Beyond the Classroom: The Forest School Partners with Sogility and Piedmont Wellness Center
At The Forest School, we believe some of the most meaningful learning happens when learners step beyond the classroom and engage with the world around them. This week, we're excited to highlight our partnerships with Sogility and Piedmont Wellness Center, two organizations helping our learners explore the intersection of athletics, science, data, and human performance.
Through hands-on experiences with professionals, specialized equipment, and real-world challenges, our learners are discovering that athletic performance involves much more than physical ability. It requires critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and a willingness to learn from data.
Sogility: Where Athletes Become Coaches
Our Upper Elementary learners are preparing for an exciting visit to Sogility, a soccer training facility that uses specialized technology to help athletes develop their skills.
As part of their Phoenix Games Quest, learners will step into two important roles: athletes and coaches.
Using Sogility's training equipment, learners will collect and analyze performance data, explore ways to measure athletic progress, and consider how coaches use information to make decisions.
Rather than simply participating in drills, learners will be challenged to think like coaches:
What does the data tell us about an athlete's performance?
How can we identify strengths and opportunities for growth?
What changes could help an athlete improve?
How can we use evidence to make better coaching decisions?
These experiences will help learners prepare for the Phoenix Games at Exhibition, where they'll have an opportunity to apply what they've discovered.
Piedmont Wellness Center: Exploring the Science of Human Performance
Our partnership with Piedmont Wellness Center is creating additional opportunities for learners to see how science, wellness, and athletic training come together.
Upper Elementary learners will visit the center to observe an athletic training demonstration and use specialized equipment to collect data for their Phoenix Games Quest.
This experience connects classroom exploration with practical applications of health and performance science. Learners will see firsthand how professionals assess physical abilities, track progress, and use information to support athletic development.
Our Middle School learners will also visit Piedmont Wellness Center on November 2 as part of their Quest experience. During their visit, they'll explore the center's Youth Performance Program and learn more about the needs of Piedmont as a community partner.
For Middle School, this opportunity extends beyond observation. Piedmont serves as a real-world user for their Quest, giving learners the chance to better understand the needs of an organization and begin thinking about meaningful solutions that could serve both the center and the broader community.
Learning With Purpose
What makes these partnerships so valuable isn't simply access to facilities or equipment. It's the opportunity for our learners to experience how their learning connects to the real world.
Through these experiences, learners are practicing essential skills:
Critical Thinking: Interpreting data and asking meaningful questions.
Leadership: Taking responsibility as coaches, teammates, and problem-solvers.
Collaboration: Working together toward shared goals.
Scientific Inquiry: Gathering evidence, testing ideas, and drawing conclusions.
Community Engagement: Learning from local professionals and identifying ways to serve others.
At The Forest School, we want learners to see themselves as capable contributors to the world around them. Whether they're analyzing an athlete's performance, exploring wellness technology, or developing solutions for a community partner, they're discovering that their ideas and actions can make a difference.
Stronger Together
We're grateful to Sogility and Piedmont Wellness Center for opening their doors to our learners and helping bring authentic, hands-on learning to life.
Partnerships like these remind us that education isn't confined to four walls. Our community is full of opportunities to explore, discover, contribute, and grow.
We can't wait to see how our learners bring their discoveries back to the studio and apply them to their Quests and upcoming Exhibitions.
At The Forest School, the world is our classroom—and our learners are ready to answer the call.