What Kids Learn
from Experts
Feedback from experts helps students see how
to improve their work—and why it matters.
Cheryl Becker Dobbertin
When the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, needed data to help determine
energy-conservation measures for the
municipality’s school buildings, facilities
engineer Joseph Forest turned to an
unusual source—9th grade students at
Springfield Renaissance School.
Students in Aurora Kushner’s envi-
ronmental science class worked with
Forest to complete energy audits in
Springfield schools. Then, with Forest
and Kushner’s guidance, they helped
prepare and review contractors’ pro-
posals to retrofit school buildings
through such actions as installing cost-
and energy-saving heating and cooling
systems.
Real-World Stakes
Springfield Renaissance, for students
in grades 6–12, is one of a network
of 165 schools that use the Expeditionary Learning model, a framework
