What if School Looked More Like the Real World?

Reimagining School, One Step at a Time

What if we started with the most meaningful, engaging, purpose-driven experiences for students, and then built school around them? That question lies at the heart of the new Immersives. And it’s not hypothetical. It’s exactly how the Senior School faculty reimagined the academic experience.

Take Engineering Thrills: The Physics of Amusement Park Rides. In a typical state-mandated physics curriculum, students might memorize formulas, solve textbook problems, and maybe watch a video or two on Newton’s laws. But in this new Immersive course, students strap accelerometers to their wrists and buckle into some of the most extreme roller coasters in the country — measuring G-forces, acceleration, and kinetic energy in real time as they launch to 95 mph on Cedar Point’s Top Thrill 2 and plunge into the 270-degree drop of the Steel Curtain at Kennywood — all while screaming through every loop, twist, and turn.

Co-taught by Senior School Mathematics Teacher Justin Jackson-Strong and Science Teacher Dr. Jamison Burke, the course pushes students beyond theory. They consult with amusement industry engineers, model kinetic energy transfers, and ultimately design and build scale-model attractions that demonstrate their mastery of complex physics concepts. The result? A class rooted in science, powered by joy, and driven by real-world application.

This is the essence of Immersives. Instead of retrofitting real-world learning into a traditional school schedule, the faculty and administration flipped the framework entirely: start with what sparks student curiosity, and then design everything else around it.

To make Immersives possible, the Senior School undertook one of the most significant structural changes in its recent history: the shift from a trimester to a semester schedule. By creating dedicated time in May for full-day, three-week interdisciplinary courses, the faculty carved out the space necessary for meaningful collaboration and bold experimentation.

“The kind of slow, deep learning that this shift made possible allows students to connect with each other and the material in ways that aren’t possible in a 45-minute class period,” says Senior School English Teacher Linda McDonald, who co-teaches a nature- and literature-based Immersive called Roots and Reflections: Exploring Nature Through Creative Writing.

“Yes, there are tradeoffs — some changes to electives and schedules — but we gain something more valuable: uninterrupted time for experiential learning outside the four walls of the classroom,” says Chad Green P’19,’22,’24, Dean of Students and a member of the Core Planning Team.

“If you do the math, three weeks of immersive instruction equals a full trimester’s worth of contact hours. But the format is completely different — and that’s what unlocks the real potential,” adds Green.

Faculty were not only encouraged but empowered to create something new and different, collaborating across departments and drawing on their passions. “This was a chance for our faculty to build something from the ground up, with a collaborative partner, and to make it what they want it to be,” says Claire Logsdon, Senior School Dean of Students and a Core Planning Team member. 

“Interdisciplinary education is often talked about more than it’s truly implemented,” says Senior School Spanish Teacher and Core Planning Team member Blaire Modic P’32,’34. “But Immersives bring it to life. We’re able to follow an issue wherever it leads, without stopping at the boundaries of a single subject.” More than 40 teachers submitted proposals in the program’s first year — a groundswell of creativity fueled by the belief that the most memorable learning happens at the intersection of curiosity and purpose.

Logsdon adds, “Unless you’re going to be a college professor, most of what we do in the professional world requires connecting ideas across disciplines. Immersives mimic that kind of thinking — and that kind of doing — more than traditional classes ever could.”

These principles come to life in Engineering Thrills. Students apply physics to real-world engineering challenges, connect disciplines, consult industry experts, and build their own attractions. They ask questions that professionals ask and work like engineers. And they do it all in a city that played an early and pivotal role in shaping the modern amusement park.
 

A Pittsburgh School with a National Vision

Designing a bold new academic experience centered around student engagement isn’t just a local experiment — it is a response to a growing national movement. Across the country, independent schools are rethinking how they deliver education. They’re embracing research-informed pedagogy, leaning into interdisciplinary study, and redefining what real-world learning can look like.

The research behind this shift is compelling. A 2023 Gallup and National Association of Independent Schools study found that independent school alumni who had real-world learning experiences were more likely to graduate college on time, feel prepared for their careers, and maintain stronger connections with mentors. In a 2021 Lucas Education Research-funded study, students in project-based AP courses outperformed those in lecture-based classes by 8–10 percentage points on AP exams. 

And the trend isn’t just academic. When schools create environments that nurture emotional intelligence and interpersonal growth, the impact multiplies. A landmark meta-analysis by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning found that students in programs emphasizing self-awareness, empathy, relationship-building, and responsible decision-making saw an average gain of 11 percentile points in academic performance, alongside improved well-being, behavior, and long-term success.

In 2021, the Immersives Core Planning Team was assembled to define how this national momentum could uniquely look at Shady Side. “The research tells us that learning sticks when students teach each other. In these classes, we see that happening all the time — students helping each other troubleshoot, explain, and build knowledge together,” says Logsdon.

“The Core Planning Team asked faculty to describe an experience where they looked up and hours had passed. That became our foundation,” Logsdon continues. “We want them to design courses that can recreate that immersive feeling.”

Supported by a strategic grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, the team of faculty, administrators, and students spent three years researching, designing, and refining what would become the Immersives program. They visited peer institutions known for experiential innovation, including Hawken School in Cleveland, Episcopal High School in Virginia, and Westminster Schools and Mount Vernon School in Atlanta.

“We visited other schools and saw the way students could get into a state of flow — totally absorbed in one subject for an extended period. That kind of depth was a huge inspiration,” says Logsdon. “The schools we visited gave us useful frameworks,” adds Bowen. “But the goal was never to copy them. It was to create something that fits our mission, our people, and our place.”

Back at Shady Side, the team began to imagine a version of the school day where students didn’t bounce from one topic to the next each period. “In a typical year, a student balances six classes, while teachers are teaching four classes and coaching two sports. With Immersives, we stripped away that complexity. Students and teachers can fully focus on one thing,” says Logsdon.

Throughout the 2022–2023 school year, courses began to take shape, and a collaborative culture emerged. “We knew they would be co-taught. Some faculty had a course idea right away and knew who they wanted to partner with. Others needed help connecting. It was a little like a match-making app — helping people match around shared passions,” says Green.

For teachers, the experience has been transformative. “The Immersives weren’t designed in a vacuum,” says Bowen. “A multitude of voices helped shape this program, from every corner of the faculty. That diversity of input was essential in creating something that truly reflects our school’s values.”

Academy President Bart Griffith ’93 P’28,’30 adds, “Immersives invite our faculty to be learners and rediscover a sense of wonder in their work. They model what we hope every student walks away with: curiosity, adaptability, and the courage to learn in real time.”

Former Head of Senior School Trixie Sabundayo agrees: “The Academy has been leaning into deeper learning, interdisciplinary thinking, and mission-driven innovation for years. Immersives are the next step in that journey. They take all of that work to a new level and make it real for students in powerful ways.”

The program is a testament to the Academy’s longstanding readiness to evolve. Griffith notes, “We’re a school of great history, and we’re still here because at crucial moments, our community has adapted. We’ve shifted our curriculum and approaches to meet the needs of the world and our students at particular moments in history, while always staying true to our core values and purpose.”

When the faculty was able to see all of their hard work in action this spring, they were proud of what they had built. “When I look around and see all 18 students fully engaged, taking pride in their work — not for a grade, but for the love of learning — that’s fulfilling for me,” says Logdson.

That spirit of connection extends beyond campus as well. From renowned hospitals and robotics labs to museums, startups, and nonprofits, Pittsburgh offers an unmatched ecosystem of partners. “Shady Side has always had deep ties to the Pittsburgh community. Immersives bring those relationships to the forefront, and expands them,” adds Green.

Many of the guest speakers, co-educators, and field partners are alumni or current parents. Their involvement isn’t just additive; it is transformative. These contributors bring lived experience, professional expertise, and real-world perspectives into the coursework. “This is about broadening what Shady Side is about — not just to our students, but to Pittsburgh as a whole,” Green says.

A Springboard for the Future

Ultimately, the new Immersives program reflects a growing consensus in education: that learning is most potent when active, relevant, and relational. From conceptual exploration to tangible creation, from personal reflection to public presentation, Immersives are how Shady Side is redefining what it means to learn, and why. In the process, students gain a stronger sense of purpose and agency.

As Griffith puts it, “Immersives give students the structure and support to develop the curiosity and clarity that will help them pursue lives of meaning and impact. We want Shady Side graduates to be aware and engaged — capable of navigating the intersection of disciplines and equipped to solve problems that matter.”

Modic articulates the power of Immersives as a “vehicle for purpose-finding,” saying, “Engaging with real-world problems — especially at this developmental stage — helps students explore what matters to them. And that process of discovery often plants seeds that grow well beyond high school.”

Griffith echoes this sentiment: “When parents choose Shady Side for their children, they bring with them a hope that their child’s time here will spark a deeper sense of direction. Immersives help us fulfill that promise. And our hope is that Immersives invite students to begin to wrestle with some of the biggest, most formative questions they’ll carry beyond their time at Shady Side: What do I care about beyond myself? And what do I want to do about it? These aren’t just academic questions; they’re the foundation of a life of meaning and impact.”

In many ways, Immersives function as Shady Side’s own lab school — a place to prototype and refine what the future of education could look like. They challenge long-held assumptions about time, curriculum, assessment, and the role of school in students’ lives. And they raise an even bigger question: if we know that this kind of learning works, what’s stopping us from building more of it?

That spirit of inquiry is exactly what will guide what comes next. Year one proved what’s possible. Now, with the foundation in place, Shady Side is poised to grow and evolve this model in ways that are just beginning to take shape.