PhilOsophy

Land of Thinkers

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

— Maya Angelou

Re-imagining Science Education in Brookline

Cogitania considers and honors each child as an ageless thinker, an individual that grows through offered workshops to think for her/himself, solve problems, to compete against him/herself and become a creative, supportive member of the group. Collaboration and individual work are an integral part of every workshop offered at Cogitania.

While schools, given realistic conditions, equipment, number of classes and teachers, cater to a broad median, Cogitania's programs integrate 3–8 students per workshop, lead by a highly professional scientist and passionate teacher. Working together with the founder, development is paced individually. Each student has the time and conditions to create and develop her/his own thought process, communicating and expressing it through experiments and 3D art modeling.

Museums play a crucial role in fostering intellectual enrichment, yet too often, a child is left no choice but to become a passive recipient of its programs (aquariums, planetariums, art museums, science museums). At Cogitania, each child interacts with the scientist, seen as a guide and supporter, with their peers and on-hand materials in ways that encourage active search—deconstruction of concepts into their individual blocks to better understand the whole: analysis and critical problem solving.

We teach and inspire our students to choose the most optimal way of thinking for a given task/problem. To do so, each child has her/his own materials to experiment with. Our goal is to help each student to link and discover the individual pieces that make up the real world around them, to find and construct the larger context. We believe that while doing so, we enable our students to find their own unique perspective and place on our planet. We view working with authentic materials as a crucial condition to achieving this ever-important goal. 

Cogitania offers learning through discovery. The workshops are content based, yet the scientists and the students decide which path to take and how much to learn to experience true progress and comprehension in a field. Astronomy, earth science, evolutionary biology, chemistry, the human body, quantum mechanics, biomedical sciences offer each of our students an experience in which they begin to think like a scientist. While the concepts are often abstract, 3D art modeling, hands on experimentation and observational drawing allow our students to take the time and perspective necessary to break concepts down enough, to start reasoning. Cogitania does not establish a curriculum, more precisely, we focus on intensifying the ability to wonder, ask questions, encourage resistance for mistake or failure, and develop abilities that are concerned with solving problems economically and optimally. Our students, your children, gain the means of asking relevant questions rather than passing judgement.