Academic
Experiences and Pursuits: Learn by Doing
Interim Week & Senior Project
Interim WeekThe goal of Interim is to immerse students and faculty in experiences and pursuits that enable students to learn by doing. It exposes students to new ideas, experiences, and environments. The opportunity to immerse oneself in this pursuit of knowledge in a specific discipline beyond a normal academic schedule allows students and faculty to broaden their skills, appreciation, and awareness for the world in which we live.
Interim succeeds by:
- Challenging students to learn and develop new ideas, awareness, and skills
- Helping students better understand the workings of communities and the value of service to others
- Promoting active learning and experiential education
- Helping students develop sustainable life skills that will assist them in reaching their full potential and personal goals
- Ancestral Puebloan: At Native American sites in southeastern Utah, students study rock-art panels, ruins, and archaeological sites .
- Avalanche safety and winter skills: At locations near campus and in the high peaks of the San Juan mountains, participants study avalanche science and avalanche safety.
- Challenge Aspen: Students work with disabled skiers through this established local organization and volunteer with and observe day programs for disabled adults throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.
- Habitat for Humanity: Students travel to Denver to assist this nonprofit organization build affordable housing for those in need.
- Glassblowing: Through demonstrations, visits with guest artists, and hands-on instruction, participants explore different ways of shaping molten glass to create beads, vases, and other objects
- Language and culture trip, Mexico: By taking formal language classes and living with host families, students immerse themselves in another culture and language.
- Tropical ecology, Costa Rica: In seminars with respected field biologists and individual research projects, participants study the flora and fauna of the tropical forest canopy.
» Interim Slide Show
Senior Project
Senior Project is an integral part of a student’s final year at CRMS, requiring students to exercise self-reliance and responsibility. This project forms an important aspect of the transition from the relatively comfortable and familiar school community to the world beyond. Successful completion of the project is a CRMS graduation requirement.
Each senior organizes and carries out an independent, three-week project away from school and home, in which he or she works under a master or employer. Upon their return to campus, seniors present their real-world learning experiences to peers, family, and a faculty jury. Both the quality of the project completed and an oral presentation (a key opportunity to exhibit public-speaking skills) are evaluated, as is a reflective essay designed to help students chronicle their expectations and learning.
Planning the apprenticeship can be an exciting and thought-provoking process. Students are encouraged to begin exploring apprenticeship options at the end of their junior year, making the program one of the hallmark experiences of their transition to the new challenges and responsibilities of preparing to graduate. Students often identify unexplored passions or compelling service opportunities, or they may design a program that intensifies current interests. Recent senior projects include:
- Helping to launch a biodiesel fuel operation
- Working in a South African orphanage
- Learning organic farming techniques
- Working in the Washington studio of a Sunday morning political talk show
- Working as a dental assistant in Micronesia
- Tagging and tracking sea turtles
- Writing computer programs that allowed dolphins to communicate with researchers through “touch plates”
