It was an exciting end to the 2021-22 school year as students, staffulty, families, and community members came together to enjoy the success of Bosque School’s inaugural immersive courses!
For three weeks in May, students participated in immersive courses designed to ignite their passions, inspire their creativity, develop new skills, and provide them with the opportunity to connect with each other and the community through meaningful, real-world experiences. Earlier in the semester, students were given the opportunity to choose their immersive from a diverse selection of more than 20 classes that included everything from outdoor education courses like Wilderness Studies and Mountain Medicine, to science classes like Agua Es Vida, to art and performance classes like Mural Takeover and Hot Cheetos and ShowMakers.
Though the immersives themselves were as varied as the students who took them, all of the courses seemed to have something in common—no matter whether students were river rafting, painting a larger-than-life mural, identifying DNA from a “crime scene,” filming a movie, or learning to speak Greek, students in every immersive came away from their course with some fascinating new skills and a strengthened sense of community and belonging.
In Ms. Lineback’s and Ms. LaZar’s immersive, The Amazing Race New Mexico, students went on a private tour of Pecos National Historical Park, learned screenprinting at Kei and Molly's textiles, had picnics and played in Tiguex and Altura parks, and designed and created a turquoise and silver pendant at Meltdown Studio. When asked about the highlights of their immersive, Ms. Lineback replied, “I think students have gained a more comprehensive knowledge of their state through educational visits, games and hands-on experiences. They have also developed collaboration skills, as much of our learning was in teams. I have loved seeing them stretch their comfort zones as we have had varied experiences and developed multi-grade friendships.”
In Forensics: The Who Dunnit and How?, Ms. Briggs and Ms. Cotty introduced students to the world of criminal forensics and helped them develop skills in the analysis of crime scene evidence. They said, "We have really loved working with the students these last three weeks. It has been fun to see them working together for a common goal and using what they learned in class and applying it to a given crime. The students really are functioning as a team, and it is great to witness their growth in communicating with one another. As teams, they have learned how to process crime scenes, collect evidence, and how to search a scene. We have learned how to analyze fingerprints, hair, blood type, and will be looking at blood spatter as the week comes to an end….It has been so much fun to see the students in a novel setting and really shining!"
To celebrate the end of immersives, students and teachers invited the Bosque School community to a Celebration of Learning event at which students from all 20 immersives were able to show off their newly-developed skills through demonstrations, exhibits, and projects. The results of their efforts are proof that some of the most powerful learning does indeed happen outside of the classroom. Academic Dean Ms. Holdsworth summed it all up well when she said, “As we conclude our first year of immersives courses, it has been wonderful to see teachers and students manifest our commitment to Challenging Education and witness much joy in their learning! Students have been able to take deeper dives into topics, connect with the larger Albuquerque and New Mexico communities, and have opportunities to pursue their intellectual and artistic curiosity. The dedicated engagement to learning was palpable on our campus—from 6th grade through our seniors, students were connecting with academic content in new and meaningful ways. Thank you so much for your support of our first year of immersive courses and all the ways we challenge education at Bosque School!”
