Open Window School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

K-8 school K8 or K-8 may refer to: * K-8 (Kansas highway), two highways in Kansas, one in northern Kansas, one in southern Kansas * K-8 school, a type of school that includes kindergarten and grades one through eight * K8 telephone box, designed by Bruce M ...

for students who have been formally identified as intellectually gifted. Open Window School is located in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

on top of Cougar Mountain, which is on the outer edge of the city across

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

. Open Window School is a member of the Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS), the

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, board ...

, and the Washington Federation of Independent Schools (WFIS).

Achievements

Open Window School's use of technology extends from Innovation and Technology Labs to the school's use of social media. Innovation and Technology Director Adrienne Gifford was named Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) Technology Leader of the Year in 2016. In early 2014, a group of five seventh graders won the highest honor, "Best in Nation", in the second Verizon Innovative App Challenge for the app they created. In January 2015, a project by a sixth grader won first prize in the Future Engineers 3D Printing Space Challenge. This pupil designed a Space Planter to be 3D printed on the International Space Station. A group of five middle school students won the 2016 Verizon App Challenge Best in Region Award, designing an app to serve patients with neurological diseases. Open Window School also has an extremely strong debate program, and they consistently have one of the highest ranking teams in every debate tournament. During the 2015–16 school year, Open Window was one of 22 schools in the United States and Canada invited to participate in the

Student Spaceflight Experiments Program The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) provides an opportunity for student groups from upper elementary school through university to design and fly microgravity experiments in low Earth orbit (LEO). SSEP is a program of the National ...

. Working in collaborative teams, fourth through eighth-grade students designed microgravity experiments and an outside panel of researchers chose one of the seventh-grade experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station. In the 2020–2021 school year, two fifth graders (Jacob Park and Julia Stewart) won first place nationally in the ExploraVision competition, with their solar-powered "Coagulation Filtration System" which utilizes '' Ideonella sakaiensis'' microbes to break down

microplastics Microplastics are "synthetic solid particles or polymeric matrices, with regular or irregular shape and with size ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm, of either primary or secondary manufacturing origin, which are insoluble in water." Microplastics a ...

for drinking water. In 2023, three fifth graders (Julian Kotsis, Brody Cho, and Chase Carlson) won the nationals in ExploraVision with their project, PetConnect, which allows users to understand what their pet is feeling through a camera. It marks feelings like; "Your dog is 70% hungry".

Athletics & extra-curricular programs

The school's athletic programs currently include cross country, golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, track and field, parkour, and volleyball. The girls' volleyball team completed an undefeated season in 2014. The school mascot is Rufus the Bobcat, who eighth graders may portray in costume at various school events. In addition to athletics, the school offers students the opportunity to compete in after-school activities including chess, debate, Model United Nations, and robotics.

Gallery

File:Open Window School Heckerman Hall.JPG, Heckerman Hall, the building for grades K-4 File:Open Window School Robinson Hall.JPG, Robinson Hall, the building for grades 5-8 File:OWSFarmhouse.jpg, The Farmhouse, the operations building File:Innovation and Tech Lab.jpg, The Middle School Innovation & Technology lab File:TraverseWall.jpg, The climbing wall in the Roper Gym File:Bobcat Rufus.jpg, Rufus the Bobcat, the school mascot

References

External links

School websiteNWAIS (Northwest Association of Independent Schools)
{{Coord, 47.5477, N, 122.1146, W, source:gps-data-team.com_region:US-WA_type:edu, display=title Schools in Seattle Private elementary schools in Washington (state) Private middle schools in Washington (state) Educational institutions established in 1985 1985 establishments in Washington (state)