New Discoveries On The Horizon! - Year 3, Week 24

 

This week, each of our studios dive headfirst into new Quests! We can’t wait to see the new discoveries and knowledge our learners gain!

spark studio

Some things can be hard and we can do hard things. - Vernice Armour


As we continue learning about Black History, we had the pleasure of meeting Vernice Armour, the first African American female combat pilot in the US Armed Forces. She told us her inspiring story and encouraged us to know that we can do hard things when we put our minds to it. The learners were intrigued and full of questions. We’re grateful for our time with her.

Can you think of a time when you were faced with something that was hard to do? How did you meet your goals? When your child is faced with a challenge, gently remind them that they too can do hard things. Share your experience and give them incentive to dig deep.


Our week has been filled with a daily hands-on challenge from art to science to geography. Hands-on activities let the children’s minds grow and learn based on the experiences and the environment they are exposed to. We learn while discussing, investigating, creating, and discovering with other children.

elementary studio

"I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way”.

One of Whitney Houston’s top charting songs “Greatest Love of All”, showcases how we view our Forest School heroes. This session the elementary heroes will be on 'The world of Coding' Quest. We looked at 1950’s predictions about what life would be like in the 2000’s. Then we watched a video about predictions for the 2050’s. Will we have flying cars? Will robots replace workers? Will life be the same?

These questions will ultimately be answered by elementary heroes. They are our future, and will be the ones designing what our world will look like.

Our Coding Quest will be challenging for those that are just learning to code and is considered to be much like learning a new language. This week, we took a look at what coding is and jumped right in. We began with a refresher on following directions to build a pattern (Code tells a computer what actions to take, and writing code is like creating a set of instructions). This may seem like a simple task, but we soon learned, giving exact directions can be more challenging than it sounds.

Each week, we will get more and more detailed until our final projects are ready to showcase. Here’s to blasting off with our future leaders!

middle school studio


How much do you know about electricity?


This session, Middle School learners are tackling the Electricity Quest, which combines a theoretical understanding of electricity with hands-on circuit building as heroes role-play as city planners designing the "city of the future." Each week culminates in an Electricity Bee, where teams go head-to-head to showcase their understanding of electricity basics. Here are the concepts included in this week's bee (feel free to bring them up to your learner at the dinner table):

  • Explain Ohm’s Law in your own words.

  • If asked to solve for one variable in Ohm’s law, use the triangle method to give the correct formula.

  • What is voltage and how are they measured?

  • What is current and how is it measured?

  • What is resistance and how is it measured?

  • How do you calculate electrical energy? Power?

  • If given the length, and resistivity, and diameter, calculate the resistance in a wire. Compared to the resistance of a light bulb, does wire have a little or a lot of resistance?

  • If given a circuit diagram with resistors, predict the current and voltage across each.

  • If given a circuit diagram with resistors, measure the current and voltage across each.

Next week, we move on to circuit building, putting into practice the theories we've been exploring so far in this Quest.

high school studio

Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever. -Walt Disney


Session 6 is underway and only 60 school days remaining! This session's Storytelling theme is Comedy! Heroes launched into learning about multiple aspects of comedy and crafted their own 5 minute comedy sketches. At Exhibition, parents and Dream Teams will get a preview of their final comedy projects in addition to learning about their hero's After-Action Review.

Welcome to the Apprenticeship Quest. Heroes worked diligently throughout the year to get to this point. Over the next 5 weeks, they will set out to complete four 20 hour apprenticeships within fields of interest as well as careers they aren’t interested in. So far heroes will be apprenticing within the following careers: orthodontist, dentist, therapist, speech therapist, Chick-Fil-A, pilot, Trilith, wood working, accounting, social work, and many others! Side note: If your hero is not completing an apprenticeship one week, they are more than welcome to come to school in person or work from home. Moving forward for this session, civilization and storytelling challenges will be completed in the form of a discussion board in which heroes must respond to the post and then two other heroes posts.


Ready to rock this session out!
-Onward

Banner image via

 
Tyler Thigpen