12 Aug Projects with a Purpose: How SET High Builds Real-World Skills
As the first day of school gets closer, it’s a good time to talk about how learning actually happens in our classrooms, not just what students are learning. SET High, a small, public tuition-free charter high school in San Diego, gets asked a lot whether we’re a “project-based learning school.” The answer is…not exactly. Projects show up often at our three-time California Distinguished School, but they’re a tool, not the mission. Our main objective is learning real-world skills, and sometimes a project is the right way to build them. Sometimes it isn’t.
Why We’re Careful with PBL
Traditional project-based learning models can lean on one big, or a couple interconnected semester-long projects. In theory, that sounds exciting. In practice, it can mean weeks of coasting followed by one stressful scramble at the end, plus the classic group-project problem: a couple of students carry the weight while others quietly skate by. That’s not the kind of grit we’re trying to build.
So at SET, projects are intentionally smaller in scale, woven into the learning process rather than replacing it, and always run through a real-world application lens. If a project is genuinely the best way to teach a skill, teachers build a project, and build it well. If a lab, a presentation, or a straightforward skill-builder does that job better, they use that instead.The format follows the goal, not the other way around.
What This Looks Like in Class
At SET high, we believe students learn best when they have purpose, agency, and meaningful work. Learning is driven by curiosity and strengthened through relationships, conversation, and exploration. Our classrooms are designed to invite discussion, critical thinking, and engagement with strong ideas.
Take Vice Principal Geis’s class, where students lean into Reflections of Knowledge (ROKS), built around presentations rather than group projects. Standing up, organizing your thoughts, and explaining what you’ve learned builds a different muscle: emotional intelligence and the confidence to communicate under pressure.
In science, the project-versus-lab decision matters. Projects have their place, but push them too far and a class can lose essential hands-on lab work –like dissection– in favor of something else. At SET, teachers make that call deliberately, choosing labs when the skill calls for a lab.
English classes tell a similar story. A final assessment might include an artistic option, a song, a poem, a piece of visual art, but that’s in addition to the writing component, not a replacement for it. Students still need to demonstrate the analytical and writing skills at the center of the course.
And, Behind the Mind, our hybrid science and social science course exploring where biology and psychology meet, is a great example of a class that pulls in an engaging hook to draw students into deeper collaborative thinking. The hook makes it memorable. It’s not the whole point.
The Takeaway
At SET High, projects are one ingredient, not the recipe. We’re teaching students to think critically, communicate clearly, and apply what they know outside the classroom walls, thoughtfully using a structure, project, lab, presentation, or paper. And it works!
Visit sethigh.org/enroll-now to enroll for the 2026-2027 school year, or call (858) 874-4338 to schedule a tour or shadow day. It’s not too late — there’s still time to join us!
About SET High
SET High offers each student individual attention from multi-talented, highly qualified teachers. Students at our three times awarded California Distinguished School build a healthy camaraderie with classmates inside an intellectually rigorous environment that brings out their talents and personality, helping them develop their individual character and direction in life. With a wide variety of electives, flexible scheduling, dual enrollment college classes and more — our students regularly exceed their academic and personal expectations. Enroll now. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Find us at www.sethigh.org.