".
Project can go many different ways. Some students come away with an experience that completely validates everything they thought they wanted in life after high school. Some students go on project, and are immediately disillusioned with what they find the real world application of their chosen area of interest to be. Other students go on project, discover that what they thought they wanted to pursue was not quite right, but then find something tangential that does fit their interests and aptitude.
"Project Based Learning" or "PBL" is a buzz phrase and approach in education today, and like many acronyms or ideas, it begins to lose meaning when deconstructed. Still, the process of discovery, prototyping and refining is at the core of almost every truly valuable learning experience. Through our senior project experience, many of our students gain the opportunity to explore that was missing in the confines of a classroom. Each year seniors will say that project was the best experience of their high school career.
Students don't need to be seniors to be immersed in lessons of the world outside of school. In fact, those lessons are perhaps even more meaningful than some of the lessons of the classroom. Senior project, its success, and its impact on our seniors should teach us that implementing immersion / project experiences is valuable. When we can control these experiences, and create a safe framework for exploration, project experiences are incredibly powerful.
Please join us on June 8th from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at the Upper School to see our senior projects on display, and to spend time with and talk to the amazing graduates of the Class of 2015. You will be impressed, and more importantly, you will be part of their learning experience as they relate their adventures putting into application that which they have learned, and "scratching the itch" of their senioritis...
