Curriculum
Kijana Global Innovation School Students are Global Citizens
Students will learn to be engaged global citizens. Students will interact directly with their peers in other countries and will be taught global challenges and develop skills in analysis and problem-solving in order to be life-long global citizens. Students at the Kijana Global Innovation School will learn how to overcome challenges both individually and collectively.
Founded in 2002
Our Vision
Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative is developing a creative, visionary and collaborative curriculum in an architecturally unique setting. Students will be inspired and nurtured to fulfill their potentials and will be prepared to advance to the next stage academically with confidence, global understanding, and the individual and collaborative skills to compete and contribute to a challenging and emerging world. Kijana’s world class Global Innovation School will also be a venue for international collaboration as educators and students from other countries will be invited to visit, learn from others, and share in a beautiful and culturally interactive environment.
Curriculum - Exploring, Discovering, Innovating
Students at the Kijana Global Innovation School master:
1
Applied Global Education and Problem-Solving
Students learn to be engaged global citizens. Students interact directly with their peers in other countries and take on global challenges, while developing skills in analysis and problem-solving, in order to be life-long global citizens. Students at the Kijana Global Innovation School learn how to overcome challenges both individually and collectively.
2
Collaborative Thinking
Students will work to solve problems in a collaborative environment. Engagement with their peers, their local culture and global society will be central to a Kijana Global Innovation School education.
3
Environmental Sustainability
Our students learn to be reflective members of a global society. Our environment is essential to our survival and our global economy and is central to our curriculum. Numerous economic opportunities will be open in the future to those who will be able to devise creative solutions to the challenges of sustainability. Kijana Global Innovation School students will be well-prepared to tap into those opportunities.
4
Hands-on Project-Based Learning in a Reflective and Rigorous Academic Setting
Active, engaged learning is a centerpiece of our program-whether it be through academic projects or artistic performances. Every student learns how to perform something successfully. Global Innovation School students advance themselves and society through creating. Students are expected to perform well in traditional academic subjects and demonstrate an engagement with the ideas and skills through projects which model future life endeavors.
5
Global Media, Technology Fluency and the Creative Arts
The Kijana Global Innovation School inspires our students to be skillful and respectful users of media and the arts. Kijana Global Innovation School teaches our future culture shapers ethical behavior in a challenging and rapidly changing world.
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Competition and Cooperation
Students leaving the Kijana Global Innovation School have a competitive spirit, yet, understand the proper role of competition and learn to reflect upon ethics in competition.
7
Literacy, History and the Arts
Reading and writing are central to our institution. Students read and write daily in order to develop skills in reflecting upon and applying their thinking in the form of writing. Our students are taught to place themselves within a historic spectrum and learn to seek, apply, and adjust and reapply the learned contributions of others and explore multiple mediums of sharing their ideas to create responsible, reflective and productive incantations toward the next stage of our shared global future.
8
Architecture and Learning
At Kijana, we believe that the setting is important. People flourish in nurturing, spirit-fulfilling, beautiful and engaging environments. We are developing a creative and comfortable school setting in which students feel free to explore books, the arts and the minds of their peers to solve problems.
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Exploration
The Kijana Global Innovation School nurtures a spirit of exploration in order to promote a new generation of innovative, creative, globally-minded problem-solvers. A spirit of enquiry is encouraged as a mindset of seeking new paths toward a better future for all within a safe and nurturing environment.
Art & Design Education
Creative explorations are emphasized in our Global Innovation School curriculum. Unique learning environments inspire youthful creativity and imagination. The physical space of the school is being filled with beautiful art that fuses educational objectives with a spirit of collaboration.
An Artistic Environment for Academic Learning
A centerpiece of our fusion of education, environmentalism, art and collaboration is Kijana’s emerging “Dalle de Verre” recycled glass animal collection. Exclusively commissioned by Kijana, the collection is designed and produced by Nani Croze and her team at Nani Kitengela Glass (founded in 1981), outside Nairobi.
To date, the Global Innovation School has twelve glass animals displayed on its campus. The impressive collection consists of one of the following animals; giraffe, elephant, calf, warthog, hippo, rhino, cheetah and a hartebeest. There are also two piglets and two zebras. This is the only recycled glass animal collection of its kind in the world and will be a powerful resource for education, inspiration and visitation.
Dramatic Arts through Song and Spoken Word
Kijana’s talented team of teachers work with students on a regular basis to produce creative and powerful performances. In 2022, the school plans to enter regional drama competitions and expect impressive results. Click the link; Kijana’s YouTube Channel to get get a glimpse of examples of the already astounding talent of our students. You can also check out our Videos page on the website.
Worldly Lessons
The Kijana Global Innovation School aims to produce inspired youth with a complex set of skills and imagination to change the world. Our young visionaries are learning a varied set of skills to solve problems. Incorporating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) in the curriculum is essential. Kijana is developing a wide collection of resources to allow students to learn with hands-on projects. Students have already made a rocket, a small tuk-tuk, and elastic ball, a small submarine and more. Students have learned about elasticity, buoyancy, and elements of physics with a variety of educational learning kits, and manipulatives. Kijana plans to develop a robotics program in the near future.
Care, Share & Explore Program
A program to build environmentally conscious youth
Inspired by a generous grant from the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters, of Wheaton, IL, we have embarked upon an ambitious Kijana designed exploratory environmental education program with our students. It includes collaborating with students at other regional public primary schools. Students are exploring the environment near the school and beyond.
Students visited a bamboo farm and workshop about an hour and a half from school and the journey was followed up by several local craftsmen participating in a training session to learn bamboo design techniques. We plan to develop over time bamboo craft and construction training. Many more exploratory opportunities are in the works.
Part of our effort to put principles into practice, we are reaching out to local schools and churches and community groups to plant seedbeds and trees.
By supporting local schools and churches and other entities nearby the Kijana Global Innovation School, in Buchenya, and in Kisumu, Nyakach, Bunyore and as far away as Nairobi, we are modeling what a motivated community effort can do to address the climate change challenge humanity faces. We aim to contribute to Kenya’s goal of planting 2 billion trees by the end of 2022.
We intend for our students to develop a commitment to caring for the earth and all its inhabitants, as we share the planet with multitudes of other species and protecting our common habitat protects and enhances life for all of us. Our students will be future changemakers and as they develop into their future selves, a sense of discovery and imagination will provide them with powerful skillsets for success. These skills are birthed from a desire to explore.
