Curriculum

Overview of Edge

Edge is a self-directed, cross-curricular approach to learning open to students in grades 11-12.  Enrolled learners generally choose a year's independent study to explore a topic, theme, or problem of their choice.  They engage in a process of discovery throughout the year, creating projects as residue of their personal growth.

Students spend three periods a day (2.25 hours) in Edge. They attend classroom-based math classes, tutoring sessions, and other curricular offerings such as AT, art, and music. They do not attend Literature, History, and Science, however, since these are the larger content areas that comprise their Edge work.  (Note on Science:  Most students choose to study Science within Edge, but the program offers exceptions to this practice if a learner desires to pursue his/her Edge work through a class on-campus.)

There are eight values that Edge cultivates in all participating students and advisors: curiosity, perseverance, integration, collaboration, self-awareness, bravery, meaningful understanding, and agency.

Assessment

The Edge team advises students on their work according to four general requirements: research, record keeping, process, and application of knowledge.  The nature and methods of those criteria are at the discretion of each student. Application of knowledge, for example, may take the form of a body of art, a production of an original performance, a construction, an extended piece or collection of writings, traditional research papers, or “delicious unimaginables.” 

Both advisors and students are responsible for the evaluation of work conducted in Edge. Advisors offer individualized critiques on a learner’s work.  Students formulate and work towards personalized goals.  They collaborate with each other, the Edge advisors, and individuals inside and outside of the Kildonan community, and they conduct differentiated self-assessments. The data from sharing sessions between Edge faculty and students comprise the grades and narratives that are reported to the Registrar.

Sharing Sessions & Octopuses

Sharing Sessions: During weekly conversations with the Edge team, a student discusses his/her current line of research, asks for new resources, and proposes ideas for applications of his/her knowledge. The Edge faculty engages mindfully in those gatherings by offering suggestions, resources, and support. One Edge advisor updates a written log following that student’s progress, while another maintains a visual record of that same file.  Both documents inform the data reported to the Registrar as well as the content shared on the program’s blog and Twitter account.

Octopuses: The visual record produced during sharing sessions takes the form of an octopus.  That animal has come to represent Edge’s explorations into an alternative approach to “school” and what it means to seek knowledge. The octopus’s “head” represents the larger topic that a student is exploring, while the tentacles track a student’s evolving explorations into various content areas.

Membership

Edge is open to students in grades 11 and 12 only.  Students prepare for this program in 10th grade by progressing through the Personal Project (PP), the culmination of Kildonan’s Middle Years Program (MYP). 

Returning students in grades 11 and 12 may choose to join Edge during any semester. 

Students new to Kildonan must progress through one semester of traditional classes.  At the end of this period, 11/12 faculty and the Edge team may discuss the program with the student to determine eligibility and interest.