Project-Based Learning
Bravo!
Super idea!

This is really great!

My daughter attended & graduated from this school and is very successful. The program that SES delivers really builds confidence and a thirst for learning in their students.
Thanks for profiling such a wonderful staff.

Both my sons, Zac Wendler (2003) and Andy Wendler (2005) graduated from this wonderul school. Both are Eagle Scouts, one of whom provided his project to the school grounds.

Zac is now in graduate school at Northern Illinois University, teaching English while he pursues his Masters' and PhD in English and Creative Writing. Andy is finishing community college and hope to transfer to the University of Minnesota. Both boys were greatly shaped by the excellent faculty and curriculum at the Zoo School. This video reminds me well that they wer SO LUCKY to have this resource available to them. Thank you to everyone involved in continuing the excellence in high school education that this school exemplifies.

Thank you!
~~Cecilia

This school is such an amazing place! I have known many people who are atteding or graduated from this school. I am hoping to attend this school when I am a junior ( I am currently a freshman). I have been resarching the school a little harder lately because my high school is going to now offer extra off camus art classes, which made me ownder if i would want to stay there. But the more I look into this school the more I love it and I cannot wait to go!!!!! I would never pass up the wonderfull opportunity to go to such a unique school like this one where I can be me!

This school would have been a life saver for my daughter who showed an interest in nature from age three and became environmentally savvy not much later!
Traditional schooling did not help her reach her potential and she dropped out of 10th grade with a 1.0 GPA.

Was she really that bad of a student? No, far from it!!! She managed to go on to college where she took Environmental Studies for her minor and Philosophy for her major and carried a 4.0 GPA! If you provide an opportunity to students where they can love what and how they learn they will succeed!

"I can't Learn from a text book" - student
"They don't necessarily get better grades." = Teacher
"I'm not a teacher, I'm a coach." - educator

This is weak.
Can these kid's even read and write?
They don't understand trig, and their sloppy work seems dangerous if government is relying upon it.
Sounds like a place where children with various learning disabilities and attention deficit problems are given light work and passed without learning.

We got real problems with public education, they waste money in MN on this experiment.
Spend extra money, go to private school.

Staff comment:

Mr. Russel,
Re your comments-

"I can't learn from a text book" - student

This seems to be an often voiced sentiment. At least the student is self-aware, and has found her own way to learn.

"They don't necessarily get better grades." = Teacher

I believe the teacher was making the point that, while his students don't necessarily do better than others on standardized tests, the actually know something once they have completed a project.

"I'm not a teacher, I'm a coach." - educator

This teacher was making the point that a good teacher often plays the role of coach, assisting in the process of discovery and understanding, rather than giving directions and administering tests.

Context is important. I believe that if you were afforded a chance to sit in on some of the SES student's project presentations, as we were, you might agree that these kids can read and write, and that their work is relevant and rigorous.

Ken Ellis, Executive Producer, Edutopia Video

Yet another example of how the current way of "doing school" was designed for a 19th Century agrarian society, and it's only the exceptions to the rule that are actually giving students what they need to be successful in the real world. Standardized education HAS catered to the lowest standard for too long. I hope that by the time my son is in high school (he's five now), there is a program like this where I live that he can aspire to join.

As a high school English teacher, a member of ASLE (The Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment), and wife to a biologist/preserve manager, I am highly intrigued by SES.

I am constantly working to find ways to incorporate hands on studies like this in conjunction with my fellow science teachers; however, I am told quite often that the time it would take to set up any learning like this would deviate from standards based and testing instruction.

I would love to have a school like SES in San Diego. We do have a great plant population (the most diverse in the US). (If the school wants to expand out this way...)

However, as a wife of a biologist and a holder of a MA in Literacy and Reading, I am upset by the lack of texts. I know the video does not show everything. If we want to create more environmental study students, we should be opening their eyes to what it is like to read science text. It does not always have to be a text book. Science journals and research papers are much more difficult to sift through, but would serve as great mentor texts for those students. Also, in Southern California the Jepson Manual is used to help idea plants. The books being used by the students in the video are manuals for the "everyday curious" person who wants to know about plants in their back yard or local area. Why not teach them, with use of hand held microscopes and plant manuals?

The ideas are great, the working in the community and putting their ideas to fruition are awesome, but why not expand the learning? Go deeper. Then those kids could actually be in competition with their local colleges and universities!