Teens will have the opportunity to take a 1 hour credit bearing college course through Curry College. The course is called Experiential Learning Lab, and will leverage the experiences Beyond Akeela teens gain outside of the class to help them better understand how they learn, and how to apply their learning profile in college courses and future employment opportunities. The course will be facilitated by faculty of the PAL program at Curry College. Here is a link to the course syllabus: Experiential Learning Lab Syllabus
A few notes to answer initial questions
- There are no tests, quizzes, or out-of-class homework. All work will be completed during class hours.
- The course is being offered as a 1 hour credit bearing course, and will be graded pass/fail.
- Teens do not need to bring any additional materials/electronics to take the course. Everything needed will be provided to them.
- The course will take place concurrently with our Community Service program. Teens who take the course will NOT do Community Service.
- Teens taking the course will participate in all other elements of Beyond Akeela (ie. they are not missing other components of the Beyond Akeela experience by taking this course).
- There is no additional fee to take the course.
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Profile (KELP)
All students who take the course will take the Kolb Experiential Learning Profile (KELP) assessment early on in the class. The KELP is designed to help students identify the way they learn from experience. Parents will receive the results of the assessment at the end of the camp session.
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Learning Styles and Team Learning
Teams and team members tend to prefer parts of the learning cycle that correspond to their learning style preferences (assessed via the KELP) and may skip or underutilize others. By understanding the learning style preferences of the individuals on their teams, students will be able to use their members’ strengths to deliberately touch all bases of the team process (i.e., create, plan, decide, act) rather than skipping some steps or being derailed by common team dysfunctions.
Experiential Learning
This course is designed to engage students with Kolb’s full Experiential Learning Cycle, with a primary goal of developing learning flexibility, self-awareness and self-confidence. The course readings, assignments, and experientials will involve Experiencing, Reflecting, Analyzing, and Acting. Students will begin their experiential learning journey to becoming flexible learners through continued exploration of the strengths associated with learning styles and overcoming the challenges of getting stuck in a preferred learning style comfort zone.
