Studio H: a different kind of classroom

31 december 2011

Wat een gave school, zegt Jelmer Evers. Als docent van UniC in Utrecht kwam hij op de website van Studio H en twitterde de link. De camera's  draaiden een jaar lang mee in een  van Amerika's meest innovatieve klaslokalen. Het resultaat is in de zomer van 2012 te zien. De documentairemakers volgen Emily Pilloton en Matt Miller, twee begeleiders van een groep high school juniors in Bertie Countie School, North Carolina.

Studio H is a different kind of classroom. We design, build, and transform.
Faced with rising unemployment rates, a struggling educational system and simmering racial tension the people of Bertie County North Carolina turn to Pilloton, Miller and their students for help. We discover that what the class designs and builds for their hometown has a chance to transform their community for generations to come. 

Een trailer van de documentaire, klik HIER:

Studio H is a high school design/build curriculum for rural community benefit. The one-year program is offered to Junior-year students of the Bertie County school district in North Carolina, providing college credit, a summer job, and a hands-on opportunity to build real-world projects for the community (in this, our first year, we’ll build chicken coops and a farmer’s market in downtown Windsor!).

By learning through a design sensibility and “dirt-under-your-fingernails” construction skills, we’re developing creativity, critical thinking, citizenship, and capital to give students the skills they need to succeed, while building the assets the community needs to survive. Given the opportunity to engage within a public education system, we believe the next generation will be the greatest asset and untapped resource in rural communities’ futures. Over the course of one calendar year, students earn high school and college credit, and are paid a summer wage to build the community project they have spent the year designing and prototyping.

This past year, we designed and built some crazy chicken coops for families in need, and a 2,000-square-foot farmers market pavilion for our hometown of Town of Windsor, North Carolina.

http://www.studio-h.org/