In September the VASCD Board of Directors visited Warrior Tech, a project-based learning program serving about 300 students within Magna Vista High School. Warrior Tech is the first New Tech Network program in Virginia. We visited classrooms and observed students working in collaborative groups on long-term, often interdisciplinary projects and problems. 

 

In one room, a small group was researching the problem of hunger in their community- formulating questions, finding and interpreting data, and evaluating a variety of strategies for solving this very real problem. Later they would create a presentation to persuade decision makers from their community to adopt their recommended solution.

 

In another room, a student talked to us about the curriculum of his combined health/biology course. "The teachers tell us that when it's going well," he said, "we shouldn't be able to identify which subject we're learning." He said the students periodically debate this question.