Picture this: Just on the cusp of a brand-new school year, two extraordinary Mount Vernon educators, Amanda Exley Lower and Cari Barocas, embarked on a thrilling five-day journey of innovation. Their destination? The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. But this wasn’t a typical Mount Vernon expedition; it was a voyage of discovery, creativity, and…
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Summer may have seemed tranquil driving by 510 and 471 Mount Vernon Hwy, but behind the scenes faculty and staff were hard at work. Let’s take a look at some of the exciting announcements and happenings that took place during the break. The Dewey Schools in Vietnam – Partnership Announced In early July Mount Vernon…
Mount Vernon’s youngest learners had a special day filled with creativity, exploration, and fun during Frontier Arts Day. PK2 – PK5 students engaged in various arts-related activities outside on the Frontier, the School’s natural playground. Shay Jones, Director of Lower Campus Visual & Performing Arts describes the ‘why’ behind Frontier Arts Day as, “Filled with…
Designing a product for a specific client is an incredibly rich and multi-layered learning experience. In addition to leveraging skills like solution seeking, critical thinking, connecting, communicating and innovating, to ensure the clients needs are met, attributes like empathy, adaptability and creativity are key contributors to success. In Digital Woodworking, an Upper School Maker, Design…
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…
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…
How might we develop community and belonging in Middle School? Community time in Middle School is an opportunity for students to hear their peers’ stories and lean into each other’s knowledge and backgrounds. It’s also a time to reinforce Mount Vernon’s mindsets and values as part of a collective commitment to meeting the mission. To…
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iProject Mini is off to an impressive start. Since the last update, Grades 3 – 5 students have formed groups based on their expressed interests and have progressed into the individual steps in completing their group objectives. On Thursday, topic teams chatted with an MVXpert – parent, grandparent, alum, or other connection brought in to…
Read More from Bringing Real-World Experiences to iProject Mini
Contributed by the Innovation Diploma Team A signature experience for students during their first year in Innovation Diploma is hosting a dinner. This experience allows learners to get a full lap through the Design Brief Framework while also experiencing the Gold Standard PBL (project-based learning). During the third mod, Upper School Innovation Diploma teachers Larisa…