Hands-On Learning

Notre Dame’s focus on hands-on experiential learning, along with our resource-rich location, empowers us to take learning beyond the walls of a traditional classroom out into the world around us.

Relevant Curriculum

Curriculum and course offerings are audited and updated regularly to ensure diverse voices are represented across the curriculum and that students are learning what they need to know for life. Students are invited to connect personally to the content and to think critically. To prepare students for a changing world, Ethnic Studies and Data Science were recently added as course offerings.

Guest Speakers

A diverse selection of community partners and content experts provide students with examples of the working application of topics learned in class as well as reflections on their personal experience. ND Reads and other authors, college admissions deans and STEM speakers regularly meet with our students.

Integrated Humanities

English, Social Studies, Modern Language and Religious Studies teachers collaborate so that topics are studied through multiple lenses, fostering increased comprehension and a broader perspective on issues. For example, as part of a class-wide, cross-curricular study of the American experience and to further their discussion around inclusion and exclusion, each year the entire junior class visits Japantown to study Japanese American history and culture.

Independent Science Research

Notre Dame’s Independent Science Research Program provides students with an opportunity to conduct in-depth research into the topic of their choice and present their findings at local and national conferences. Students have received scholarships, been invited to conferences around the country and been to the White House to share their research.

ACCESS TO STATE-OF-THE-ART EQUIPMENT

Students benefit from state-of-the-art technology and equipment including 3-D printers, gel electrophoresis equipment, 3-D bioprinters and a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) thermocycler and more.

An experience that has impacted me as a life-long learner was how integrated humanities is with STEM. I am a student who is drawn to humanities and English rather than math and science. At Notre Dame I was exposed to how cool STEM could be and how much of an impact I could make by connecting humanities to STEM fields. So now I love my Chinese, AP World History and English classes and also thoroughly enjoy Chemistry, Algebra and Computer Science.”

• MEGAN ‘24 •