Real World Learning

Being future-ready requires real world learning experiences that challenge our students to solve real problems with the concepts they've learned. We do this by connecting our students to authentic audiences or industry experts.

Real World Learning is any and all in-class or extracurricular experiences that facilitate learning about industry expectations, careers, professionalism and executive functioning skills. The focus is on experiences that relate academic content to real-life application.

Real world learning opportunities come in many forms and at all grade levels, but always connect back to the Portrait of a Lakota Graduate. This includes preparing students for the challenges they may face on their post-high school journey toward one of the 4Es: Enrollment, Enlistment, Employment, or Entrepreneurship.

Opportunities

Regular Coursework

At Lakota, many of the secondary course options in the Programs of Study are designed around real world learning. Students show their mastery of the content by applying the concepts they've learned to projects and exercises that mimic what they might encounter post-graduation.

Courses like speech, engineering, world languages and financial literacy, for example, offer opportunities for students to apply what they learn to a real life scenario. Both high schools' journalism programs (Lakota East's Spark and the Lakota West Press) challenge student reporters to publish their own news. Students in INCubatoredu@Lakota ideate, develop, and iterate their own product or service startup. Cyber Academy students gain the resources and training necessary to fight cyber crime.

Internships & Co-Ops

Internships and co-ops place students directly into companies to gain industry experience. Internships provide this experience through engagement in extended and intensive job shadowing activities or project-based work for the company, earning credit on the student transcript. Co-ops are paid work opportunities with a company. These experiences provide students with industry experience, allowing them to "test drive" a career path prior to post-educational pursuits.

Current Opportunities

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Become a Partner

Job Shadowing

Students can have the opportunity to spend time with a professional in a variety of careers, should the position be appropriate for students to be on-site and able to be in the environment. These experiences can be arranged by need, or on a wide-spread intentional basis. Job shadowing days are one-time, off-site visits and include follow up activity or a check-in assignment that is turned in for accountability.

Please submit the Job Shadow Request Form to inform the school of your need for an excused absence for one of these experiences. This form must be submitted one week prior to the planned job shadowing. Additionally, parents must submit the Parent Consent Form 24 hours prior to the experience. Both components must be received for student records.

Request Form

Parent Consent Form

Guest Speakers & Career Exploration

Events & Experiences

Events are another way to expose a large portion of students to many different opportunities in industry. Some events are hosted internally, while others are hosted by outside organizations and are held at off-site locations.

Real World Learning Event Examples

Girl in blue shirt throwing hands up in the air excitedly toward a TV screen with a presentation on it.

Grant Program Endeavors to Empower Student Voice

What do Endeavor students do when they have a big idea for their school - or when they see a problem that they want to solve? They submit a grant proposal to their school’s PTO. A longstanding tradition at Endeavor Elementary challenges students to problem solve for the sake of making a positive difference in their school.

Smiling girl holding play money with cartoon drawings of school supplies around the photo

Earning, Spending and Learning: Inside Adena Elementary’s Meyerville Market

Adena Elementary School’s Diane Meyer has made a significant shift in teaching. Now in her 32nd year of education, and 31st at Adena, Meyer has moved from math to social studies, bringing a fresh and engaging approach to her classroom. Having spent the last 15 years as the "Mayor of Meyer Mathland," she is embracing a new role as the "Mayor of Meyerville," where her students are learning valuable life skills around economics and personal finance.

three photos of students - one with a girl holding some worms, another with two girls in front of a posterboard and the last one of a group of students planing a garden

Red Wigglers ‘Worm’ their Way into Woodland’s Fifth-Grade Curriculum

“When my students heard the word ‘worms,’ they were all in!”

And Woodland fifth-grade teacher Sharon George couldn’t be happier with how the end-of-the-year project involving the red wiggler worms turned out.

Turning a vision into reality courtyard aerial photograph

From Classroom to Courtyard: Independence Elementary Students Turn Vision into Reality

“A rite of passage” is how fifth-grade teacher Heather Farnham describes the courtyard project-based learning lesson at Independence Elementary School. The students are charged with building on the previous class’s work to continuously improve the school’s outdoor learning space.

Little boy dressed up as a firefighter holding a book in the shape of a heart that he colored

March Madness Career Brackets Inspire Hopewell Heroes to Dream Big

In contrast to the conventional March Madness basketball brackets, there were no “busted” brackets among those created by Hopewell ECS students this year. “That’s the best part. There were no wrong answers,” explained Hopewell counselor Aly McIntosh, who redesigned the school’s bracket-based career exploration project this year to personalize the experience for each Hopewell student.

Community Service

Community service is another potential avenue for gaining real world learning experience and skills. Every Lakota graduate is required to complete a specified number of community service hours as part of the government course, but may have additional requirements associated with other courses and extracurricular activities.

Service Opportunities

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