School Leadership
Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology’s leadership emphasizes addressing educational gaps by incorporating project-based learning and rigorous fundamentals to bolster both teamwork and STEM excellence. By ensuring students engage with real-world experiences, the leadership team aims to overcome the challenges observed in traditional educational systems and enhance students' readiness for future endeavors.
Page Contents
Facts and analysis
MESSAGE FROM THE LEADERSHIP
We invited Dr. Mike Gelbart, Co-founder and Principal at Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology, to share a message.
The overview highlights the vision, values, and guiding principles that shape leadership and the student experience at Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology.
Dr. Mike Gelbart, Co-founder and Principal
PhD
Welcome to the Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology (VISST)! Before founding VISST, I was a computer science professor at UBC where I taught over 25 courses to thousands of students. At UBC I made two key observations. One, that university students are much more comfortable with well-defined short-term tasks than with ambiguity and long-term planning; this, I concluded, is likely a product of our current high school system. And two, I observed firsthand the insatiable demand for computer science at UBC and all universities around the world, which is well beyond our capacity to provide it. This is unfortunate, I felt, because kids are more than capable of learning computer science. Combining these observations with my teaching experience, I decided to create VISST along with a fantastic team. VISST is a non-profit high school in Vancouver that aims to address the struggles I observed in university students and the lack of computer science in high schools.
Our pedagogical approach is to combine project-based learning with rigorous fundamentals. The former builds teamwork skills, long-term planning, and comfort with ambiguity. The latter is an essential component to STEM excellence. An overarching theme of our educational philosophy is to have students interface with the real world as much as possible. Whether it is publishing an article, interpreting data from the news, or partnering with a community organization during a project, real-world experiences are motivating and educational. We would consider it a failure on our part if our students are left wondering, "Why am I learning this?"
We look forward to having you explore VISST. Welcome to the VISST community.
