How we learn

Project-Based Learning

Brightworks’ learning model centers real-world experiences and open-ended questions over rote memorization and test-taking, and fosters students’ critical thinking and empathy in asking questions and solving problems.

We use Project Based Learning, a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

This definition comes from the Buck Institute for Education’s PBL Works. Through group work and individual passion projects, our curriculum is designed to unleash students’ potential to learn and apply knowledge, to pursue and refine their talents.

At it’s core, Brightworks is an engagement-driven school that emphasizes process over product to help students think critically, explore deeply, challenge themselves, contribute positively to society, and learn from their failures and successes.

Our graduates are the kinds of lifelong learners they will need to be for success in the balance of the 21st century. Their education at Brightworks has built their sense of agency, intention, and drive to pursue what they are most passionate about, because we know that passion and drive lead to change, and making the world a better place. 

How We Learn

We learn by exploring

We learn by collaborating

We learn through projects

Since it was founded in 2011, our school has been known for its unique project-based curriculum. This came out of the realization that the traditional models of education do not best serve learners to become the leaders of the future.

With all the issues that we are facing as a society, from the global pandemic, continued political unrest, the lasting impacts of systemic racism, and the implications of climate change, it is clear that our young people need learning communities that foster their sense of agency, community, critical thinking, and possibility. And our world needs voracious, self-directed learners who see tough problems as puzzles. 

Brightworks is based on the principle that everything is interesting. We trust that children are instinctual learners, and we honor their leadership and partnership in their educational path.

Our model has influenced countless schools around the world and continues to be a model for what a child-driven, partnership-based, future-ready learning community looks like.

The school frames topics for exploration and encourages children to take on projects they are passionate about, while also fostering the development of a multitude of skills. Students are full partners in their own education, and every child is known and understood by their collaborators and the staff.

Collaborators strive to build bonds with the students, challenge them, support them, and create with them so each can find their most beautiful version of themselves.

To guide our students in this journey, we follow what we call the Arc.

The Brightworks Arc

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.

Exploration

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? Central to Exploration is a group project that gives students motivation and context for the core skills that they are developing. This is a time to model of the important aspects of project work, like collaboration, growth mindset and project management.

Expression

In the next phase of the arc, Expression, students build on what they learned in Exploration by creating anything from a structure or art object to an experiment, a research project, or a performance, centered around whatever facet of the arc topic has caught their intellectual interest. Collaborators and experts support students in project management, documentation, collaboration, and specific skills to complete their project.

Exposition

The final phase, Exposition, requires students explain their work to their community and themselves through written and oral presentations, question sessions, and demonstrations. In doing so they develop robust and flexible communication skills and integrate their most recent work into their continuing intellectual and social-emotional growth.

The Arc for early elementary students looks a little different.

Through play and provocations, our youngest students explore ideas, materials, and questions. This exploration leads to discovery related to the arc topic. Through those discoveries, students collaborate to create an artifact that is a reflection of their learning.

They test these prototypes, give and receive feedback, then continue to work together to finalize their group project. During Expo night, students share their findings and their creations. This process lays the foundation for individual projects in the later elementary years.

  • Dream it.

  • Build it.

  • Make it.

  • Share it.