Blog

“My son is smart. But he doesn’t know how to use his intelligence. He’s missing the skills he needs to use his smarts to their full potential.” – an iSchool Parent   We help children develop the 21st Century Life Skills they need to be their best selves. We do this by explicitly teaching and […]

Our winter sessions finished at Thomas Jefferson ES in Falls Church, Forestville ES in Great Falls, and Charles Barrett ES in Alexandria with some of the clearest evidence yet that focusing on life skills leads to emotional and academic success. A parent of a 4th grader shared that her son had gotten better grades than […]

Like Homopolar Motors, an Electromagnetic Train is a “Wow”-inducing activity that helps children learn about STEM concepts such as circuits, magnetism, and machines. Making electromagnetic trains also requires children to show Perseverance and to Embrace Failure, and as such is a great way to teach children about having a Growth Mindset. Tying machines and engines […]

Friday’s Science Night, offered through a partnership between iSchool and the Forestville PTA, was another in our long line of fun, educational, and community-building events! See many more photos on our Facebook Page. Over 130 children and their families visited 9 stations to explore ways the new Forestville will be Green after its upcoming renovation. […]

Chain Reactions came into iSchool’s curriculum by way of a student request to learn more about Rube Goldberg… and they are a hit!  Chain Reactions are fun and teach basic science concepts such experimentation, observation, energy, and Newton’s laws.  It’s also a great activity for learning and practicing nearly all of our 21st Century Social […]

REGISTER Link VOLUNTEER Link   Friday, April 1, 2015 6:00 to 7:30 pm Forestville Elementary School   It’s FREE! Register here to ensure we have enough hands-on materials for your family! You will also be entered into a drawing to win a Science Kit AND you will get hints before the event! Sign up or […]

In our programs we encourage and teach children to have a Growth Mindset.  Our progression includes learning what a Growth Mindset is and comparing it to a Fixed Mindset, embracing the Power of Yet, learning how to Embrace Failure, and discovering the joy of Perseverance. We combine lessons on Growth Mindset with Creative STEM activities […]

To help children develop 21st Century Life Skills, our Winter 2016 classes have been advancing Growth Mindset and layering multiple skills such as the 4Cs. Having a Growth Mindset requires children to realize they can change as they learn, be able to embrace failure, continually persevere, and take advantage of the psychological power that comes […]

   Students in our middle school programs show off their ideas for robots iSchool is proud to have moved towards achieving one of our goals of diversifying our audience to include upper grades and students from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds.  In February we began offering a new Creative STEM Engineering Robotics afterschool class for […]

Food is always an excellent tool for learning – it creates excitement and automatically inspires children to think outside of the box. Our Food Fun Days are popular with kids and effective at helping them learn science concepts and the utility of the 21st Century Life Skill of the Day. Our activities that use spaghetti […]