4 amazing things afoot at The Cabot School

So many schools in Vermont are engaged in innovative, student-centered, tech-rich education work.We’re proud to partner with The Cabot School for just this reason.

Their students write the school’s website updates. They’ve been featured twice on VPR this past year. They win national awards for their recyclable, energy-efficient musical production, and their educators are Rowland Fellows building a ground-breaking new project-based learning app.

Check out what’s happening at school in Cabot, Vermont.

1. Cabot 8th graders blog their way through DC

Cabot’s 8th grade class recently undertook a field trip to Washington D.C., and in order to keep the folks back home informed of their travels, they kept a class blog, chronicling their adventures.

Reflections range from informatively historical to personal, and are generously populated with photos, capturing the actual interactions and learning moments that make field trips such a valuable part of an education experience. Go check ’em out.

2. Environmental Science class tackles real-world problems

And those problems have no chance, y’all.

We’ve profiled Cabot’s AP Environmental Science class before, for their innovative classroom design. Following them on twitter is like peering through a window at a strange educational wonderland, or tuning in to an intriguing PBS show.

Ss select appropriate potting media based on #orchid #evolution and plant #ecology pic.twitter.com/UjLZvg0jMf

— Cabot Science (@CabotScience) May 19, 2015

They’ve planted trees at a nearby covered bridge to help stop erosion.  They play evolution games with bugs. Y’all, they are always up to shenanigans. Earlier this spring, the class undertook designing the lighting for a school production of the musical, “Lillian”, and used the opportunity to calculate how to create lights that were both artistically pleasing and used the least energy. The results of their work netted them a $10,000 national grant. Check out their interview with local affiliate WCAX:WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

3. Cabot students take off — on bikes around Vermont

12 students from The Cabot School are planning on spending their vacation biking the length of the state of Vermont — 200 miles!

Being a geographically isolated and tiny town (pop. about 1000), opportunities come hard for young people in Cabot. Funds are sparse and connections are tricky. This spring, a group of community bike enthusiasts and the school principal launched a challenge – during the final week of school, encourage 12 students to plan and execute a bike trip from the Canadian border to the southern edge of Vermont. Along the way, students would meet Vermont educational proficiencies focusing on local history, physical fitness, leadership and resilience.

CABOT ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW. YOU’RE PUTTING YOUR PRINCIPAL ON A BICYCLE.

Please tell me someone’s planning on filming this (while not operating a bicycle because, you know, safety first).

Anyway, if this is the kind of change you’d like to see in the world (and in schools), please consider backing the Cabot Roamers’ Indie Go-Go campaign.

4. LaunchPad: a new app for mapping out project-based learning

2014-2015 Rowland Fellows (and Cabot School educators) Peter Stratman and Brian Boyes spent the year partnering with Vermont app development firm Agilion to create a web-based app where educators could plan their project-based learning endeavors within a framework of dynamic pedagogy. The app, LaunchPad, is currently looking for beta testers, and made it to the finals of the 2015 Launch VT contest.

Go Cabot!