Grade 5 students are known as the “Leaders of the Lower School.” Starting with questions like, “How can we make an impact on our Lower School community through leadership?” Grade 5 students discover what leadership and impact looks like through this flagship Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) unit. Through collaboration, communication, creative thinking, ethical decision-making, and solution-seeking,…
Building skills that will prepare them for Upper School and beyond, Grade 8 Impact Design Lab (IDL) students were given the option to design solutions for one of three opportunities that would enhance the Middle School experience. How might we (HMW) help a teacher who is coming back from surgery to navigate the Middle School?…
Read More from Designing Teacher Appreciation in the Middle School
At Mount Vernon, we believe children have big ideas, and when teachers really know their students’ curiosities and passions, incredible things can happen. Incredible things like starting businesses, creating non-profit organizations, and launching new products. Although there are countless stories daily that reflect student ingenuity, we wanted to spotlight a few examples of MV students…
Sophomores in Innovation Diploma Biomimicry Biology classes are participating in a global design challenge to find nature-inspired, eco-friendly, and sustainable solutions to address local or global ecological and environmental challenges. Each group will submit its findings to the Biomimicry Institute’s Youth Design Challenge program by the end of this week. Each of the following questions…
Read More from Biomimicry: Designing Nature-Inspired Solutions
From neuroscience in Grade 4, the landscape of Georgia 230 Million years ago in Grade 2, and optimizing Santa’s sleigh for inclement weather in Kindergarten, the Lower School has been buzzing with student wonders and rich conversations with MVXperts. Last week Santa traveled from the North Pole to help Kindergarten students with their weather-resistant sleigh…
Grade 6 students are diving deep into the concept of sustainability. Since the beginning of the year, students have explored how weather and natural disasters can affect a city, how to build earthquake-resistant homes, design sustainable food production networks, develop recycling policies, explore alternative energy sources, and more. This interdisciplinary unit leveraged Edtech tools including…
The Mount Vernon School has again partnered with the Missoula Children’s Theater, a nationally touring theater group dedicated to developing life skills in children through participation in the performing arts. This year, 63 students in Grades 1 – 5 brought the beloved tale, The Frog Prince, to life. What makes this performance so special? The…
Makerspaces on both campuses exist to empower students, giving them hands-on experience to ideate, fabricate and iterate solutions. In Maker programs across all divisions inquiry-based learning, design and engineering come together. After an introduction with hands-on instruction on the proper use of the various tools and machines in the spaces such as circular saws, table…
Grandparents and Special Friends occupy a special place in the Mount Vernon community. We are thankful these special people remain supportive of our students journey as the School prepares them for the world beyond the classroom. Grandparents are invited to many events throughout the year, but Lower Campus Grandparents And Special Friends Day is a…
One of the newest community identifiers is the “Identity Tapestry” on the Lower Campus. Woven on a pinboard are the stories of our littlest Mustangs on display for the community to see and engage in. It all started with Early Childhood Visual Arts Teacher Cheryl Bruno researching activities to help strengthen student fiber and wrapping…