Key Skills and Characteristics

At Energy Tech, we focus on the following key skills across all content areas:

Problem solving
As an engineering-focused school, we believe that all students should be equipped with the skills to make sense of difficult problems, to brainstorm ideas and solutions, to conduct effective research and carry out investigations, to present findings clearly, and to reflect and revise based on feedback.

Collaboration
Preparing students for a 21st Century workforce, we focus closely on communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills that are needed in college and in career. A sequence of specific skills has been carefully mapped and refined by teachers, college faculty and staff, as well as industry professionals. When we plan curriculum at Energy Tech, we build in extensive opportunities for students to collaborate on complex problems.

Critical thinking
We push students to break down problems and texts in every classroom. Teachers share strategies for annotating texts and making sense of problems across disciplines, and one of the first college courses that students take is actually titled “Critical Thinking”. We are preparing our students to tackle tomorrow’s problems, to ask good questions, and to challenge existing ideas.