Woodland — Woodland Primary School students are learning through Explorience, a weekly 70-minute event where students learn through classroom experiences such as creating a space habitat, understanding body movement through kinesthetics and becoming explorers on the Oregon Trail.
Explorience, a combination of “explore,” “science” and “experience,” stemmed from a staff brainstorming session asking what the school would be like if it was “the most amazing place for students to attend,” Ingrid Colvard, the school’s principal, said in a release from the district.
“The staff collectively came up with an experiential learning process that would take place each week, Explorience, where students wouldn’t just learn lessons about science and social studies, but truly experience the lessons first-hand,” she said.
Students choose the experiences they take part in each week. Some have learned the forces of flight, such as lift, thrust, drag and weight, by making paper airplanes. Others learned acceleration, distance, height and the direct effects of physics by building their own racetracks and racing cars.
