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Episode Details

What does high school feel like when students get two full weeks to work on one thing they chose themselves?

In this episode of Imagine This, Dylan sits down with Finny Bicycle, a recent graduate of Imagine High in Chilliwack, BC. Imagine High is a public integrated arts and technology school of about 300 students, where English is paired with another subject like 20th century world history or outdoor ed, teachers get shared prep time to build projects together, and twice a year every regular class stops for two weeks so students can go deep on one thing. Finny spent every one of those deep dives building miniature dioramas: a run-down city street where the pedestrians have tiny blue LEDs glowing in their hands, a forest fire made of stuffing and airbrush sitting next to the highway that helped cause it.

Finny describes what integrated learning actually looks like from a student desk, why the public exhibition at the end of a deep dive changes how hard students work, and what it was like to stand back and watch strangers find the message buried in the details of his own artwork. He also walks through the Grade 11 social justice assignment that turned into a school newspaper club, kept running for two more years, and published three issues a year of original student writing and school journalism.

At the Deeper Learning Conference this summer, Finny co-led an hour-long workshop for a room of principals, teachers, fellow students and educational leaders, running them through the same brainstorming process focused on student agency that his class used. He starts at the University of the Fraser Valley this fall, taking history and sociology with a teaching program to follow.

This conversation is for educators who want to know what student agency looks like from the other side of the desk, and for anyone who suspects the fastest way to find out whether a school is working is to ask a student.


About Finny Bicycle

Finny Bicycle is a recent graduate of Imagine High. He has been profoundly impacted by his experience with project based real-world learning. He plans to become a high school social studies teacher and integrate his teaching with different subjects and connections to the real world, with a focus on social justice and areas students care about. He loves art and building dioramas, in his free time and at school.


In this episode, you’ll hear:

  • (00:34) - Introducing Finny Bicycle, Imagine High and its learning philosophy and the Deeper Learning Conference
  • (02:59) - Integrated learning across subjects at Imagine High
  • (05:38) - School culture, schedules, and collaborative teaching as experience by as a student
  • (11:25) - Deep Dives and the freedom to pursue meaningful work at Imagine High
  • (12:46) - Finny’s creative journey through creating dioramas during Deep Dives at Imagine High
  • (14:11) - How Finny uses art to explore social justice and climate issues
  • (18:27) - Why public exhibitions make learning meaningful to students
  • (21:35) - Connecting the school to the wider community
  • (26:30) - Students as peers at the Deeper Learning Conference and Finny’s experience as a participant and presenter
  • (32:48) - How student agency drives engagement
  • (33:14) - Creating and growing the newspaper club
  • (39:05) - Facilitating ideas for students and solving real, local community problems
  • (43:01) - Creativity, teaching, and the future of learning
  • (46:22) - Why Imagine High unlocked Finny’s creativity
  • (50:05) - Closing thoughts and reflections on the conversation

Check out Finny's Dioramas

  • Student Spotlight - A collection of artist statements and works of art by diorama artist, Finny Bicycle

Resources discussed in this episode:

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