A quick story – One of our incredible alumni, Claire Rosenbaum, graduated from Stanford and upon graduating worked at Stanford’s Fablab for a few years, among other experiences, before moving on to a position at Google. This lab is an amazing space, focused on inquiry-based learning for all ages (click HERE to learn more about the Fablab). One day this Fall,  Adon Kaufman, Gev’s. Clyde and Porat were planning together in our Maker Space. While reading through a resource from Stanford’s Fablab, Gev. Porat noticed Claire listed as an author. This triggered a series of events culminating in an opportunity for Gev’s Jirovetz and Clyde to accompany me to Stanford last week to grow through intensive learning with educators from Hong Kong, Brazil and California.

While there were many valuable takeaways from our week at Stanford, the following summarizes the essential history, content, pedagogy and purpose of inquiry-based learning that we dove deep into and that aligns with how we teach and learn at MJDS.

• For over 120 years, there has been an attempt to replace teachers with technology. These have never worked because teaching and learning, especially in the K-8 years, is all about relationships and the trust built between adults and children.
• As we grow up, we rarely learn how the world around us works (i.e. thermostat, phone, car, airplane, etc…). We consume without producing and yet, as children, we are all naturally curious about how the world around us works. School should build on that natural curiosity, as opposed to fitting students into an educational box.
• Most schools across the country focus on learning facts, not practices and ways of thinking and collaborating, and is often disconnected from technology and life

If the above bullet points resonate with you, then continue reading…

The first step towards a solution in how we engage learners is to utilize spaces in school that reveal the science and technology of the world while helping kids become producers of the technology. At MJDS we do this through small-scale workshops in our classrooms and Innovation Hub and empower students by teaching them how to use available tools and experience hands-on learning driven by specific and purposeful learning goals.

According to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it is essential for schools to help students develop competencies towards a better future both for themselves and our common good. These competencies are resilience, sustainability, innovation, creating new value, taking responsibility and engaging in collaborative learning. At MJDS we embed these into our existing curricular framework, intentionally developing wonder, empathy and tikkun olam in each student, every day.

Our phenomenal faculty develop purposeful learning goals, aligned to the common core standards and focused on the following higher order thinking skills: recognizing patters, establishing analogies, imagining alternatives and understanding different perspectives. These skills and competencies help drive our daily student learning goals and form the foundation for all teaching and learning at MJDS.

Our experience at Stanford helped to clarify the most effective research-based practices in education. As learning partners, Gev. Jirovetz and I will continue to work weekly with several colleagues to support their ongoing development in inquiry-based learning. As a facilitator of the Innovation Hub, Gev. Clyde will continue to work with colleagues across K-8 in their development in inquiry-based learning as well. The future is bright at MJDS!

We are so grateful to Deb Bradley and Jim Rosenbaum, Claire’s parents, who made our Fablab experience possible.