The traditional high school structure does not provide much room for making and building as a learning pathway. Making students march in lock step with each other in traditional units of study leads to awkward decisions around pacing, and uniformity of content, assessment, and learning outcomes that do not consistently match the world outside of school. In this workshop, I will share the development of two new high school courses at SSIS in App Development and Robotics. These design cycle courses have no units, no exams or quizzes, and no expectation that every student will have the exact same experience as any other. Even with these changes to the traditional structure, students choose to stay after school to work on projects, are documenting their process, and are understanding the need for knowledge and skills from across the content areas.
