Curiosity-Driven Education Blog
By Jennifer Staple-Clark, Founder and Executive Director
Curiosity-Driven Education
At Slate School, our students explore widely, dive deeply, research, investigate, and collaborate. Their journey is guided by faculty and advisors who are creative thinkers who transcend typical approaches to teaching.
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Lunchtime Conversations: Nurturing Curiosity and Inspiration Through Visiting Experts at Slate School
We nurture student curiosity, awe, and wonder, and their questions and wonderings abound. For years, we’ve connected as many students as we can with experts relevant to their project topics. At Slate School, we have 4-5 project cycles each year where every one of our current 67 students select a project topic and then delve into their research and learning for 6-8 weeks each time. Books, resources, and experts are curated for the student projects. Among the many project experts who have visited with our students, we’ve had a physicist visit with a 1st grader studying roller coasters, an endocrinologist meet with 6th grade students studying diabetes and cancer, an ornithologist meet with a 1st grader studying birds, and a rugby coach meet with a student studying the sport. These individual conversations have been remarkably empowering and valuable to our students, and this year, we’ve expanded this concept to monthly Lunchtime Conversations, where an inspiring guest joins our Grade 5/6 students for a lunch conversation.