Experiential Learning

We have found that many students with learning difficulties take in information very quickly when they experience it directly. This approach can provide context for material from academic classes as well as stand on its own as a way to pick up some essential life skills. From its inception, the Academy has emphasized learning through direct experience as the method of choice wherever possible.

There is an international trip every year for eleventh and twelfth graders, generally to Europe. Students learn to take public transportation, navigate customs, and communicate in an unfamiliar place. Participants stay primarily in youth hostels, allowing them to interact with youth from all over the world.

Each class takes a trip at the end of the school year:

Eighth graders go overnight to Chicago and learn to navigate the bus system and orient themselves using maps, as well as visiting the Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, or the Shedd Aquarium. They eat at local restaurants, and travel to and from the city on Amtrak.

Ninth and tenth graders take a trip either to Mackinac Island in the northern part of Michgan or to the Washington, DC / Baltimore metropolitan area. The Mackinac trip allows students to see Michigan's ecology, specifically lake ecology, as well as to get a sense of some of the history of the state. The DC trip offers river ecology by rafting or canoeing, as well as an opportunity to visit some of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. We generally also visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Eleventh and twelfth graders take a week-long trip each year to a major region of the US and learn about its ecology and history. In recent years we have traveled to Yellowstone National Park, New York City, and through the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans. This year we are going to Boston and Cape Cod, where we will race sailboats, go whale watching, observe phosphorescent organisms in the water at Buzzard's Bay, examine the tidal flats in Cape Cod Bay, and possibly take in a baseball game.

The University of Michigan is a nearby resource for many field trips and educational opportunities which can benefit Academy students. Recently all students attended a day-long symposium in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which featured activities designed to help students find their voice and speak out against racism and oppression. We also make two field trips per year to the campus to see live theatre productions by the Ann Arbor Young Actors Guild. The University Art Museum, as well as the Museums of Natural History and Archeology, are popular destinations for class field trips. University professors and graduate students help judge our school science fair, and have been featured speakers in many Academy classes.