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Experiential learning is a school trend growing nationwide.
In this kind of learning, students take a break from regular classes for a few days to more than a week to work on a project that involves experiencing a real-world problem or answering a complex question.
"They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience," explains information from PBL Works. "As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills."
It's motivating students to learn in a couple of area schools.
American Heritage School's campuses in Salt Lake City and American Fork recently facilitated week-long courses for students in rocketry and astrophysics, architectural rendering, theater, bookbinding, career exploration, ornithology, athletic performance, ballroom dance, international cuisine, Japanese arts, oil painting, photography, leadership, mindfulness, musical theater, songwriting and audio engineering and sound systems.
Each course carries a small amount of credit toward graduation and is offered for one week between the third and fourth terms.
"Teachers enjoy leading the courses and topics they choose, and students enjoy them, too," explains Leland Anderson, principal at American Heritage School's Salt Lake City campus. "It's one of the highlights of the year."
At American Heritage School's Salt Lake City campus, dozens of students participated in a week-long career exploration course. They visited professionals in medicine, media, law and policy, engineering, business and the trades.
While exploring medical careers for a day, the students tried their hand at performing emergency surgical airways on pig tracheas provided by Cook Medical, with coaching from Dr. Eric Buell, a pediatric anesthesiologist.
"It was neat to see how intubation allows sedated patients to breathe with a machine's help and saves lives," one student says.
Students also traveled to the University of Utah, where they met Dr. Michael Pulsipher, a pediatric cancer researcher at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. There they learned about chimeric antigen receptor T-cells as a treatment for leukemia. They also learned about Pulsipher's path to becoming a physician-scientist.
After a quick break for lunch, the students met Dr. Kevin Jones, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in surgeries to remove sarcomas. Jones captivated the students' imaginations with stories of surgeries lasting more than 10 hours; innovative rotationplasty surgeries for bone cancers near the knee; and surgeries that use even household tools such as hammers and drills to remove tumors and rebuild the skeleton.
Jones told the students he loves his work because of the opportunities he has to use his hands and to use his knowledge to solve problems and save lives.
Students also interviewed a medical student, Andrew Sessions, who assured the high school students that perfect grades are not required to get into medical school and that finishing medical school requires a lot of work, but it is more achievable than most people think.
Finally, students toured an operating room where they learned about machines and tools used to keep patients safely and comfortably asleep while surgeons perform surgeries.
Anderson reports several students and parents wrote notes of gratitude to the doctors. One parent wrote, "My 14-year-old son got into the car and said, 'I think I want to be a doctor.' Thank you so much for the time and energy to put this together and let our kids explore options they had never considered before."
In exploring careers, students also learned about media and publishing, business, law and policy and engineering.
The students expressed their enjoyment of the activities. "I'll remember this week for a long time," ninth-grade student Peter Anderson says. "I learned a lot, and the presentations and tours helped me think more clearly about what I want to become."
To learn more about experiential learning, call an American Heritage School campus for a tour (801-642-0055).
