The Workshop School
The Workshop School is a small public high school in West Philadelphia. Students engage in project-based learning and work to solve real-world problems. The school has a one-to-one laptop program and CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs in engineering, auto tech, auto body, and media production. The workshop features a computer lab, a CNC router, and a laser printer. Teachers collaborate with one another and with students to design interdisciplinary projects that typically last five to ten weeks.
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Advisory 215Advisory 215 is a group of twelve ninth graders and an advisor, Ms. Melville. At the Workshop School, students spend the mornings (from 8:30 to 11:45) working on interdisciplinary projects with their advisories. Because we spend so much time together, we get to know each other very well. This helps us to collaborate, give and get meaningful feedback, and push each other to do our best work. Advisory 215 took on this lamp project in the fourth quarter of the 2014-2015 school year. It gave us the opportunity to do some hands-on work in the shop as well as learn some science. For some of the students, working on this project came easily; they had great ideas, were confident with the design software, and felt comfortable working with their hands in the shop. For others, this project was a challenge, and it took help and encouragement from teachers and classmates to make it to finish the work.
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Kathleen Melville
I am the advisor for this project and the author of this website. The 2014-2015 school year was my eleventh year as a teacher and my first year as an advisor at the Workshop School. I started this project with very little knowledge of electricity and very little experience working with design software or the machines in the shop. In planning and facilitating this project, I relied very heavily on my colleagues, Simon Hauger and Todd Menadier. I also learned a tremendous amount from my students as I watched them design, collaborate, and problem-solve. I am documenting our work here in the hope that it will be useful to future Workshop School students and teachers, as well as others who are interested in project-based learning. Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments.
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