{"id":9970,"date":"2019-11-13T09:03:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9970"},"modified":"2019-11-13T09:51:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:51:22","slug":"the-joy-of-experiential-learning-at-crane-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9970","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Experiential Learning at Crane School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Bagish\u2019s 4th Graders Make California History Come Alive<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Crane

Crane School, From Schools of Thought, Santa Barbara Independent, November 7, 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n

Each day, I witness something astonishing \u2014 highly experiential learning that ignites curiosity and joy in our students,\u201d writes Crane Country Day School<\/a> headmaster Joel Weiss<\/a> in his letter that welcomes families to the school. \u201cIt is called many things \u2014 learning by doing, experiential education, hands-on experiences \u2014 but it always actively engages the students in the learning process.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take Stephanie Bagish<\/a>\u2019s 4th-grade class, which focuses on using simulations to bring California history alive. The students take on the roles of historical figures, and their activities \u2014 from debating ethical dilemmas to cooking biscuits over a campfire \u2014 teach them about the hardships and triumphs of life in early California.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents work in collaborative groups to solve dilemmas, create blueprints, make food of the era, play games, and sing songs, all in order to gain a deeper and more realistic sense of California\u2019s rich history,\u201d explained Bagish. \u201cBy approaching history this way, it completely engages the students, encourages their curiosity, and frames the past in a way that makes it relevant and real.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students were tasked with designing a hypothetical 22nd mission for California. \u201cThey had to identify a location in Alta California that would provide a sustainable environment, and each group had to design and draw architectural blueprints of their proposed mission,\u201d said Bagish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They also delved into the fur trade. Students were grouped into \u201ctrapping parties\u201d that looked at the economics, ecology, folk tales, and survival skills during these early days in American history. They took on the persona of mountain folk and read, cooked, calculated, dressed, wrote, sang, and hiked to really experience life during that time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne aspect of our studies involves presenting the children with a series of dire dilemmas that pose ethical and material conundrums which force their trapping party to debate possible choices and make decisions,\u201d said Bagish. \u201cThey must consider the pros and cons of their choices and then justify their decisions.\u201d It\u2019s hands-on fun, too: The students learned about food preservation and made their own batches of beef jerky.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every teacher at Crane embraces experiential learning<\/a>, as it is considered a core value of the school. Math, for instance, gets incorporated into gold rush history. \u201cStudents must calculate the expense of equipment they must purchase before setting out to the goldfields of California,\u201d said Bagish. \u201cThey must also do a cost-benefit analysis when selecting one of three routes that will get them from the East Coast to California in 1849.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it seems that the students simply learn more this way. \u201cStudies have shown when students are physically engaged and allowed to construct, touch, taste, and see real objects and food, then lessons are more deeply internalized,\u201d said Bagish, believing that experiential learning honors the strengths of each student. \u201cMany former students have returned years later and shared vivid memories of being an active participant in our simulations.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Click here<\/a> to read this story as it originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a> on November 7, 2019. SB Independent Schools of Thought Insert 11.7.19<\/a><\/p>\n

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