Maritime High School is set to receive its inaugural class of ninth-graders this fall.
The school — created through a partnership between the Northwest Maritime Center, Highline Public Schools, the Port of Seattle, and the Duwamish River Cleanup Council — hopes to adequately prepare graduating students both for a future in the marine trades or moving onto a college education, whichever they choose.
Stephanie Burns, Northwest Maritime Center’s project manager for Maritime High School, said the new program will teach Seattle-area students much of the same material covered in a traditional classroom, just in a different package.
“The difference between what we’re doing and a traditional high school is the way the learning happens,” Burns explained.
The Maritime High School will primarily employ a “project-based learning” model which focuses on exploring the practical applications for topics covered in the classroom.
“That is an approach that focuses on connecting students with authentic, relevant learning experiences,” Burns said.
“So rather than just learn math for the sake of math, they’re learning how math connects to the world outside the four walls of the classroom.”
Students enrolled at Maritime High School could find themselves examining potential site locations for an oyster farm, or testing turbidity and substrates to determine where such a farm might be most successful. The students could also connect with surrounding communities to tackle projects like creating an action plan for addressing water-quality issues.
“Project-based learning is really centered on the students and focusing on their learning and making sure learning is connected to how we apply that learning beyond the classroom,” Burns explained.
For the first year, the program will only be welcoming its initial class of ninth-graders. But once it’s fully up and running, Burns expects somewhere just shy of 500 students will be enrolled in the program, in grades nine through 12.
According to Highline Public Schools, if more students apply to participate in the program than space allows, a lottery system will be utilized to select the students.
Maritime High School recently received a waiver for credit-based graduation requirements from the Washington State Board of Education.
“This waiver allows us to have some flexibility with regard to the structure and the schedule of the school,” Burns said. “Students won’t necessarily be on a school campus 9-to-5, Monday through Friday. The vision is to have them being involved in projects throughout the week in addition to time at home as well as in the classroom.”
During a January information session, Northwest Maritime Center director Jake Beattie explained that the center was no stranger to shaping briny educational programming for students.
“We have a lot of experience working with schools and students, really unlocking the power and potential of the sea as sort of that other educator,” Beattie said. “There’s a huge industry — about a fifth of the economy of Washington state is tied to the maritime economy — that’s a ton of opportunities for people to be plugged into kind of whatever job they want to.”
“The sea connects all parts of our world,” Beattie said.
“In the same way, the sea can connect to all parts of learning, whether that’s math or science, the STEM suite, English, it all comes back and can be brought alive through maritime education.”
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Northwest Maritime Center forms Maritime High School - Port Townsend Leader
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