Individualized Learning

List of 3 items.

• Independent Studies

  In the 1950s and ‘60s, Founding Director Doc Armstrong pulled students out of class and gave them a stack of books to read if he thought they needed a more individualized program. Today, upper-level students are encouraged to work with Indian Springs faculty members on meaningful independent study topics that support their distinctive interests, personality, and preferences. Each year, Springs’ Academics Committee approves more than 20 independent studies, from topics such as American political philosophy of the early founding period, to the applied mathematics of winning at tennis, to social, economic, and political forces impacting women's health issues.
  
  Independent studies for 2021-2022 include: 
  

  • Complex Analysis
  • Forest Fire Reconnaissance
  • Game Development with the Unreal Engine
  • Interpreting the Deaf World
  • Teaching Practicum in AP Chinese
  • The Art of Nonfiction:  Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy
  • Discrete Mathematics
  • Study of Haruki Murakami
  • Don Quixote and Related Works
  • Relativity and Modern Physics

• Malone Schools Online Network

  In 2015, Indian Springs joined the new Malone Schools Online Network to expand course offerings to all of Springs’ upper-level students. Taught by faculty from participating Malone Scholars Schools and the Stanford Online High School, MSON courses give Springs students the chance to take intensive classes in an interactive, online discussion setting. Courses meet twice weekly for an hour and use a blended learning approach, combining real-time video conferencing seminars with recorded lectures and projects to be completed outside of class. Small in size, courses may last one semester or the full school year.
  
  Requirements:
  

  • All enrollments for MSON courses require approval from Indian Springs’ Dean of Academics.
  • MSON courses cannot be used to meet departmental/academic curriculum requirements.
  • Courses and grades earned are listed on Indian Springs School transcripts.

  Click here to learn more about the Malone Schools Online Network.

• Makerspace

  Springs’ Makerspace is a flexible and personalized learning environment designed to foster creative problem solving, curiosity, collaboration, and iterative learning. This in turn leads to better thinking through more effective questioning.
  
  Teachers blend core disciplines in a project-based approach, allowing students to explore their interests and harness their innovative potential. Projects are not done at the end of a unit of learning; they are the vehicle and purpose of the learning. Focus is on projects in engineering, robotics, electronics, 3-D graphic design and printing, programming, woodworking, metalworking, gardening, culinary arts, or a combination of these areas.
  
  Springs’ Makerspace opportunities exist because we believe learning through doing is an integral part of Learning through Living—learning can be self-organized, social, and student-owned; and it can be the product of play, experimentation, and authentic inquiry, where each student exploits the ideal of experiential education.