If you step into One Stone’s Lab School this fall, you’ll hear a lot of buzz about about immersions, or immersion experiences.
What are immersions?
At One Stone’s Lab School, immersions are how students learn. At its core, the word itself means absorbing involvement – which is exactly what One Stone learners get a chance to do during each experience.
Over the course of three weeks, some students camped along the South Fork of the Salmon River, while others played music on the streets of Downtown Boise. Other groups spent time at a local advertising agency, as another built a dome out of PVC pipe and covered it in blackout fabric to recreate the night sky. Each immersion was as varied and individualized as the students themselves, with bold learning objectives built into each part of the experience.
“Allowing students to explore deeply gives them the ability to more fully understand a complex situation or subject,” says One Stone Coach Michael Reagan. “It gives students the opportunity to create interdisciplinary learning experiences that are personalized to their curiosities and passions. And from a basic time management perspective, immersions make for fewer transition times where they have to shift focus between siloed topics.”
During each immersion, learners spent two days a week going beyond textbooks to explore subjects in a deeply impactful way. The immersions explored history, computer science, astronomy, video game programming, advertising, music production, and the complex issue of Idaho’s mining history and how it affects the state’s future. Here’s a closer look at some of the Fall 2019 immersions:
What’s Mine is Ours
“My objective in What’s Mine is Ours was to predict the ecological impact of the lack of salmon/steelhead in an ecosystem as it pertains to other parts of the ecosystem by identifying scientific questions and composing well informed hypotheses.”
This immersion provided a deep dive into Idaho’s complex and sometimes emotional history with the mining industry. Learners visited the Yellow Pine Stibnite Mine, an abandoned pit mine in central Idaho, where a movement is underway to clean up and restore the area. The company behind the cleanup plans to make use of the mine’s rich deposit of antimony, or stibnite, to fund the cleanup effort. Students learned about the specifics of this proposed project, and how it might affect habitat and the environment. To conclude the experience, students created works of art to reflect their experiences which will be displayed at a public gallery.
Hands on Astronomy
This wide-ranging exploration of astronomy used primitive tools to explore basic concepts of astronomy, as well as a great deal of information that’s often left out of science textbooks. Students built a 13-foot diameter dome out of PVC pipe and blackout fabric, resulting in a “star dome” of interlocking pentagon stars. Inside the dome, students projected northern hemisphere stars that slowly rotated overhead. This immersion also explored gravity waves, orbits, dark energy, and supernovas using a gravity simulator, how to size the earth using two sticks, and how to build a sundial.
American History Through Forrest Gump
“I wanted to grow in areas of information literacy, writing, and critical thinking in order to identify, accept, and understand different aspects of the Vietnam War. I researched and wrote about some of the major turning points that caused the Vietnam War, and the different effects it had on Vietnam, as well as how it has shaped racial relations between the U.S. and other countries.”
Using historical events highlighted in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, students were challenged to explore how the connective ties of history bind people – and generations – together. This sharpened their skills in critical reading, writing, research, and information literacy, as well as reflection, synthesis, elaboration and communication. This experience allowed them to explore the diversity of voices and visions that create a record of history, and those that are lost by time’s progression.
Introduction to Computer Science and Statistics
During this experience, students learned how to write small and medium sized programs to analyze data, perform simulations, and accomplish tasks across disciplines. They also explored some of the fundamental concepts in statistics in order to ask questions about and draw conclusions from data sets. This immersion prepared students with a foundational knowledge of basic statistical ideas, as well as experience in writing programs that can help solve relevant problems.
Intro to 3D Video Game Programming
This immersion gave students the opportunity to create 3D video games using a program called Unity. They first learned basic coding skills in C#, then how to create and use shareable game assets. From there, each participant contributed to portions of a single game world. In addition to math, this experience included language and writing exercises to enhance learners’ communication skills.
Two Birds: The Agency
One Stone’s own creative agency, Two Birds, welcomed learners for a three week deep dive into art and business, logo and graphic design, videography, and entrepreneurship. Students opted to choose one of four roles at Two Birds: Producer, Designer, Video/Photo or PR/Promotions. As part of this experience, they visited local advertising agency Drake Cooper to learn about agency structure – specifically how to foster a creative culture as well as attract and maintain client relationships.
Flash Band
“My goal is to be comfortable with sharing my music in a setting where people are not looking for music. I would like to expand my vulnerability, confidence, and collaboration skills in a public setting.”
This immersion focused on creativity, vulnerability and musical collaboration. Students joined together to make a One Stone “busking” collective by preparing songs to perform out in the community, often at unexpected places or times. This immersion challenged students to quickly create works of music with their bandmates, and become more comfortable with performing live.
Those three-week immersion experiences are just part of the overall learning experience this fall at One Stone. What’s next? Everything from ornithology and genetics to skateboard making, culture and design.
Sounds absorbing and immersive, doesn’t it? That’s the whole idea.
Stay tuned for more on One Stone’s fall immersion experiences.
