Session 7 Week 4 in Review
Elementary Studio
It’s hard to believe that this session and school year is almost over! This week in the elementary studio was somewhat of a light and fun week. Learners participated in a game called Heads Up during our Circle time on Tuesday. It took them a minute to grasp the concept of the game, but it was rewarding to see them think outside the box to describe words or people unfamiliar to them. The fun continued on Friday when learners participated in a couple Kahoot games. The first Kahoot game was called Food Trivia. I believe we all originally thought it would be fairly easy, but, to our surprise, it was actually quite challenging! As it turns out, we didn’t know as much about food as we thought. It was a great learning experience for myself and the learners! On Thursday, learners participated in a character sketch. For this activity, the learners were given eight minutes to sketch their definition of the character word ‘honesty’. After the eight minutes were up, each learner shared and explained what they drew and why they drew it. During Quest, learners were given a substantial amount of time to create their prototype of a sustainable solution to the real-world problem they’ve chosen to solve and extra work time to catch up on any of the previous challenges from this session's quest. During Civilization, learners use their findings from last week related to the Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Powhatan, Wampanoag, and Iroquois to help them create something that would improve, or change the conditions for one of the groups. During Story Arts, learners created a product to complement the rollout plans they created with a partner or independently last week. The highlight of the week was awarding badges to multiple learners! I encourage all learners to continue working diligently to earn badges and make as much progress as they can on their Badge Plans.
Middle School Studio + HS Story Arts & Civ
We had another great week in the Middle School Studio this week! In Circles, we had a great time discussing our interesting family history and what city we would fly to if we won a ticket; it’s such an amazing way to get to know each other better and build our connections. Zoe led her second launch this session with another great topic: water pollution! Simon closed out our week with his Fascinating Friday about space during Morning Launch on Friday. Learners have been actively turning in challenges and earning badges; it’s been great to see their excitement as they earn more of their badges. It’s hard to believe there’s only two weeks of the Session to go before After-Action Reviews begin!
The Nature Conservation Quest was all about Exhibition projects this week! We went over the rubric for the Exhibition projects, and talked through any questions or concerns. Learners began by choosing a conservation issue that they would like to focus on, and then looked for conservation organizations or a conservation expert doing work in that area to partner with as their User. Learners wrote emails, sent social media messages, and called organizations or experts to set up their partnerships. Once learners connected with an organization, they began setting up a project that helps with the organization or expert’s mission and goals. While it’s a challenge to connect with Users, it goes a long way in building the learners’ social capital and communication skills!
Our Civ this week analyzed how the original ideology of Manifest Destiny extended even past Civil War times into the 1900’s, as treatment of the “other” found new groups to oppress. Learners explored the major human rights movements in the early 1900s like immigrant treatment, women’s rights, worker’s rights, and Civil Rights. After gaining knowledge on each movement, learners reflected on how these movements affected the futures of each oppressed group and America collectively. Lastly, they grouped up to share their individual reflections and share their thoughts on how some of these groups are being discriminated against.
In Story Arts this week, our learners were assigned their debate partners and Motion for their final debate project. They used their work time to begin researching multiple perspectives on their assigned topic, and began building their outline: Constructive Argument 1, Constructive Argument 2, Rebuttal, and Closing. They will have next week’s class to continue preparing for the live debate which will take place on Thursday, May 18th!
High School Studio
It’s been wonderful to return to the studio after my maternity leave; the learners accomplished so much when I was away, and are working hard to wrap up as many badges as possible before summer break. This week was all about finishing up new content, and beginning to debrief the year. We had two learner launches this week, and spent our Circles time discussing what skill we would enjoy teaching others. During Friday’s morning launch, learners debriefed the school year, and were vulnerable with one another about what they enjoyed, found challenging, and what they want to do differently next school year.In Civ this week, learners analyzed how the original ideology of Manifest Destiny extended even past Civil War times into the 1900’s, as treatment of the “other” found new groups to oppress. Learners explored the major human rights movements in the early 1900s like immigrant treatment, women’s rights, worker’s rights, and Civil Rights. After gaining knowledge on each movement, learners reflected on how these movements affected the futures of each oppressed group and America collectively. Lastly, they grouped up to share their individual reflections and share their thoughts on how some of these groups are being discriminated against.In Story Arts this week, our learners were assigned their debate partners and Motion for their final debate project. They used their work time to begin researching multiple perspectives on their assigned topic, and began building their outline: Constructive Argument 1, Constructive Argument 2, Rebuttal, and Closing. They will have next week’s class to continue preparing for the live debate which will take place on Thursday, May 18th!
For our Green Chemistry Quest, we did a deep dive into the 10th principle of Green Chemistry: Design for Degradation. Learners explored biodegradable plastics, decomposition, degradation, and practiced their persuasive writing skills by developing a pitch to a company to try to get them to switch to biodegradable plastic. Learners will work on a project of their choice next week for the Green Chemistry badge. All in all, it was a great week, and we are all looking forward to a strong end to the year.