New Urban High School (NUHS)

New Urban High School (NUHS) is the community partner for this Capstone. NUHS is a magnet school within the North Clackamas School District. The structure of the school lends itself to a particular kind of student participating in their program (students choose to attend in lieu of a traditional high school setting). Class size is limited to 26 students, students are placed in “houses” based on their credits (rather than age), and more than half of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch (funding). The classrooms are less structured than a typical high school setting.

Instead of teachers lecturing, students at NUHS, they experience a more hands on approach to learning within a context based program. Constructing a community garden on the campus, rather than doing math assignments. Learning about the social aspects, financial aspects and historical aspects of the Chicago World’s Fair. Creating an advertising campaign for a local coffee roasting company. Creating Biodiesel fuel to use in the school’s lawnmower as a chemistry assignment. Students in this capstone not only interact with the diverse population at NUHS, but they tend to interact with a diverse way of teaching and a diverse subject to teach about. Topics have included: Coffee Roasting (chemistry), Tattoo as Art (art), Buying & Selling Stocks (math), Free Trade (social studies), Making a Comet (chemistry), Designing a Rollercoaster (math and physics), and Slam Poetry (language arts).