Giving Compass' Take:

• The Downtown School in Seattle uses an experiential education approach, in which many of the classroom lessons are outside of the physical school building, and instead in the surrounding community.

• What are the benefits of this type of education? How can donors support more experiential education research? 

• Read about how experiential education can connect students to more profound learning opportunities. 

The Downtown School, located in Seattle and currently in its first year, offers an experiential approach to learning — instead of just sitting in a classroom, the school aims to help students learn by doing, The 74 reports.

The school enrolls 45 freshmen and sophomores who, in addition to listening to guest speakers tie their classroom lessons to the real world, get to explore the community for themselves by visiting businesses, museums and community art exhibits. Juniors and seniors, meanwhile, have local, partial-day internships.

The Downtown School is just one example of less conventional approaches schools are taking when it comes to learning, as well as a newer take on private schools in particular. The Seattle school sits in a highly walkable, arguably safe neighborhood surrounded by biotech startups and research centers — both of which can provide lots of experiential learning opportunities.

However, while most schools don’t sit in the middle of an experiential education opportunity zone, there are plenty of ways districts can still create similar opportunities for their own students. The most important takeaway isn't where the experience may be, but that students are ultimately learning in ways other than listening to a lecture.

Students at the Downtown School get to frequently go on trips and excursions, but some of their experiential learning is relatively feasible for other schools to model.

rough experiential learning, a lesson that may have started with art can morph into a history or science lesson as it progresses, giving them all the more knowledge and skills along the way.

Some warn, however, that too much experiential learning may handicap students. Some argue that information learned in the a classroom environment exposes students to different cultures and ideas that the immediate community around them may not offer.

Read the full article about experiential education over traditional classrooms by Shawna De La Rosa at Education Dive