For middle school students, they can participate with Augusta teams or work with their home districts. For high school students, all Wildlands students are part of the Augusta School District and can participate in any extra-curricular activity they choose.
At project-based schools, students work to complete personal learning plans. In middle school, the multidisciplinary thematic units cover all the core areas and focus on the 8th grade standards. At the high school level students are expected to complete the same requirements for graduation as in many schools, however, projects comprise the bulk of the learning. Electives are embedded in the student’s choices. Since the school does not have “formal classes”, electives are the choice of students, and they can build projects around almost any area they want to pursue.
Students have 4 choices for lunch. First, a student may bring their own lunch from home. We have basic kitchen supplies, microwaves, a toaster, a toaster oven, and a traditional oven that all students have access to. Or, a student may participate in the Wildlands lunch program, which is run through the Augusta School District. Students can choose 1 of 2 lunch options offered through the district; their choice of a salad or a sack lunch. Lunches are pre-ordered by the students, and every day the lunch is delivered to our site. Students and families can put money into a lunch account, which works like a debit account, and each time a student is served lunch, or purchases milk, their account is charged. Wildlands families are eligible to apply for free & reduced lunch prices, just like at any other district.
There are three main ways in which students get to school: students can either ride the bus, carpool or drive themselves. The bus picks up and drops off outside of the high schools in Fall Creek and Augusta at the beginning and end of the day. If you live in or around Eau Claire and Altoona there are many carpools that you can join up with. Wildlands also has access to a bus and a van during the day and most of our teachers have bus licenses, so we can easily go on field trips.
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The middle school curriculum is structured around thematic units. Thematic units are based on smaller projects in subject areas including science, math, social studies, English, and art. All of these projects are based around a theme central to the thematic unit. Examples of thematic unit projects include; World War 2, Vernal Pools, Investigating Streams, Mesoamerica, and the Middle Ages. Many more are included in a 2-year rotation so students who are in the middle school for both 7th and 8th grade have two distinctly different years. All the middle school thematic units are targeted at the Wisconsin 8th grade standards.
At Wildlands Middle School there is no such thing as a typical day. Some days we work on outdoor projects, others we do speeches or build models of historical items. We might be on a trip to a part of the woods to build a habitat for amphibians or work on restoration projects. We can be found working on our math or listening to each other present on topics related to our current units. When we get tired of sitting around, we go out for PE activities. A few times a year we are camping, canoeing, or taking trips to cultural activities. If we have a great idea we can turn it into a project and even travel to places to work or learn. Our teachers keep track of our work and progress, and we regularly break into workgroups to learn new ideas and bring them back to the class. We are a one-room school with grades 7-8 and can be super flexible with our units and projects.
A typical day at Wildlands…? We don’t think we have those.
Progress is tracked through a combination of typical grade book recording and student progress checks within thematic units. Middle school students hold some responsibility for their own grades and credit but are still advised by staff through semi-structured units.
Math can be learned through a variety of individual learning options available to students. Some programs include ALEKS Online Assessment Learning and Teaching Textbooks. Students are tested, placed, and helped with math from their own personal development points. We don’t group all the students together and expect them all to be doing the exact same thing at the same pace.
The Wildlands Middle School services grades seven and eight in a multi-age age group. The students are all working on a thematic unit to meet the eighth-grade standards.
Students in the middle school are responsible for completing their work within the thematic units and meet deadlines. In middle school we start to work with students to develop time management and independent learning skills, however, the teacher is still a primary planner and develops an overall plan. Students work to pick individual parts of each unit and do their own research to contribute to the group.
We make sure that the state and national requirements are met by comparing thematic unit instructional objectives with a list of educational standards. Students take all the required state and local assessments and have been very successful in all curricular areas every year.
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Students work on projects, project teams, attend seminars, work on community-connected projects, and in other cases learn in more traditional ways on occasion. The way we keep track of all the student accomplishments and learning plan is by using a powerful online project-based learning management program. All the projects students do are requested, reviewed, refined, assessed, and closed for credit in that online program.
Grades and credits are reported on a traditional transcript and divided into subject areas. Grades come out every semester.
Students have done projects in all areas of study, here are a few examples: Mapped the Beaver Creek Reserve and produced guides for the public; Made videos to demonstrate a wide variety of concepts, ideas, and school related information; Created cookbooks; Built signs and benches for the trails at Beaver Creek; Published the schools newsletter; Designed the school’s “About Us” web page, Collected the data and created a depth map of lake Eau Claire, Conducted water quality surveys on the lakes on the Chippewa Valley Boy Scout Camp Phillips property, Collected data and created a bathymetric (depth) map of Lake Mitchell in Barron County; Designed and sold hand crafted fishing lures at Scheels; Created 3D models with Cinema 4D a powerful industry standard animation program; Conducted deer population surveys; Worked with a variety of wildlife species in range and habitat studies utilizing radio-telemetry and geographic information systems, Designed and created posters using the Adobe suite of design programs; Conducted anatomical projects in the Lab; Worked with many community organizations in service learning roles, such as the Eau Claire Community Table, Special Olympics, local care facilities, military personnel, and more.
Wildlands has guidelines in all the areas of study that correspond with standards and goals set for high school students both locally and at the state level. Students who have successfully graduated from Wildlands report back regularly and help us refine our goals to meet those required for post-high school success. Many Graduates from Wildlands (70%) are currently in post-secondary education or have successfully graduated. Students have been on dean’s lists, achieved high grade point averages, and a few have earned graduate degrees. If a student wants to go on to college, a project-based learning environment is not a drawback. Many graduates report being very well-prepared for the college environment because they had to be in charge of their day, and their learning goals, and manage their own time at Wildlands.
In high school, we track progress through an online credit tracking program. Whenever a student starts a new project they request it on the program. Writing a project request involves adding all the tasks and goals along with a central driving question. Then as the project progresses students log their time and keep track of which tasks they complete. After a project is completed students work with teachers to evaluate and finalize the project for credit in the various credit areas where learning and skill development took place. Students regularly can return to a project to improve areas and increase credit by addressing weak areas and working for high quality.
Students earn the majority of their credit through projects. When a student finishes a project the student will sit down and evaluate the project with a staff member. They discuss the product, the work that went into the project, and the amount of time spent on the project. The learning standards are reviewed and assessed at the level of understanding a student has reached. All the credit is recorded in our online credit tracking program and accumulates throughout the year. When students earn enough they are awarded credits on transcripts.
Each day is unique, no two days are the same. Each student has their own projects and goals, so students will be working on completely different projects. Wildlands is also a traveling school, so we can pack up and go on a day trip at a moment's notice. Students also have the ability to move around the school and work in any of the many workspaces in and around the school. Staff and students work together to plan and implement projects, however at the high school level students are treated as independent learners with high levels of personal responsibility, and they structure their work on a daily basis.
Students come to Wildlands from a variety of educational backgrounds and bring only their previous experiences as reference points. At Wildlands, we typically find that it takes a high school student between 9 weeks and 9 months to fully adapt to the project learning culture and become a fully functional member of our learning community. Some students arrive and jump right it with skills and abilities fit for project learning, some take longer. It is entirely a personal journey, however, most students who try will succeed and become very independent and responsible members of our school.
The high school curriculum is based around projects that students develop to meet all of their learning goals and requirements. In addition to projects, in some areas of study such as math and foreign language we use blended learning approaches with seminars, online courses, and other resources. A project-based school uses standards, learning targets, and personal learning plans to work with students in developing their path through high school. There are requirements to be met each year, and especially in the 9th and 10th-grade years students have core subjects to work through to meet requirements. Opportunity, participation, activity, projects, and a wide variety of resources (including many outside of the school-day) are the real curriculum, and the guideposts are the state and national standards that all schools use to help students move forward.
Every student must meet the graduation requirements which are set forth by the school district, and Wildlands has added a few beyond those to focus on independent learning, project learning, research, life-long health and fitness, science, and math. Every year is different at Wildlands because the school works around the needs and goals of the current students. The standards and graduation requirements don’t change, but how students achieve them is highly personal and a dynamic process.
Posted on April 20, 2015
People often ask how Wildlands students do after high school. Where do they go? Does a project-based school prepare students for life in college? Wildlands has a 70+% college and university graduation rate. Here is a list of schools our graduates have been admitted to, currently attend, and have successfully graduated from.
- University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
- Vermillion College
- Northland College
- University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
- University of Wisconsin - Stout
- Carlton College
- St. Olaf College
- St. Scholastica University
- Chippewa Valley Technical College
- University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
- McNally Smith College of Music
- Carroll University
- University of Wisconsin - Madison
- University of Minnesota
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