16 crazy things that happen at Silicon Valley's favorite grade school
AltSchool bucks traditional grade levels. Students between the ages of 4 and 14 are divided into lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school groups.
You won't find traditional classrooms here either. Students migrate from station to station throughout the day.
Kids sign into school on an attendance app for the iPad.
The attendance app is one of a dozen or so tech tools developed by the school's 50-person product team, which includes former employees of Apple, Uber, Zynga, and Ventilla's alma mater Google.
Kids receive a weekly "playlist" of individual and group activities to complete. This student writes a blog on coin collecting.
Meanwhile, a classmate plays Pac-Man using MaKey MaKey, a simple circuit board that transforms everyday objects into touchable user interfaces.
The classrooms are as tech-savvy as the kids. Each is outfitted with a video camera mounted at eye level, so that teachers can review successful teaching moments.
Headphones are available to drown out distractions.
And the "smart" white boards double as TV screens. Here, the class watches a short CNN news program made for kids.
Still, AltSchool values hands-on innovation. This little guy constructs a tower for the class's "dream city."
An older student designs an obstacle course for the class rabbit using 3D-modeling software SketchUp.
A teacher sent us this photo of a student project. The bundles of tinfoil represent clouds capable of transmitting wireless internet to the people below. (Whoa, kid.)
Some of the older kids built a loft, which provides a quiet independent study space.
Cleaning supplies are kept in places where kids can reach them.
This group of middle schoolers get ready for a surprise field trip ... to a Google IO event!
Makes you wish you were a kid again.
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