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Depth and Complexity

​Students and faculty enjoy exploring their passions with great depth and complexity. They appreciate nuance and detail, and the profound difference they can make in the real world of ideas and innovation. This section features just some of the amazing ways we explore.

Young Expert Program (High School)

The Young Expert Program (Badges) is a highly personalized learning model which invites students to deeply explore a chosen topic as they develop skills in critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and other vital areas. The role of technology as a platform for practicing and applying these skills is paramount, as using technology effectively and productively is a requisite skill in the modern world.

The scope of all badge work must involve explicit interdisciplinary awareness resulting in a thorough, expert-level coverage of their topic and/or area of exploration. Students who demonstrate a disciplinary expertise through concentrated work in a field-related cluster of Interest Exploration (IE) and Professional/Personal Development (P/PD) badges may earn a formal honors credit and certification as a "young expert" in the field.
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Xavier Chan Goes Deep

Xavier Chan ('21) was one of three Bridges students to earn Young Expert certification in 2021. Xavier's area of expertise is Electrical & Mechanical Engineering with Emphasis on Submersible Robotics, and he completed his third and final badge — ROV Thruster Design & Engineering — this past semester. He applied for a provisional patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a unique unidirectional sidekick thruster for remotely operated underwater vehicles. Xavier’s dream of developing electrically chargeable battery systems to propel large cargo ships and submarines was inspired by his work as a captain in Bridges Academy’s robotics team, Mechanical Paradise.

“Robotics is just like writing a story—it’s building something up from bare bones,” Xavier says. “You just see a bunch of metal, bolts, circuits and wires lying around, and there are infinite possibilities of putting it all together, each with its own problems and advantages. It’s just amazing when it succeeds.”

Xavier maintained a full course load of humanities, languages and STEM honors classes, as well as taking AP courses in Chinese, physics and calculus BC. Through all his successes, Xavier remains humble and says he prefers cooperation over working alone. “I myself can only come up with one or two ideas max within the same amount of time that a team could come up with 15 different ideas to solve a problem. Among those 15 problems, there are many that are better than my own in a large pool of ideas.”

In his spare time, Xavier ran on the school’s cross-country and track-and-field teams and volunteers at the Animal Hope and Wellness Shelter.

Explorations and Expertise

Bridges students earn badges in a myriad of areas. Some examples include Theme Park Narrative Design, Painting, Digital Sculpture, Young Adult Fantasy Writing, Comedic Characters, Programming & Unity, Screenplay Development, Wildland Firefighting, Novella and Short Story Writing, Cycling, Miniature Sculpture, Lyricism, and The Hulk. To earn a badge, students must present their completed work to the two program leaders and the high school director.

Helping the Homeless

For her badge, high schooler Lily Stone created the visual design for an app that would help aid in the homelessness crisis. It is designed to be used by both the homeless and those working to serve that population. The app would provide information, directions, and resources regarding location and status of shelters, public restrooms and shower facilities, and places to get medical and social services help, plus an in-app banking system for cashless payments and donations, legal guidance as to local laws and restrictions for the homeless, and more. 

Lily researched the topic extensively and used her year in Badges to design the layout and icons for the UI of the app. She plans to continue working on this project into the future. 

Bridges 2e Media

Seeking a better understanding of the complexities of twice-exceptionality? Dig deeper into 2e-related research, pedagogy, support strategies, news, and more. Bridges 2e Media publishes 2enews.com and Variations2e magazine — both of which are devoted to furthering the conversation around supporting twice-exceptional learners. 

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Bridges Graduate School

Looking for more depth and complexity in your learning? The Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education program offers multiple research-based courses as part of its required master and doctoral degree curriculum. In addition, all candidates for the M.Ed. program must complete a final project, which consists of completing an action research study designed and approved in their research course. All doctoral students must complete a final Capstone Project which is a problem of practice relating to the interest area of the candidate.

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Bridges 2e Center

Seeking more depth and complexity in your school or district? Consider professional development via the Bridges 2e Center, a first-of-its-kind multi-disciplinary hub where professionals, scholars, and practitioners combine expertise to enhance understanding of the growing population of 2e students. With the unique opportunities afforded by working with a lab school, the center can encourage and undertake much-needed research, provide courses and workshops for educators and parents, and share resources about the best practices that serve this cognitively diverse, at-risk population.

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