This week, Discoverers pushed themselves in Quest challenges, system resets, and core skills. Keep reading for highlights and inspiration!

Quest

The scientists of Menlo Park Lab launched into the world of electricity this week. On Monday, many a balloon was rubbed against a head to generate and experiment with static electricity. Wednesday and Friday were spent exploring the joys of circuitry, starting with closed loop circuits and team-designed conductivity testers, then moving to experiment with parallel and series circuits. The quest challenges this week highlighted Discoverers’ curiosity and ability to step into the unknown.

Writers’ Workshop

Tuesday, as the writers continued to draft their field trip pitches this week, they took time to reflect on and critique an example of persuasive writing: Hey, Little Ant, by Hannah and Phillip Hoose. In this text, a boy and an ant argue about the tough question – to squish or not to squish. Discoverers analyzed each argument and what made them convincing before taking lessons learned to their own writing.

Thursday, writers with a completed draft started giving and receiving feedback. As they provided feedback, they practiced positive reinforcement with kindness, honesty, and helpfulness.

System Revamps

Discoverers value excellence and accountability. Based on these principles, learners are constantly testing or tweaking systems to get closer to their vision. This week provided an excellent opportunity to work on one such system: Hero Bucks. In the studio, learners use Hero Bucks to hold each other accountable to the promises they have made in their contract. Over time, the effectiveness of this tool has deteriorated, as the transactional nature of the Hero Buck system has overshadowed the system’s potential to structure conversations around accountability.

Discoverers are choosing to refocus on the Hero Buck system by moving the process onto Journey Tracker. The new environment invites the opportunity to reset habits by bringing a focus back to the studio contract and by reinforcing a system of discussing the Hero Bucks before they are taken.