New school is all about problem solving skills

Students in a New Visions math class don’t spend a lot of time solving problems from a textbook. Instead, they focus on real-life dilemmas, like figuring out the fastest way to get to Occupy Wall Street using math concepts such as slope and rate.

New Vision Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science (AMS) and New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities (HUM), the newest schools on the John F. Kennedy campus, encourage what the principals call “project-based learning.” 

Teachers ask a question applicable to real life (How is life created? How should students design their own government?) and  students spend several class periods trying to answer it.

“For every day and for every unit there is a major challenge they’re trying to discover or uncover,” HUM Principal Seth Lewis Levin said. 

The schools, which are replacing John F. Kennedy High School as it phases out to due poor performance, accepted their inaugural ninth grade classes in September.

Students have the same teachers, 70 to 80 percent of whom are first timers, for both their freshman and sophomore years, according to AMS Principal Julia Chun, and the  curriculums for the two years are the same. 

Juniors and seniors focus more heavily on their respective subjects — math and science or humanities — and can opt to take electives such as philosophy, visual arts, engineering or robotics. There are currently few art offerings, but the two principals are planning a winter trip to a flamenco dancing show and a spring excursion to a spoken word performance, courtesy of a partnership with Lincoln Center. They are also planning to add visual, and possibly performing arts, to the curriculum at a later date.

Ninth graders interviewed on a recent day said one of the things they like most about the school is that most of their teachers are young. 

“They relate to us,” HUM student Britney Ally said. 

Lanaesya Burrell agreed.

“We can have a conversation but then again do work,” she said.