Explore the program
Your questions belong in the real world.
Six North SLO County students spend eight Fridays investigating a local question, learning from people and place, and creating something useful to share.
Guided by the Institute for Humane Education’s Solutionary Framework™.
The eight-week journey
One clear path, with room for students to lead.
The framework gives the group enough structure to move forward while leaving the topic, discoveries, and final project open.
Weeks 1–2
Identify
Choose a question the group genuinely wants to understand.
- Notice closely
- Share lived experience
- Frame a local question
Weeks 3–4
Investigate
Gather evidence and look beneath the visible problem.
- Interview local people
- Compare reliable sources
- Map causes and connections
Weeks 5–6
Innovate
Study what already works and design a promising response.
- Find a leverage point
- Sketch possible responses
- Seek early feedback
Weeks 7–8
Implement
Create, refine, share, and reflect with a real audience.
- Build a first version
- Test and improve
- Tell the project story
Learning in context
One project strengthens many kinds of learning.
Academic practice Reading, writing, research, data, design, and communication.
Self-knowledge Recognizing interests, strengths, values, and growing confidence.
Relationships Listening, collaborating, navigating differences, and building trust.
Purpose Using what the group learns to create a useful local contribution.
Real student-process artifact
Your bat iceberg poster goes here.
Photograph it naturally on the table with the field guide, interview notes, and habitat photographs.
Replace this panel with your photographOne possible project
Look deeper at a question close to home.
How might North SLO County become a safer place for native bats?
The Iceberg Model helps students connect what they can see with patterns over time, system structures, and the beliefs that influence decisions.
- Evidence
- Field observations, reliable research, habitat photographs, and local data.
- Local voices
- An ecologist, land steward, farmer, wildlife rehabilitator, or parks staff member.
- Possible result
- A habitat guide, community map entry, interview story, design proposal, or small field project.
The bat investigation is an example. Each cohort chooses a topic shaped by its own questions, experiences, and interests.
Global inspiration, local attention. Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as inspiration, students connect global challenges with issues they can explore close to home.
Ways to contribute
There is more than one way to be valuable to a group.
Students notice how they naturally contribute, then practice roles that help them grow.
Observer
Notices details and change
Questioner
Opens new paths
Researcher
Finds reliable evidence
Storyteller
Helps others understand
Maker
Builds and experiments
Organizer
Moves ideas forward
Connector
Brings people together
Advocate
Uses a caring voice
Work that can keep growing
Research becomes something the community can use.
01
Community Care Map
Local people, places, living systems, and organizations—documented through interviews, photographs, and ways to participate.
- Map points
- Photo essays
- Local interviews
02
Youth Collective Field Notes
A youth-created publication sharing the stories, discoveries, artwork, and questions behind each project.
- Writing
- Illustration
- Field photography
Fall 2026 founding cohort
Bring your curiosity. We will build the rest together.
Six students · Grades 5–8 · Eight Fridays · Santa Lucia School, Templeton