Tribune-Star Editorial: We should be living for more ‘aha!’ moments

They were smiling.

Laughing, running, engaged, happy.

And … they were learning.

They weren’t sitting in a chair quietly, mostly likely stressed, looking down at a test.

The Tribune-Star’s front page on Friday included stories on two very different subjects and a bold and honest statement from Vigo County School Corp. Superintendent Chris Himsel: “State testing is a waste of time.”

On one hand, ILEARN scores were just released. On the other, kids were attending Camp Invention at Ivy Tech.

This isn’t a camp without structure. The kids were learning about sophisticated scientific concepts that included math, engineering, technology and words like bioluminescence, “which is kind of a big word for these guys, since they’re 5,” Terre Haute South teacher Amber Geller told reporter David Kronke.

What a bold idea: Engaged kids, ready to learn — even adult-sized concepts — not intimidated in the least.

According to a study by the National Training Laboratories, students retain 75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned, underscoring the importance of hands-on learning.

Unfortunately, during the school day hands-on learning is frequently trumped not only by test taking but by spending inordinate amounts of time and energy zeroing in on test questions and practicing those questions.

To what end? To await announcements like last week’s that compare a student at one school to a student with a different background at another school?

The Indiana Department of Education is taking the easy way out. IDOE focuses on standardized test scores, Himsel said, because “It’s an easy number and they’ve been doing it for 25 years.”

“Kids don’t learn in a linear way,” he told Kronke. “If they did, our jobs would be easy. Learning is personal … every individual learns in a different way and at a different pace.”

That’s why Himsel is focusing on using “a variety of metrics to take a look at that and look at if we’re making progress every day in terms of understanding where they start and where we need to get them to by the time they’re seniors.”

ILEARN scores show VCSC students performed in the top half of the state’s test pass rates among the state’s 10 largest districts. So, it wasn’t all bad news. Overall, Indiana scores were reportedly stagnant.

But the state’s way of gauging how much a student is learning is an outdated process, and Superintendent Himsel isn’t afraid to speak up about it. Test rates are only “one piece of a puzzle” used in combination with other assessments, he said.

Back down at Ivy Tech, children were reverse engineering a gadget to see how it’s constructed and what makes it work. They were working in a “Prototyping Studio” and participating in “Operation Hydrodrop.”

Even though it is truly fun and games, the camp is run by certified teachers who use certified curriculum.

“They’re exposing to them at such a young age to some of the harder concepts in a fun way, and the kids never feel like they’re in school,” said Lyndsey Goldman, who has been director of the local Camp Invention for three years after previously teaching there for six or seven years.

Robynn Cornelison, who has served as Camp Invention’s assistant director for 20 years, said she lives for the “aha!” moment when children’s faces light up upon grasping a new concept.

“It’s just really exciting when they finally get something, when they get exposed to a concept they wouldn’t normally get in a class, but it’s something they’re interested in — they get it, they run with it,” she told Kronke.

“They’re building, they’re enjoying, they’re up out of their seats and not sitting all day,” director Goldman said. “They’re constructing things and challenging their creativity and I don’t see a whole lot of that outside of things like this.”

What a shame all learning can’t be more like this. As children return to school next month, teachers will do their very best to provide engaging instruction and make learning as fun as possible, but they will need to keep standardized tests in the forefront of their minds and be forced to stop hands-on instruction to prepare students for those tests.

Imagine what it would be like if Camp Invention existed every day, all day, in classrooms throughout the state.