Sharing A Meal Together—Year 2 Week 15 in Review

 

Sharing meals, solving problems, + the Abyss

Elementary Update

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together. -Anthony Bourdain

Family meals provide an opportunity for family members to come together, strengthen ties and build better relationships. They build a sense of belonging which leads to better self-esteem. Family meals also offer parents a chance to be role models and set an example of healthy eating habits and polite table manners. During the holiday season this becomes even more evident and allows for us to fellowship with extended family and friends, strengthening bonds and making new memories together.

We’ve all been to holiday affairs that seem unorganized, thrown together, and unplanned. Great affairs, however, take much pre-planning even when it seems effortless. The Quest this session will require Elementary heroes to step into the role of event planners and host a holiday meal for family and friends. They will have a chance to explore what it takes to put on a successful event; from set-up, menu planning, budgeting, hosting, fund (food) raising and even proper etiquette. These skills are ones that will carry over throughout their entire lives and allow them even more ownership in planning future exhibitions.

As a Studio, we are a school family, and continue to strengthen our relationships and roles within that family structure. This Quest will lean heavily on collaboration between groups and extensive planning skills to pull off a successful dinner. It will require heroes to plan, be flexible to changes, and think on their toes during the event. It is our hope that hosting a holiday meal will not only bring our heroes together, but our Elementary families as well.

Middle School Update

What kind of problems did you solve in middle school?

Maybe you learned the process for solving Algebraic equations. You probably also learned a lot of other "how to" formulas: how to write an essay, structure a book report, etc.

No doubt you completed lots of challenges, but how many times did you help solve a real problem for a real person in the world?

This session Middle School heroes are taking on the Designing for Change Quest. How can their work make a real, felt difference in someone's life? So far, they're tackling things like:

  • Combating food deserts in our community

  • Providing access to clean water to a community in Pakistan

  • Helping women transition from human trafficking

  • Solving conflicts within their family by creating a plan to care for the dog

  • Protecting wildlife in Georgia

These are just a few of the problems heroes will be diving into. They will be following a design thinking approach. The first step will be to talk to people who actually have the problem, conducting empathy interviews so that they can understand the problem—and feel it for themselves—as much as possible.

Heroes gleaned some insights from a UX Designer on how to go about empathizing with users and have a hard deadline to have their interviews conducted by Monday. What will they learn that will impact their design process?

That's what we will be diving into next week.

High School Update

The Abyss: Trials and Failures


"You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end." -Jessica Herrin, founder and CEO of Stella & Dot

When you find a need in the community and connect it to your passion...oh, the things that will come! 

This week, heroes introduced and defined what kind of entrepreneur they are or want to become. Each hero demonstrated and cultivated new storytelling muscles by creating a 150 word short story using six “A” letter words that represented the sound of silence. As a High School Studio, heroes continued to build camaraderie by getting to know each other through team building, brainstorming, and laughter. Heroes learned what a business model canvas is and how to break down each section in order to best build their own business model. This session we launch back into Civilization discussions with a heavy hitter topic of Healthcare Form. During this week's Civ challenge, heroes had to walk in the shoes of a doctor to produce what could be a life changing alternative to medicine for a group of 100 individuals. Each session, heroes continue to grow and develop muscles that will help them into adulthood and on into this journey called life.
 
-Onward

Have a great weekend!

banner image via

 
Tyler Thigpen