At Cornerstone, we know that educational discipleship is so much more than mechanical classroom teaching and field trips. That is why at CCA we strive to give our students the best in immersive learning. Unlike field trips, immersion trips are an opportunity for our students to join their classroom learning with quality immersive experiences. Our teachers and sponsors are specially trained to ensure that each trip engages the student. Students gain practical skills, participate in critical thinking, gain experiential knowledge, and construct world view and ministry applications. Here are some features of our program:
- In addition to regular field trips, all students 4th grade and up have the opportunity for at least one overnight immersion trip per year.
- Sponsors are specially trained to focus the student on the learning task to extract the most out of the experience. Teachers write special objectives for trips as part of the fulfillment of the TEKS and CCA objectives.
- CCA does special fundraising and gives a portion of tuition back to the immersion fund to keep the cost of trips to a minimum.
- Kids love immersion trips better than the regular field trips because they are so much fun.
- Immersion trips usually include a spiritual application/discipleship component to keep students’ minds on the ultimate goal of serving in God’s Kingdom.
- Immersion is also our goal in the classroom; our teachers are trained to provide “minds on” learning, multiplying engagement, information retention (processing), and deeper thinking.
Take a look at some of our Trips:
Each year our students take an immersion adventure to an exotic Spanish-speaking destination. Before going, the students receive a two-week intense course in grammar and speaking skills. Once the grammar is under their belts, they are off to their destination for two weeks to immerse themselves in the culture and language. It is an incredible learning experience and lots of fun: lounging on the beach, snorkeling, sightseeing, zip lining, jungle excursion, bio reserves, volcano and waterfall exploration, seeing ruins, and going to cultural centers. Students participate in free travel, where they navigate themselves trough their host country, negotiating the trip and speaking to each other, all in Spanish. By the time they return to the United States, they have increased their language skills more than a year-long traditional course. This trip is for students who enroll in Spanish II, Spanish III, and Culture Immersion (Fine Arts elective).
Also available, starting summer 2012 is our science immersion course: Environmental Science. This intensive course combines the sciences of ecology and earth science to give students an in-depth understanding of the relationship of organisms to one another and to their environment. Students explore these ecosystems up close in a host country (Costa Rica) with rich biodiversity. Students also learn Christian alternatives to a purely earth-centered or human-centered approach to environmentalism. This course combines earning a full year of science credit with all the fun and excitement of a tropical excursion. (See below for more pictures)
Each year, our upper elementary students head out to the YMCA Adventure Camp for some good old fashion field biology. Here they learn about the prairies, water habitats, survival/outdoor living skills, map and compass, group building, and even descriptive writing. At the same time, students are having a thrilling time with campfires, outdoor activities, a rock-climbing wall, canoeing, and just plain fun. This trip not only helps them learn about the environment and scientific method, but it builds them up as a group and teaches them how to think critically and from a Christian world view This perennial favorite is on all our elementary student’s bucket list. (See below for more pictures)
