Session 7 Week 3 in Review

Elementary Studio

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -Mahatma Gandhin

Another week down for Session 7! This was somewhat of an eventful week in the Elementary Studio. One of our learners, Aleem, was away attending a Robotics Competition. We attended a school-wide Quest on Wednesday to hear from Mr. J with the Planet Bee Foundation. He spoke with all Studios about bees, bee conservation, and why bees are so important to their ecosystems! He even brought a special guest with him: a Mason Bee. On Friday, the entire school came together to celebrate Madeleine’s, our interim high school guide, last day. In preparation for After-Action Reviews, learners scheduled their one on one Badge Clearance Meetings, their After-Action Reviews, and put their final touches on their After-Action Review Presentations. During Circles, we had some impromptu fun! Cameron, Santino, & Shelby helped the rest of us create Zoom avatars, we all chimed in on nickname ideas for each other and just enjoyed chatting with one another. We appreciate any time we have to openly socialize with one another! During Civilization, learners had their choice of researching the Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Powhatans, Wampanoags, or Iroquois, in preparation for their makers challenge next week. During Story Arts, the learners begin crafting the first draft of their rollout plans!

Middle School Studio + HS Story Arts & Civ

What a whirlwind this week was in our Studio! We kicked things off with a launch on Determination and finishing strong despite challenges. Zoe led a great morning launch on animal conservation, which was an excellent tie-in to our Quest topics! We also had a school-wide celebration to thank our interim HS Guide, Madeleine for all of her hard work, and wish her the best! Our check-ins this week seemed to dive a bit deeper than usual as learners are really focusing in on their goals and making plans to wrap up badges before After-Action Reviews.Our Quests this week really centered around taking action in our homes and communities, which was really inspired by Earth Day which took place last weekend. Monday, we had an upcycling challenge in which learners found objects in their homes that were headed for the trash, recycling bin, or donation box, and upcycled them into usable objects. Wednesday, we had Guest Expert, Dr. J from Planet Bee Foundation, visit us. He gave us a really in-depth look at bees, and helped us to understand native bees and how to identify them in our areas. Our spin-off challenge was to conduct some “bee-search” (pun intended) on what bees are  native to each learner’s area, and what type of pollinator friendly plants grow well in their growing zone. Lastly, learners created a prototype for a bee garden that could be created at their home or community that features native bee friendly plants and flowers and a bee house to help protect and grow their local bee population.

In Civ, MS & HS learners examined how Westward Expansion & The Mexican-American War contributed to the rising tensions around slavery in expanding America. We looked at how these times in American history led up to the Civil War, and how connected these separate events were. Learners also explored the amendments to the Constitution that were added to give former slaves freedoms and rights, but ultimately, life for freed slaves was very difficult. Their Maker’s Challenge was to create a one-pager about life as a freed slave during Reconstruction era after the Civil War, and the challenges that freed slaves faced despite the Constitution.

The Great Debate Story Arts continued this week with a focus on Rebuttals. We learned about 3 rebuttal techniques that can be used to rebut the opposing team’s arguments: Principle, Effectiveness, and Mitigation. Then for their challenge, learners were tasked with rejoining their team from last week to continue developing a debate outline (mostly the rebuttal) for the Motion: “The House believes that social media makes people less socially active.” Some learners realized they hadn’t documented their team’s previous work well last week, and learned a hard lesson about recording good notes! Learners will take the experience they gained in this two-week challenge to start on their final debate project next week!

High School Studio

Monday: 4/24: We started off the week with two thoughtful and thorough presentations by Cohen and Nick. Cohen showed us his Entrepreneurship project for Design Thinking, while Nick presented his Master Chef and taught us how to make Lasagna.

Wednesday: 4/26: Jake gave us a presentation on rockets, where he walked through the history of rockets and how different country’s rockets compare to one another. In the afternoon, we watched videos on illegal seed planting for farmers, specifically the controversy with Monsanto through a clip of the Food Inc documentary.

Friday: 4/28: This morning, Nick led a Socratic Launch on the BLM movement. We had a discussion and learners shared their thoughts on how it became a global movement, and how it impacted them individually.What a lovely surprise this afternoon!! My two months at FSO have been so memorable, I love the model of the school and of course the learners make everyday so enjoyable and fruitful!!! I will miss everyone and can’t wait to pop in to some future Quest Exhibitions :).