Nearly 130 middle school students from across Fort Bend ISD gathered recently for the first “Camp of Futures,” a week-long program organized by the District’s Advanced and Enriched Learning Opportunities Department and supported by Teach the Future. Open to all FBISD middle school students, the camp’s purpose was to help students think about the future and their place in it.
The students were separated by grade level and led by a team of ten specialty-trained FBISD teachers. Each class began by drafting classroom rules and setting a goal for the week’s work. Students worked as teams to think through their ideas and made presentations at the end of the week. For instance, projects looked at whether technological advances in the future will take the place of people or help them in their lives.
Prior to the start of camp, Peter Bishop, founder and executive director of Teach the Future, facilitated the teacher training which was only offered in Fort Bend ISD and Spring Branch ISD this year. Students also received the organization’s Future Thinking Playbook as a way to work through their ideas and planning.
Teach the Future is a nonprofit organization that seeks to teach students to think constructively about the future. Through teacher training and student workshops, the organization harnesses students’ creativity and ingenuity and applies it to ideas of the future. The organization offers programs for both middle and high school students and teachers. Visit teachthefuture.org to learn more about the organization.