DUOLINGO INCUBATOR PROGRAM SERIES

Some members of his group do research others troubleshoot the technology. And I feel like this teaches us to collaborate.' 'If I went to any other school I wouldn't play Minecraft for a grade. 'I really like this history project,' says Ahad Lakhani, a well-spoken sixth-grader with glasses. On the day of my visit, these students are working in groups, using the game Minecraft to build a historically accurate environment for a particular Neolithic or Paleolithic people. Much of the classroom learning is done independently or as a group, with the teacher stepping in as needed.įounder Sujata Bhatt also teaches the sixth-grade humanities course. Incubator founder and sixth-grade teacher Sujata Bhatt assists student Elise Mayfield with a Minecraft assignment. It shares a huge, rundown, mazelike campus with several other regular public schools near Los Angeles International Airport. This one has about 200 students in grades six to nine. It's not a charter school - it's one of several dozen experimental 'pilot' schools around the city. Yasemine came up with her idea for keeping earbuds stored and neat in a class at the Incubator School, a new public school in Los Angeles that focuses on STEM, entrepreneurship, gaming and a collaborative approach to learning. This is kind of disgusting, but it can cause acne.' 'If you're washing your hands, water can get on your buds and damage them,' the ninth-grader explains. In a cacophonous hallway crowded with her classmates, she launches into her pitch: Her invention is called the Slapwrap, a braceletlike device for storing earbuds.

DUOLINGO INCUBATOR PROGRAM SERIES

Our Ideas series is exploring how innovation happens in education.įourteen-year-old Yasemine Dursun is an aspiring entrepreneur. Since students enter the school with varying language abilities, they are able to start the program at a level tailored to them. All of the students use the language learning app Duolingo on their laptops. Adam Livneh speaks to a classmate in his sixth-grade Spanish class.

Duolingo incubator program