Machine Arc Begins!

The Arc is the fundamental rhythm of a Brightworks education. With two to three major arcs each year, students move through a diverse course of study in a series of intensive immersions, emphasizing depth over breadth, integrating and contextualizing the development of skills and domain knowledge.

The Arc allows students to contextualize their learning in real-world scenarios and connections between ideas, which creates pathways in the brain for longer-lasting learning.

Each arc is framed by a specific topic that each student, kindergarten through high school, approaches at a level and perspective appropriate to their age.

Machine Arc Begins!

The beginning phase of the arc is Exploration, a time to delve into the fundamental questions about a topic -

What is it? What does it mean? Why is it important?

Exploration is an opportunity to expand skill sets and introduce new concepts through deep dives and provocations with related experts as well as field research, structured games, and practice. Exploration phases have a narrative thread that students follow and a group project that gives them motivation and context for the core skills that they are developing. Collaborators model and explicitly teach important aspects of project work, like collaboration, growth mindset and project management. 

Last week’s staff planning week led us down rabbit holes of automata, gears, pulleys, bikes, and the ways that machines mimic the natural world. Just since Monday, we have seen students create moving parts with cardboard, talk about what elements mean that an object as a machine, everyday machines, machines from the past, how machines have been used for good and bad, and more!