Genius Studios

At Lighthouse, the school day starts in an unusual way: not with devices, worksheets, or a rush into academics — but with Genius Studios, our morning space for creativity, exploration, and hands-on investigation.

Students arrive ready to build, tinker, question, observe, create, and wonder. This morning rhythm sets the tone for everything that follows.

Beginning the Day With Curiosity, Creativity, and Real Exploration

The first hour of the day belongs to curiosity. No screens, no scrolling — just real materials, real conversations, and real thinking.

During Genius Studios, we've:

  • Studied spider anatomy, then headed into our forest to search for spiders and compare our findings
  • Practiced using binoculars to observe the birds we’ve attracted with the feeder and water station we built
  • Explored animation tools like FlipaClip, Blender, and Stick Nodes
  • Designed greeting cards that light up using paper circuits and basic electronics
  • Dissected flowers, observed insects, built small structures, and tested engineering ideas
  • Painted, sketched, sculpted, coded, prototyped, and written

In other words, we start the day making something — not just absorbing information.

Investigations Rooted in Interest

Genius Studios isn’t a random craft-time or a loose “choice” block. It’s structured, purposeful, and responsive.

We take the genuine interests of our students — biology, art, engineering, animals, media, storytelling, robotics, cooking, fashion, science experiments — and design morning investigations that:

  • Teach new skills
  • Introduce tools and techniques
  • Build background knowledge
  • Spark deeper curiosity
  • Expose students to ideas they didn’t even know to be curious about

Students might start by studying spiders and end up researching ecosystems. They might explore animation software in the morning, then decide to start an animation Youtube channel in the afternoon. Genius Studios opens those pathways.

Foundations for Big Annual Projects

Many of our major school events begin here, in the morning studio:

  • Student-Led Conferences
  • Science Fair
  • Youth Business Fair
  • Black History Month research and exhibitions
  • LightFest projects and performances

Genius Studios give students time to brainstorm, prototype, test, revise, and collaborate before turning those ideas into full projects throughout the year.

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