JDS Circle of Inquiry

JDS Circle of Inquiry

program

Inquiry-based learning—the JDS way

Many top schools in the Seattle area offer an inquiry-based curriculum. Interdisciplinary and experiential, driven by students’ innate curiosity, the best programs encourage students to ask big questions, welcome complexity, and collaborate on real-world solutions. Creativity, confidence, teamwork, and mastery all grow together.

That’s true at JDS, too. But to us, inquiry-based learning is even more meaningful. 

Judaism has always celebrated challenging exploration, vigorous discussion, thoughtful self-reflection, and proactive problem-solving. We also believe that everyone learns better when students support and inspire one another. Our Villages provide small, multi-age classrooms where younger students look up to older mentors, older students practice leadership and responsibility, and everyone receives caring attention from expert faculty.

At JDS, enduring values reinforce contemporary best practices—so your child delves deeper, reaches higher, and happily becomes an inquiry-based learner for life.

Curious? We invite you to learn more about our Preschool, Elementary School, and Middle School programs.

IN OUR JDS CLASSROOMS,
YOU MIGHT FIND:

  • Preschoolers learning to ask scientific questions as they dissect flowers
  • Kindergartners building pinewood derby cars to study force and motion
  • 1st and 2nd graders using recyclable materials to build model villages that meet their community’s needs 
  • 3rd and 4th graders studying Seattle’s history of Chinese immigration
  • 5th graders writing a fictional amendment to the Constitution representing a new essential freedom
  • Middle Schoolers designing and building robotic catapults for a tournament