How QC Makes Deep Learning Happen
QuantumCamp generates hundreds of amazing reviews. Here are a few recent examples:
How do we do this? Our best-in-class teachers deploy an amazing curriculum that is carefully designed to bring DEEP LEARNING to life. This is easy to say, but surprisingly hard to do and teachers the world over struggle to achieve deep learning outcomes on a consistent basis.
What is deep learning?
Deep learning happens when a student is absorbed in the beauty of a topic and desires to continue investigating.
Deep learning is the ultimate in intrinsically motivated learning where there is no concern for grades. It can happen in solitude or it can spring forth from collaborative work.
Deep learning is illustrated when a struggling, hard-working student has that “AHA!” moment.
How do we Promote Deep Learning?
How does QuantumCamp consistently promote deep learning across ages and learning styles?
We take the time to create amazing math and science courses that have been engaging and exciting kids for 10 years. Here is what we do:
Pose a captivating, intriguing problem to incite curiosity. History and nature are our guides. What were the questions that great mathematicians and scientists in history pursued? (No government academic standards for us!)
Provide time for students to discuss approaches to solve the problem. (And, provide the necessary lab equipment for the students to run experiments and conduct tests!)
Let students collaborate with the goal of formally resolving the problem. (Empower students to attach a name to the newly discovered concept and thereby own it!)
Let this new nugget of knowledge be the common platform for posing another problem. (Build a series of related problems together, and you have a course with the context and freedom necessary for the learner to own their discoveries!)
Why We Place Importance on Deep Learning
These are not revolutionary principles of teaching, far from it. In fact, this is what great thinkers in education have championed for years. Contrary to QC and to educationalists like John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Paulo Freire, Jerome Bruner, and Sir Ken Robinson are concepts that are all too widespread in modern US education like long lectures, championing standards put forward by the state, or authoritarian control of classroom dynamics. QuantumCamp’s unique approach deploys different language and focuses on different conditions.
Students learn when subjects and lessons are contextualized.
Students grow when they have the space and freedom to fold emerging ideas into their own experiences.
There is a wonderfully intuitive aspect to these principles. Don’t we all believe that the acquisition of new knowledge requires a backdrop of already acquired knowledge? Don’t we all believe that an internal motivation to learn is based on experiences that incite curiosity? Don’t we all know that passively receiving information, about which we did not inquire, can be tortuous?
At QuantumCamp we ensure every lesson in every course is contextualized for the student (they know why they are investigating it and are happy to do so) and includes the freedom to explore. It is hard work and it takes time to ensure these criteria are met. But we’ve been doing this for years, across hundreds of courses, and we know it is worth it when we hear feedback from our parents and students that QC has made a difference in their lives.
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