Making Something of Our Inquiry

Star-Splitters seek connections. Our deep-dives connect seemingly disparate disciplines, and what’s learned in one connects to the next.

Great art, world-changing inventions, breakthroughs in science—all are born of such incremental connection-making. That is one of the lessons of a liberal arts education.

As students make their way through our curriculum, they gain more material with which to work, more data, more schema, more connections, and they gain a sense of agency by making a habit of determining better and better questions and then making something of those questions.

Projects

  • Deep-Dive Project

    At the end of each three-week deep-dive, students demonstrate their understanding of the subject at hand by making something of their inquiry, accompanied by a written presentation/analysis: essays, orreries; zoetropes; a two-part model of the human brain; a hand-made mosaic of the moon’s phases; clay sculptures of Plato and Aristotle in their poses from the center of Raphael’s The School of Athens; legal arguments; poems; stories; paintings; Shakespearean monologues; a sequel to Aristophones’s The Clouds.

  • Synthesis-of-Year Project

    Each May, students explore how the whole school year inter-relates by creating a work that demonstrates specific understanding drawn from a number of the year's deep-dives.

    For example, Ian presented an original comic strip, "The Plaintiff's the Thing," in which renowned Shakespearean actor Sir Kendell Branaghan is summoned to civil court; Arora presented a hand-made dollhouse-brain that personifies brain regions' functions; Damien performed an original rap, "The Tall Tale of Wonderland," that dramatizes the three conditions and the three theories of comedy; Juan led us in performing his original comic play that takes us behind the scenes of one of Dr. Matthew Walker's groundbreaking sleep-deprivation experiments; and Lydia presented an original graphic novel that uses the theories of comedy to shed light on Shakespeare.

  • Graduate Project

    At the end of their time at the Star-Splitter Academy, graduates create works that integrate what they’ve learned throughout their time at the school, supported by an essay. These projects and essays are presented to the school by the graduates, similar to a college-level thesis defense.

Graduate Project

At the end of their time at the Star-Splitter Academy, graduates create works that integrate what they’ve learned throughout their time at the school, supported by an essay. In May, we celebrated the outstanding work of Henry and Lydia, who formally presented their year-long senior projects to the Star-Splitter Community.

Henry’s project, a 1/12th scale model of our school house, features walls that open to reveal his understanding of a host of deep dives, including filmic techniques, Macbeth, Beowulf, tort law, and more.

Lydia’s project is an original graphic novel composed of five thematically linked pieces inspired by our studies of comedy, folklore, film, neurology, American history, the science of sound, literature, rhetoric, and drama

Deep-Dive Project

At the end of each three-week deep-dive, students demonstrate their understanding of the subject at hand by making something of their inquiry, accompanied by a written presentation/analysis: essays, orreries; zoetropes; a two-part model of the human brain; a hand-made mosaic of the moon’s phases; clay sculptures of Plato and Aristotle in their poses from the center of Raphael’s The School of Athens; legal arguments; poems; stories; paintings; Shakespearean monologues; a sequel to Aristophones’s The Clouds.

Spotlight on The Star-Splitters’ Spark Tank

For their final projects in our 3D making deep-dive, the Star-Splitters made unique creative works that incorporated repurposed or reimagined conventionally manufactured objects or components that would otherwise be thrown away, as well as a 3D printed object of their own design.

In The Star-Splitters' Spark Tank, the students' inventions were celebrated for their ability to spark wonder, demonstrate ingenuity and imagination, and meet a need in a useful but unusual way.

For The Star-Splitters, science and wonder are one.

Lydia Jensen: The Vespine Paper Extruder
”Please don’t buy it. I only made one.”

Lydia Jensen's invention is a convergence of two of her passions: art and conservation. She used the 3D printer's cutting-edge extruder to help her make a hand-driven extruding tool, which she filled with a hand-made modeling clay composed of old newspaper, dryer lint, cobwebs, knotgrass, and other found materials, which she then shaped into a beautiful blue bowl.

Synthesis-of-Year Project

Each May, students explore how the whole school year inter-relates by creating a work that demonstrates specific understanding drawn from a number of the year's deep-dives.

For example, Ian presented an original comic strip, "The Plaintiff's the Thing," in which renowned Shakespearean actor Sir Kendell Branaghan is summoned to civil court; Arora presented a hand-made dollhouse-brain that personifies brain regions' functions; Damien performed an original rap, "The Tall Tale of Wonderland," that dramatizes the three conditions and the three theories of comedy; Juan led us in performing his original comic play that takes us behind the scenes of one of Dr. Matthew Walker's groundbreaking sleep-deprivation experiments; and Lydia presented an original graphic novel that uses the theories of comedy to shed light on Shakespeare.