With our fourth Session bringing us into the new year, we’re thrilled to share three new Quests.

Elementary—Holiday Dinner Quest

Middle—Design for Change Quest

High—Entrepreneurship Quest

Quests are real-world projects to master 21st-century skills. Usually lasting four- to six-weeks, each Quest includes a series of challenges bound by a compelling narrative and is designed to deliver 21st century skills while simultaneously incorporating traditional topics like science, social studies, and history.

Elementary

Introducing the Holiday Dinner Quest!

How might we strengthen Studio relationships by celebrating with a 100% learner-led holiday dining experience?

For the Holiday Dinner Quest, heroes will successfully plan, budget, marketing, design and host a dinner party for 35-50 people. Each Hero will invite two guests and serve a meal at Exhibition to families. During dinner, hero groups will present on topics, such as: The “Why” of having this meal, Etiquette, Budgeting, Decor, Project Planning, and more. Experts to visit the Studio will include event planners Latasha Zellner, Caterer Leigh Bush, and Etiquette Expert Larita Reid.

Heroes will be inspired to celebrate the holidays with families and show that they are capable of planning a holiday event. In addition, heroes will learn and be able to carry etiquette skills throughout life, give back to Pinewood Forest by planting fruits, feel confident that they will be able to help plan holiday events with their own families, and gain an appreciation for how much goes into putting on a successful event. Heroes will work in teams to complete group deliverables and to collaborate as a whole Studio to make sure each groups ideas are cohesive and within budget.

High School

Introducing the Entrepreneurship Quest!

If you could create anything to make the world more sustainable and fulfill a need that isn’t being met, what would it be and what would it take to get there?

What need is there in the community and how can you connect that to your passions?

For this Quest, Heroes will individually or in a group pitch—in the style of Shark Tank—their own business plans either to get feedback or to get an actual investment. Cash prizes of $75, $50, and $25 will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place pitches. Judges will be a combination of people who simply give feedback and people who are possible investors.

For this Quest, heroes will explore deeply the business model canvas as a tool for understanding, communicating, and building businesses.

Through their pitch development and delivery process they’ll see the strengths and areas of growth for their business. Not all heroes will win, but all will learn.

Heroes have to connect with potential customers throughout the Quest, get their feedback, incorporate it into their business model, and share their learning at the Exhibition pitch. Business experts will sit on the Shark Tank panel and visit the Studio during the Quest to diagnose their business ideas and give learners feedback on the canvases they build to describe each business. In the end, heroes will use this experience either to learn about entrepreneurship or to actually launch their own endeavor, especially because this is one of the options for when they graduate from The Forest School.

Middle School

Introducing the Design for Change Quest!

How might we use design thinking to design a real solution for a real person with a real problem?

Th Design for Change Quest will require learners to explicitly work through the Design Thinking Process (Feel, Imagine, Do, Share) as they tackle to solve a problem of their choosing for a real person in the world. At the Exhibition, learners will present their solutions to the user(s) they have been designing for, and will receive feedback from the user(s) on: how well the user felt heard and understood, how well the solution addresses the user’s obstacles, and how likely the user will be to utilize the solution. It will be a presentation-style Exhibition: each learner having a max of three minutes to present the problem, process, and solution, and an additional max of two minutes for Q&A.

Early on in the Quest, learners will identify, interview, and bring to the Exhibition a user (or users) of their choice. Learners will be solving a specific problem for this user (if user is unable to attend Exhibition, learners must present the solution to them, even virtually, prior to Exhibition and include this in their presentation). In addition, learners must identify at least two experts in the field they’re working to provide feedback on at least two iterations of prototypes (this feedback can be virtual).

Forest School Guides will also recruit four Design Thinking Experts to join at various points throughout the Quest process to be involved in the launch of that day’s Quest and give heroes feedback on how they’re making use of the design thinking process. Throughout this Quest, heroes will engage with the following kinds of work: design thinking, empathizing, researching, prototyping, brainstorming, problem finding, problem solving, soliciting feedback, revising and iterating, producing, sharing, and presenting.

At Exhibition, each hero will serve as a host to their invited user, and must create a “plan” prior to Exhibition outlining their strategy for making the user feel welcome, comfortable, and excited to be a part of Exhibition. Through launches and empathy exercises, heroes will gain perspective in how to engage the user throughout the process in a way that is empowering and dignifying.

Now… let’s design for change!

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Three New Quests to Wrap 2019!