Session 6 Week 2 in Review
Elementary Studio
Boom! Just like that, we are 2 weeks in with 3 weeks left to go for session 6! We began our week with our very first learner-led Socratic launch, thanks to Sawyer! The name of his topic was time management and he even brought in his very own expert! His aunt teaches time management and shared a few Helpful tips during the conclusion of Sawyer‘s launch. We ended our week with collaborative core skills instead of a typical morning lunch. Learners were able to “hang out” with one another while working on their e-platforms.Our signature learning experiences went a little like this! During Civilization, we discussed climate, and weather, and how they both affect landforms. Then, they were challenged to use whatever materials to create the different types of landforms. Some learners used Play-Doh and construction paper to show off their landforms. Sawyer decided to use furniture, blankets, pillows, and other miscellaneous household items to create his landforms! During Story Arts, learners were placed in creative teams that consisted of a musician, lyricist, editor, and singer/rapper. In their team, they work together to create their own lyrics for a verse after receiving the hook from Clay Cooks. During Quest, we completed the define step of the design thinking process and began the ideation step. To help our creative juices flow, we received an expert visit from Prentice Osborne (a voiceover actress for video games). She was able to help learners build on their creative thoughts, help those who felt stuck with brainstorming creative ideas, and share tips on how to get unstuck.
Middle School Studio + HS Story Arts & Civ
Week 2 was full of learner-led launches in our Middle School Studio! We had Riley lead a launch on the importance of sports for your flourishing, Gabriel led a launch on rock climbing, and Rico led a unique Fascinating Friday about anime. We also had the privilege of having Max join us to talk about the Servant Leader badge process. He shared a great opportunity for learners to collaborate with him on a character conference presentation using their Servant Leader experience!In Quest this week, we worked through two phases in the Design Thinking process: Define the Problem and Ideate. Learners consolidated information gathered in their empathy interviews and created a User Needs Statement that defined the shared problem their users are experiencing. Next, they engaged in several brainstorming activities to help them come up with ideas. Some learners chose to focus on quantity over quality, others focused on novelty, and others preferred to focus on relevance. Lastly, learners sorted all of their ideas into categories using a 4 Square. Then they took the ideas in the Relevant-Realistic category and created a storyboard for each idea, telling the story of how the idea would solve the problem their users are having. They received feedback from their peers about which storyboard seemed like the best fit to move forward with for their prototype!MS and HS learners continued working on the Don’t Tread on Me Civ this week by either working on the web-quest challenges or beginning work on their Maker’s Challenge. Some learners chose to collaborate with other learners in breakout rooms to complete the web-quest, while others worked independently. Some of the learners had to flex their problem-solving ability this week when they realized that different websites listed conflicting dates of historical events.It was a great opportunity to review the importance of using quality research sources, and also find ways to adapt their challenge in order to solve the problem.Story Arts was a blast this week with learners being placed in their music production teams! Learners were challenged to use a chorus that expert Clay Cook wrote for this Story Arts session, and write their own verse to compliment the chorus. Learners had to be creative in thinking of stories that the existing chorus could tell, and developing that story further through their verse lyrics. The teams came up with some really beautiful verses, and one team even took advantage of Chat GPT to help them write their verse! Next week, they will put their words to music!
High School Studio
Monday: Today, we asked ourselves “If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?” Many learners wanted to either start a youtube channel, or go skydiving. We then had a Socratic Launch led by Milcah on “Cyberbullying”. For SLE, we began brainstorming ideas for our final Entrepreneurial projects, and used today to make mind maps and start our interview process.Wednesday: This morning, Max walked us through the new Badge Plan and we did our weekly group check-ins. In the afternoon, we watched a video on the Define phase of the Design Thinking Process and began putting our findings (from conducted Empathy Interviews) into a chart. Learners began to really specify the issues they are finding a solution for, whether it is in their in-person or online community.Friday: We started off the morning with a little history of the Chicago River Dyeing on St.Patrick’s Day, then Carrington led a Socratic Learner Launch (congrats!) on Deja Vu. We had a nice discussion on how deja vu interacts with our dreams and subconscious, and when we’ve experienced it in public.
In the afternoon, we wrapped up the Define/Ideate phase’s for Quest by writing our official “Problem Statement”, which we will be using for the Exhibition.