Walkabout (9-12)

The focus of the Adventure Passage is a personal quest. This Passage is like the mythical hero’s journey. After the quest becomes clear, the hero prepares for a search or journey. Leaving a familiar environment (physical, emotional), he or she is tested by facing the risks and challenges, known and unknown, internal and external. In the end, transformed by success, the hero returns to the world ready for a new role.

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For this Passage, you will explore a career related to your interests, passions, talents, and experiences. You may choose a vocation that would allow you to carry out your mission in life or “create the world that ought to be”. Essential parts of this Passage are a personal profile, interviews, hands-on experience in the chosen career, a résumé, an investigation into the training or education necessary to enter the field, and an exploration of related fields.

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For the Creativity Passage you will explore a concept, develop a design, and carry out a process to make a unique personal final product. The intent of the Passage is to help you understand the creative process: yours and others. The ability to create is not “mystical” or a natural gift possessed by only a few. It is a process of generating ideas, planning, solving problems, and making changes and understanding WHY you made them. Creativity is not limited to the arts!

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*Senior Capstone Expectation

This Passage gives you the opportunity to help “create the world as it ought to be.” This is your chance to see that education truly does exist outside the walls of the school building. The process of completing this Passage will help broaden your global perspective. One person truly can make a difference!

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*Senior Capstone Expectation

A Logical Inquiry Passage is a mental challenge, following a process to discover an answer to a question or problem that has personal meaning and relevance to you. This Passage is about thinking and rethinking a problem, introducing a variable and measuring the effects of that variable. The process demands the use of reasoning, problem-solving, research, investigation, data collection, analysis, synthesis, conclusions, and self-critique.

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Generally speaking, for a Practical Skills Passage you do something for yourself that ordinarily someone else has done for you, such as baking bread or building a 747. Often this involves a manual skill and will yield some product besides a journal or written description of what you have done. If you are a “hands on” person, you may want to do this Passage first. However, you should not limit your thinking to manual skills exclusively. For example, students have completed this Passage by mastering such activities as learning a second language, living on their own, and improving communication skills.

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As a part of their Global Awareness Passage, Kaya Seabagh created a website to be shared with the JCOS community. 

If you are interested in learning more about the trans experience, want access to resources or have questions, please access this website.

Open School Public Radio (OSPR) is a Passage run by Nelson Longpearce which covers different topics ranging from book bans to civic education.

To celebrate 50 years of the Open School, a mural was painted on the walls of our school. Check out this student made documentary. (By Elias Aguilar)

Mural Painting

The United States was founded on one of the core values of democracy - free speech. At the JeffCo Open School, we look at the world as it really is, rather than what we want it to be. The Fresh Press is another outlet to provide those exact traits.

The Fresh Press of Open School