Grand Rapids Public Museum School bucks all traditional school facility expectations and embeds students in the community for project-based learning.
This article has been produced in partnership between The 74 and the XQ Institute.
Eleventh grader Genesis Villafane has two words to describe her Michigan high school: “harmonious pandemonium.”
At the Grand Rapids Public Museum School in the Grand Rapids Public Schools district, Genesis and her peers experience a constant juxtaposition of creativity and commotion because of their school’s non-traditional approach of embedding students — literally — in the community, and injecting the community into learning.
“In one corner, you had Mr. [Nate] Langel doing a science lesson, and across the room, the choir group was practicing next to seniors working on their community project,”…
