Brittany Daum: Because we offer explorations so often, students can hone in what are my passions, what do I want to learn more about? It can really help them in the future as they are moving along their path.

Student: Dancing, jewelry making, card tricks.

Joe Erpelding: You know when you think about the research that’s out there, and you see this decline of curiosity in kids, we’re not creating enough spaces for that curiosity. And explorations is one of those places. Kids get this fantastic choice. Yet it also does one other magical thing. It gives a choice for the teacher.

Teacher: Nice. Perfect. That looks really good.

Brittany Daum: Explorations are short electives that students have at the end of the day. Then every six weeks they get to take a new class.

Caeden: It’s 45 minutes at the end of every day, so then you can try new things. You can start understanding what you want to do which really helps like going to the high school, what tracks do you want to take? There’s mosaic, there’s digital photography. I’m in Spanish.

Seva: Animal, science, coding. I choose for my exploration to do cooking because like the first time I cooked really lighted up my life.

Julie Mori: It’s wonderful to see them excited about getting to do what they want to do, so it really empowers them. There’s no motivation problem.

Teacher: So what we’re going to be doing today is come up with our explorations. You’re gonna come up with some really cool choices.

Julie Mori: Some groups just might do an open brainstorm. Throw out your ideas.

Student: I wanna make a mini volcano.

Teacher: So you want to do science experiments.

Julie Mori: For our class the process of choosing exploration starts with wonderings. We want them to be curious. We want them to ask lots of questions. So, we pass out post it notes and say, “What are you wondering about?” And just let them free write. How many feathers are on a robin? Interesting. And then we sort them into main topics.

Seva: And then, we are gonna do a vote.

Julie Mori: You need to put them in order according to your most favorite to your least favorite.

Brittany Daum: At the middle school level, we’ll send out a survey, and students will rank their top three. Once we have a list of explorations that kids are interested in, we’ll get together as a team. 50 students want to do art, 25 students want to do engineering. We’ll try to match the teacher’s passion with the classes that the kids are interested in.

Julie Mori: Sometimes the kids will come up with a topic that teacher’s have no idea, but it’s not bad because we learn along with the kids.

Brittany Daum: I know how to sew. The patch making really fit in my wheel house, and because the students really wanted to do it, I decided that I would figure out how to make the class for them. Try to use your needle because you can like stick it under the strings. I’m learning, as they’re learning. It makes them feel really comfortable with me in the academic setting. So it really helps build our relationships.

Julie Mori: Because we offer explorations, kiddos are more involved in their learning. It’s like, “Oh my gosh. “We’ve got explorations today. “I know I’m gonna be able to do this.” That’s what we want to make sure that we keep these kids doing, is being joyful, and curious, and asking all kinds of questions.

Ava: When kids don’t want to learn about something that they don’t like, they won’t do it as good as they could. So if you get to pick, you’re more in the mood to do it.

Brittany Daum: Giving the kids the opportunity to have explorations throughout their entire time here at Design 39, it let’s them see what they like, what they don’t like, and how they’re changing their passions as they age.

Student: High five.

Schools That Work

Design 39 Campus