1. Experience as Education and Education As Experience:
Trips Week at Milken
Pavel Lieb, MCHS
April 25, 2010 WRAEE Conference
2. Education by Dewey
"Anything that can be called a study, whether
arithmetic, history, geography, or one of the
natural sciences, must be derived from the
materials which at the outset fall within the
scope of ordinary life experience." John Dewey,
Experience and Education, 1938
3. Trips Week Overview:
Introduction: Background, Vision and Rationale
Creation: Faculty and Student Involvement
The Experience: Enlistment, Participation,
Reflection
Post-Experience: Intel Collection
Future Directions: Where can we take this
experience?
4. Milken Community High
School Overview:
Independent Jewish School in Los Angeles
Appr. 600 students
Community-based
6. Pre-existing Programs
Colorado River Trip - entire 9th grade
March of the Living - 50 twelfth graders
Semester-long Israel Fellowship- 60 tenth graders
7. Experiential Component
Scheduling problem with most field trips
Time needed for out-of-class experiences
8. Established Goals:
Goal 1: To apply, synthesize and create new materials through experiential
learning.
Goal 2: To connect learning to Jewish identity and behavior.
Goal 3: To demonstrate the ability to engage in informal learning that
enhances student love of learning.
10. Faculty Involvement
Passion/Interest Driven
Community Needs/Interest Driven
Examples: Habitat for Humanity, Meeting,
Greeting and Feeding the Homeless,
Superman and the Jewish World of Comics
and Graphic Novels, Explorers Anonymous
11. Student Involvement
2009:
Habitat for Humanity
Introduction to the Milken Business Academy
2010:
Surfing Nomads
Habitat for Humanity
Photographic Discovery
Milken Business Academy
San Diego for Sophomores
12. Different Experiences
Becoming A Recording Engineer - Sound studio
setup at Milken
Museums/Photography/American Studies - Field
trips to multiple locations
NY Dance - entirely NYC based
Explorers Anonymous - varying outdoors learning/
service components
13. Program List by Field:
Service Outdoor
Applied Arts Cultural Identity
Learning Exploration
Adventures in
Storytelling Habitat for
Humanity
Becoming A
Recording Engineer Meeting, Colorado River
Greeting and Mock Court Trial
Digital Photography Feeding the Explorers
Homeless Anonymous March of the Living
Museums in Los
Angeles Service and Santa Monica Superman and
Advocacy Mountains Jewish Comics
Expressions in Clay (Sacramento) Exploration
New York Dance American Studies
American
Studies
Superman and
Jewish Comics
American Studies
21. Processing the Experience: Student
Perspective
92.4% student respondents would prefer to see Tiyulim week happen again
82.2% felt that the program produced better experiences than the Intensive Days in the
prior years.
71.9% of all students surveyed felt that there was enough variety of courses from them
to choose
60.4% felt that there was enough courses to choose at different cost levels.
93.5% of all student respondents felt that they were exposed to new things and
experiences.
only 55.5% “definitely” felt that daily activities were appropriately scheduled.
It was also interesting to observe that students chose the course based equally on cost
and interest in faculty (3 out of 4 on a 4 point scale), because their friends were taking
the course (2.4 out of 4 on the same scale), and interest in the topic was the least
enticing at 1.71 out of 4.
22. How Our Students Felt About the Experience:
Which of the following words and/or phrases would best describe your
experience? Please feel free to check all that apply.
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23. Processing the Experience: “De-Formalizing”
In what ways did you engage and/or assess students during the week?
(Select all that apply)
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24. Given each of the goals of Tiyulim Week below, on a scale of 1 to 4 (four being
Fulfillment of the
highest), how effective do you think the program and your specific Tiyul were in
meeting these goals?
Goal 3: To demonstrate the
Goals
ability to engage in informal
learning that enhances
student love of learning.
Goal 2: To connect learning
to Jewish identity and
Students
behavior.
Goal 1: To apply, synthesize
and create new materials
through experiential learning.
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00
Given each of the goals of Tiyulim Week below, on a scale of 1 to 4 (four being
highest), how effective do you think the program and your specific Tiyul were in
meeting these goals?
Goal 3: To demonstrate the
ability to engage in informal
learning that enhances
student love of learning.
Faculty Goal 2: To connect learning
to Jewish identity and
behavior.
Goal 1: To apply, synthesize
and create new materials
through experiential learning.
2.60 2.70 2.80 2.90 3.00 3.10 3.20 3.30 3.40 3.50
Given each of the goals of Tiyulim Week below, on a scale of 1 to 4 (four being
highest), how effective do you think the program and your child's specific Tiyul were
in meeting these goals?
Parents Goal 3: To demonstrate the
ability to engage in informal
learning that enhances
student love of learning.
Goal 2: To connect learning to
Jewish identity and behavior.
Goal 1: To apply, synthesize
and create new materials
through experiential learning.
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50
25. What can/could we improve?
Need better planning (earlier in the year)
Need larger student leadership component
Need better communication with parents
Need larger “outcomes” component
26. Big Questions:
How can we transfer what we learned into the
classroom?
Is there room for a truly experiential learning
component within the context of an academic
year?
How do we communicate this to the community?
27. Big Answers
Somehow we can transfer this into the classroom!
Out-of-class experiences might be expensive and
logistically unfeasible, therefore the experiences
must be fragmentable.
Greater Web presence is essential.
28. Case Study: Surfing Nomads
4-day program
Combination of classroom/daytrip/overnight
camping
Integration of academic/practical/service learning
29. Surfing Nomads Schedule
Day 1: Malibu Lagoon
Ecology of tidal and nearshore habitats
Coastal clean-up
Physics of tides
Day 2: County Line
Intro to Surfing and Surf Culture: rules of the waves
Ecology of the urban areas intertidal zones
Coastal clean-up
30. Nomads Schedule Continued:
Day 3: Trestles
Surf Lesson
Power of public action
Coastal clean-up
Geopolitics of Southern California
Power of community
Day 4: Old Man’s beach
Early morning meditation in the ocean
Nuclear power in Southern California
Coastal clean-up
At-sea board “Roundup”
31. Biggest Accomplishments
Built a community
Integrated many unrelated topics in informal
discussion
Learned new skills
Provided service
34. Please Share Your
Creation!
Your name
Your program’s title
Overall field direction
Potential experiential/learning outcomes
Anticipated costs
Anticipated “hurdles”
35. Final Words
Exceptionally feasible!
A different invaluable learning modality
Potential for paradigm shift
