Core Pedagogy
Welcome to PlanetLabs.Earth, where we empower students to thrive in an ever-changing world! Our innovative programs are dedicated to nurturing the essential skills of adaptability and grit in a dynamic environment. Through immersive experiences with AI, engaging multicultural activities, and focused college admissions prep mentoring, we prepare students for future success in both academics and life. With dedicated mentors and a diverse community, we foster resilience and creativity, helping each student discover their unique potential while building lasting friendships. Join us for an unforgettable experience that transforms young minds and prepares them for the challenges of tomorrow!
Our Advantages
Cross-Cultural Immersion
The PlanetLabs Camp provides an intensive English immersion experience for second-language learners from all over the world. Campers speak — connect, read, play games, and do sports — all in English. From dinner table conversation to campfire singing, sports, and games — campers are constantly “living” 24/7 in English. Memories are made from emotionally engaging events, not from word lists. We know that usage drives memory and facility; without it, competence quickly fades.
Learning How to Learn
Curriculum and content standards in today’s world quickly become obsolete, because of irrelevance and the ease of getting information online. Young people need to develop a whole new set of skills to prosper. “Learning How to Learn” is fundamentally different from being spoon-fed answers to memorize for a test. For example: is the information credible? What evidence is there to support it, independent of advocacy and bias? What are alternative theories or conjectures on the same topic? If there are premises or underlying theory that are needed to understand the topic, how can I learn these on my own, to the extent necessary to understand?
The Best Camp for Future Applicants to Western Colleges: the Mentorship Program
Asian kids face discrimination from Western colleges, ironically because they perform so well on standardized tests. While there are many great Asian students, test scores are not the most valid predictor of success at these institutions. (see Gadfly on the Wall: Standardized Tests Hurt Asian-American Students, Too, Though Many Get High Scores)
From many years of experience, Admissions Offices have come to value other metrics because test scores alone simply are not enough. Our Mentors take the time to get to know the Campers well, over several days of working on projects and evaluating presentations. The Mentors include faculty (and former faculty) from top colleges and universities in the West, as well as highly accomplished graduates of the top universities. These are people who have a genuine understanding of academic performance under the most demanding circumstances. Campers can continue their mentorship relationship after camp, for even more meaningful references.
PlanetLabs uses authentic assessment based on guidelines provided by the Coalition for College, including portfolios and narrative reviews from the Mentors. These evaluation methods are what Western students use to complement test scores; PlanetLabs just levels the playing field for Asian and foreign applicants.
Project-Based Learning (PBL)
PlanetLabs uses PBL to develop these skills. Projects have included the development of sustainable energy in off-grid solar farms, creating a multi-generational community in the US and China, and redesigning handicap accessibility in schools and apartment complexes in China. It matters very little which projects kids investigate, as long as they go beyond a superficial understanding. Most education is “a mile wide and an inch deep;” PBL demands “in inch wide and a mile deep.” From the perspective of being generalizable, the same skills can be applied to learning any new topic in the future.
Application of Artificial Intelligence
PlanetLabs.Earth has already established itself as a leader in the application of AI to customized learning. While it is early to tell how effective technologies like Khan Academy’s Khanmigo will be, the evidence from Benjamin Bloom’s study about the potential — for customization to achieve a 2-sigma improvement in exam performance — is quite promising. Already, students who know how to leverage their learning using AI will be much better prepared for the future:
Almost all traditional content-intensive specializations will be radically transformed by AI “assistants.” Students will need to keep abreast of the technology and learn new skills such as validation and synthesis. PlanetLabs recognizes this transformation of classroom instruction is both inexorable and problematic; the consequences with respect to training and opportunity will require all of us — especially parents and teachers — to adapt to new paradigms of instruction. The kids are already two steps ahead!
Adapting to Change in a Global Marketplace
With globalization a fait accompli, citizens of all nations will need to continually readjust to new expectations. Kids who already have the tools to understand cultural differences and tolerance, who have networks that go beyond national and local boundaries, and who embrace the opportunities of Web 3.0 and artificial intelligence, will be ready. PlanetLabs’ Camps are a great place to explore connections and friendships with people from very different backgrounds.
The social and emotional “curriculum” of the Camps is modelled on the Luethi Peterson Camps from Europe, where a new, pan-European culture of tolerance and diversity has replaced jingoistic precedents. PlanetLabs hopes to achieve the same result in the rest of the world.