Inquiry and Innovation

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Inquiry and Innovation

We continually challenge students to seek the best solutions

We generate inquiry and innovation every day so that graduates enter the world with the critical thinking, collaborative mindsets, and boundless curiosity necessary to thrive.

LOWER SCHOOL

Starting in TK, students are called to experience every moment of the day as an opportunity to ask why, how, and what if. With engineering and computer science classes that incorporate coding, robotics, outdoor adventure, design thinking, and interdisciplinary lessons, they are surrounded with the content and resources needed to become high-level little thinkers and brilliant, enterprising creators.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

In our Middle School, you won’t see many teachers lecturing at the front of the classroom. Instead, students actively engage in their own learning. Classrooms set students up to discover their strengths and values as they participate in team-focused projects and civil discourse. Middle schoolers can also bring their collaborative mindsets into their engineering and computer science classes, where they explore ideas and build prototypes to improve systems and environments.

UPPER SCHOOL

By the time students enter Upper School, they have inventive minds and trailblazing ingenuity. Whether actively engaging in solving real-world problems, leading inquiry-based Harkness discussions in English class, or building an award-winning model for the STEM Racing competition, the Upper School buzzes with creative innovation from confident student leaders.

Where Curiosity Comes Alive

VEX Robot Programming
Beast Academy Advanced Mathematics Curriculum
Student-Composed Scores for Performances
Responsive Classroom® Approach
Media Broadcast Software and Technique Exploration
Comprehensive Health and Wellness Programming
Social Enterprise Units
Schoolwide Reflection Surrounding Jewish Traditions and Holidays

Stories of Pioneering Thought and Bold Breakthroughs

Lower School students participate in an annual marketplace, where they design and market products through inquiry, research, feedback, and informed decisions, building a practical, ethical understanding of economics.

TVT’s Middle and Upper School STEM Racing Team designed a miniature F1 car that won the 2024 Western Regional competition and qualified for the national finals.

In Middle School studio art, students express artistic identity by designing papier-mâché masks after research, symbolism study, and discussion of cultural appropriation and appreciation.

In Upper School social studies, students explore the social and intellectual culture of 18th-century France in an interactive "Enlightenment Salon" where they role play as philosophers, poets, monarchs, and aristocrats.

Everything about my experience as a student so far has been interactive. I’m never just sitting and taking notes. If I have an idea, my teacher tells me to try it out and hands me what I need.

Current Middle School Student

Our Faculty Are
Future Focused

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Students learn about the effects of colonization and religious mission systems on Indigenous people and the land. With a team, they design a new and improved mission system that incorporates TVT values. The students make their missions come to life using Minecraft Education. This innovative project promotes inclusivity, creativity, character, and teamwork

Diana Seikel, 4th Grade Faculty Member

When learning about the process of midrash and the development of Jewish law over hundreds of years, students are given a fictitious ‘law’ for Martians and have to innovate a new holiday based on parameters

April Akiva, Jewish Studies Faculty Member

During Introduction to Design, students are presented with commonly used products. They are not told what is suboptimal about these products. Instead, they are asked to identify issues that consumers may have when using them. Once students have discovered the problems, they are asked to reverse engineer and redesign an improved product. The problem finding comes before the problem solving!

Rick Thompson, Computer Science and Engineering Program Director