Where does your awareness come from?: Year 5 - Week 8 In Review
Week three of session two is a wrap!
This week brought some wonderful discoveries and amazing advice from world renowned experts that is sure to assist in making our upcoming exhibitions the best yet!
spark studio
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - Roald Dahl
This week Spark learners took a deeper dive in finding the magic in unlikely places!
We were more intentional about slowing down and looking at the world around us with magical eyes. We discovered that things aren't always what they seem and that overtime our senses can grow sharper. However this only happens when the mind has awareness, and that awareness comes from reflection and meditation.
We learned hard lessons and natural consequences of our actions, some that made us proud, others challenged us and made us grow, some were easier, others rather difficult.
elementary studio
This week in the Elementary Studio we wrapped up our ice cream experiments with studies on how to make sorbet and sherbet! Now that our heroes have some knowledge about every ice cream variety, they were able to plan out what type and flavor of frozen treat they will make for exhibition! With this wide range of ice cream knowledge and the science behind how they're made, the elementary heroes are sure to make some seriously tasty frozen treats.
We have also spent plenty of time this week crafting and perfecting some invitations and thank you letters for the community helpers of Trilith and Fayetteville. Exhibition is coming up soon and it's going to be exciting, not just for us but a celebration in recognition for all those who help our community. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
In Civilization we continued our study of classical cultures of both East and West Africa. Between them is a long and perilous journey through the Sahara Desert, and we asked the heroes to imagine what it would be like to make this journey. Why would the people of these societies make a months long trip across the searing heat of the desert? And how did they manage to do it? We discussed how they took these risks for the promise of huge economic gain, and the heroes modeled some ways to make the trip easier and safer by carrying sufficient water along the way.
We're excited about heading into our final week of the session and seeing our hard work pay off!
middle school studio
Let’s keep pushing through session two!
Heroes are almost done with this session. We have one more week and it will be a wrap. We started off the week by finishing up apprenticeship email approvals. Each learner should have written an email to their desired apprenticeship asking them to gain 40 hours of service. Also on Monday, we had a expert come in for the morning launch who talked about motivation and how her work as the producer of She Hulk on Disney Channel has motivated her to be a better producer. She engaged the heroes and they asked great questions regarding staying motivated, even when times are hard.
For Quest, learners continued to practice coding on Python as they prepare for their Trilith expert on Tuesday. Throughout the week, Guides asked for learners input on how to make the Freedom Levels more clear and fair so, heroes took the lead on creating adjusted Freedom Levels. Everyone now has a better understanding of what work will get them to the next Freedom Level. A huge congrats goes out to two learners who have already advanced to another level.
During Story Arts this week, learners submitted their work to UX creator, Jessica Talbert for the live session September 30th. Learners are excited to share their user experience.
Furthermore, on Wednesday learners finally got the opportunity to speak with Trilith experts and all questions were answered so that they may begin building their machines! The Trilith experts let them know what they where looking for and what the community needed. Heroes took that opportunity to enhance their public speaking and presentation skills. Next week we look forward to Mayor Johnson of Fayetteville joining us Tuesday to give feedback on their Studio Contract. Remember, the Studio Contract signing will take place next session on October 18th from 12-8pm. Heroes are taking more accountability for the rules they created in addition to what consequences should be handed out. Also, Exhibition is on Tuesday, October 4th from 4:30-5:45 pm in the Spark Studio. Learners are excited to share their coding experience with their families and experts. Let’s rock out the remainder of this session!
high school studio
This week, our High School heroes met with experts to critique their progress thus far with machine learning in Quest. It's safe to say, they are on the right track after receiving praise from the experts! The remainder of the week was dedicated to planning Exhibition, and preparing to help their clients' business!
This session, our heroes have decided to hold each other accountable early on with badge approvals versus waiting until the end of the session and risk having badges denied. On Wednesday many heroes approved challenges and/or provided excellent feedback to ensure quality work will be turned in next week at the end of the session. With that being said, we have also revamped our running partner check-in's to help foster heroes completing quality work. In Journey Tracker, we have created "To-Do" lists in addition to our WOOP goals, thus helping our heroes see exactly what it is they need to do each and every day to achieve set goals, and it seems to be working!
Colleges be ready! Our heroes essays are on their way! This week's Story Arts challenge is to ensure college essays are complete! Some of our seniors are sending in essays as early as October 11th for early admission deadlines, how exciting!
While this week was extremely busy, it's going to be worth it as we wrap up session two next week.
Onward!