Experience the Difference
I wasn’t meant to be a teacher.
In 1997 James Cameron released the movie Titanic which was largely responsible for inspiring an obsession with filmaking and ultimately influenced my career path. It wasn’t the narrative so much that fascinated me; it was the sheer number of creative disciplines required to make a movie coupled with the unique experience to immerse oneself in a subject area. I still imagine what it would’ve been like to be on that set…but I digress.
I started my career in video & live event production in 2004 and eventually found myself working in a wide variety of marketing roles. It wasn’t until recently that I reflected on that journey and realized that the skills and communication strategies that I picked up along the way could be leveraged in my homeschool. Before I share what that looks like in my homeschool, let’s fly through the basics of experiential marketing and the power of storytelling.
Experiential Marketing
What is experiential marketing exactly? In a nutshell, it’s creating memorable, interactive experiences that connect consumers with a brand. If you’ve ever been to Disney World with your family, you’ve witnessed experiential marketing on steroids! Think pop-up shops, interactive installations at trade shows, and immersive events. The goal is to create emotional connections and boost brand recall. When we start a new project, we ask the creative team these brainstorm questions:
What will the guest see, hear, touch, smell and/or taste in this experience?
How will we encourage active participation?
What emotion(s) do we want the guest to feel?
What story are we telling about the brand?
What do we want the guest to learn and remember?
Learning By Doing
Experiential learning is not that different! It inspires the student to gain knowledge and skills through direct experience. In other words, it’s learning by doing. Regardless of the subject we can still ask the same questions:
What can the student see, hear, touch, smell and or taste related to this concept?
How can the student actively participate and explore?
How will we leverage storytelling to engage the emotions and promote curiosity?
What do we want the student to learn and remember?
The Power of Storytelling
One of the reasons I love teaching with Sonlight is the literature-based approach. A well-written story is a powerful tool for tapping into emotions. Emotions keep readers engaged and make new information more relatable and memorable. Add in a few experiential learning extensions and badda-bing, badda-boom the concept starts to stick! Pixar’s Introduction to Storytelling does a great job of explaining the benefits of narrative.
Tune In to Learning Extensions
So what does that look like in practice? Well, when we’re reading a book or tackling a particular subject, I’m always on the lookout for ways that we can tap into the senses and level up the experience. Brands routinely invest millions of dollars on a single experiential activation but I don’t have that kind of budget for my homeschool…do you!? So, here are the questions I frequently ask myself:
See: What interactive exhibits at our local museum(s), historical sights or zoos would drive this concept home?
See: Can my kiddo build this world in Minecraft and walk me through it?
Hear: What do we hear in the background? Is there a playlist that we can throw on this week that will take us to this place and time?
Touch: Is there a puzzle, game, LEGO challenge or art project that would make this topic more fun?
Touch: Is there a related community class that can make this hands-on?
Smell: What kind of associations can I build to leverage the power of scent memory (8:56)?
Taste: Was there a particular dish or cuisine mentioned in the book that we can make?
Taste: If not, can we pair this reading time with tea, hot chocolate and/or a treat?
I remember a season when we were learning about the ancient Egyptians. We had already read several books and I was wondering what concepts had sunk in. So I challenged my youngest student to build something out of LEGOs that represented that time period. A few days later I was impressed by the pyramids she’d built and all of the details inside. It was an excellent way to “test” her recall. A year or two later she’d done a similar thing on Minecraft as she built her version of the Jamestown settlement and later, a tall ship representing the Mayflower. If I had to choose between grading a test or getting a narrated-walkthrough of Jamestown, I’m going with the latter!
In essence, both experiential marketing and experiential learning recognize the power of active engagement. By pairing memorable experiences with compelling narratives, we can forge stronger connections, enhance understanding, and hopefully leave a lasting impact.
