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Courses for Credit

 

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Spark & Sustain Your Curiosity with the Following Courses Offered Through the Chelsea Center:

9140 EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING – ACADEMIC YEAR (Internships, Service Learning, Passion Pursuits, Travel)
Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
Prerequisites: Depends upon the activity/class chosen; Chelsea Center approval
Open to grades: 9-12
Are you a hands-on learner?  Would you like to explore an interest of yours with the guidance of an expert mentor? Experiential Learning (ExL) helps you do both! Experiential Learning (ExL) is the process of making meaning and creating knowledge from direct experience.  Participants in ExL learn through doing and reflecting on doing. ExL opportunities involving internships, service learning, passion pursuits and travel come up throughout the school year and are ways for students to personalize and co-design their learning, while tapping into the power of our community partnerships. 

By providing students with the opportunity to tinker, collaborate, adapt, and communicate, ExL prepares students for the excitement and challenges of their current and future lives.  To make the most of the experience, students should be actively involved in all phases of the process; goal-setting, co-designing their learning, reflection, and sharing their learning with community stakeholders.  

During the academic school year, if a student wants to pursue Experiential Learning (internship, service learning, passion pursuit, or travel), they will collaborate with the Chelsea Center Coordinator and Advisor to discuss the opportunity and brainstorm ways to put it into action. Ideas and inspiration can be found on Twitter @wgchelseactr, Instagram wgchelseactr, or our website bit.ly/34Jculu.

9140 EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING – SUMMER (Internships, Service Learning, Passion Pursuits, Travel)
Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
Prerequisites: Depends upon the activity/class chosen
Open to grades: 9-12

  • All courses described above (Internships, Service Learning, Passion Pursuits and Travel) are also available during the summer.  Students interested in these courses should plan to meet with a Chelsea Center staff member at the beginning of the second semester to secure one of these opportunities. Please note: some summer opportunities have application processes that begin in the previous fall.  

 

9140 CHELSEA CENTER INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE 

  • Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
    Prerequisites: Depends upon the activity/class chosen; Chelsea Center and community partner approval/selection
    Open to grades: 9-12, depending on requirements of organization

In this course, you will explore potential future careers through hands-on, project-based learning with a partner company or nonprofit.  Internship experiences may involve a selection process where you will be asked to submit a resume and letter of interest to secure the internship position.  As part of your coursework, internship hours will be paired with hours in the Chelsea Center, setting goals, reflecting on your growth, and sharing your learning.

  • 9140 CHELSEA CENTER SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
Prerequisites: Chelsea Center and community partner approval/selection
Open to grades: 9-12 

In this course you will find ways to learn more about a cause you care deeply about while also engaging in hands-on volunteerism for a nonprofit currently engaged in work that supports that cause. As part of your coursework, service learning hours will be paired with hours in the Chelsea Center setting goals, reflecting on your growth, and sharing your learning. 

9140 CHELSEA CENTER PASSION PURSUIT EXPERIENCE 

Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
Prerequisites: Chelsea Center and community partner approval/selection
Open to grades: 9-12 

In this course, you will co-design experience and research to help you dive deep into an interest you have.  Some of our previous students have used this course to apply their understanding of CAD and 3D printing to design footstops for their longboard, to build a guitar amp and speakers from scratch, to revitalize a community garden and to extend their learning about music engineering and create an album of their own. As part of your coursework, passion pursuit hours will be paired with hours in the Chelsea Center setting goals, reflecting on your growth, and sharing your learning.

9140 CHELSEA CENTER TRAVEL EXPERIENCE 

Credit:  ¼ or ½ unit
Prerequisites: Chelsea Center approval prior to extended or school-sponsored travel experience

Open to grades: 9-12 

In this course, you will set goals and reflect on your extended or school-sponsored travels alongside a Chelsea Center staff member. You will be asked to set goals and then track your progress toward those goals during your travels–through journals, or social media, photo journals, videos or other methods that you design in partnership with the Chelsea Center.
 

  • 9098 Teaching and Learning Cohort
    Credit: 2 units; this is a two-hour, yearlong course

  • Prerequisites: None

  • Open to Grades 11-12

  • This Experiential Learning Class helps students interested in becoming teachers explore that career through observations, hands-on support of small group instruction and teaching in K-8 classrooms throughout the Webster Groves School District. Students will also participate in seminar-style classes to study best practices in teaching and to reflect on their learning along the way.  

 

8945 REAL WORLD PROBLEM SOLVING
Credit: ½ unit in fall semester only
Open to Grades: 11-12
This Experiential Learning class uses human centered design to tackle various real world problems.  Guest speakers, simulations, observations, and various field trips will provide inspiration for our designs as we begin the semester thinking about the needs of our community.  Students will develop action plans to address these multifaceted needs, implement those plans, and reflect on their effectiveness and limitations. Students will share their learning with community stakeholders.

I’ve learned now that real world problem solving isn’t just creatively looking at a problem. It requires flexibility, initiative, and a lot of determination and patience. We’ve looked at the complexity of real world problems like poverty and inequitable education, and through that I’ve gathered that the solutions will be complex as well. I’m hoping that with this knowledge of what it actually takes in the process of interrupting the status quo, I can go into my next ventures with a little more patience and flexibility.

-Elise Keller, Real World Problem-Solver & Founder of the Change for Change Drive