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2/23/2023

Session 5 Quest Preview

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Session 5 Learning Design​

We are excited to announce our Quests and other focus areas for each of our four mixed-age studios for the upcoming session. This is our second of three science themed sessions, where learners have the opportunity to explore various scientific topics in a very hands on way. You can read more about our learning design here.
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​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.

Sparks | Transportation Theme

Rather than complete traditional Quests, that are reserved for our Elementary and Middle/ High School studios, our Spark Studio explores a different theme each session. This session is all about transportation!
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Heroes will use loose parts to create their own cars, trains, planes, and boats, then spend the final week developing and presenting their own "transportation vehicle" based on all they have learned through the course of the session.
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Hero of the Week: The Sparks will also continue learning about their hero of the week through the Ordinary People Change the World book series. Last session's favorite hero was by far Rosa Parks. The learners really latched onto her story, her courage, and simply couldn't fathom the idea of treating someone so poorly based on the color of their skin.
Session 5 Heroes:
Lucille Ball
Anne Frank
Amelia Earhart
Harriet Tubman

DISCOVERY + ODYSSEY   Zoo keeper QUEST

The Discovery + Odyssey Studios will be teaming up once more this year for another exciting quest. This Quest places learners in the shoes of a zoo keeper here at the Lincoln Children's Zoo, where they will need to assess the enrichment needs of animals at the zoo.

After creating a proposal that they submit to Zoo staff for approval, learners will build enrichment tools or activities for the zoo inhabitants that will actually be featured in each habitat.
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​This Quest is loosely based on Toys for Elephants created by MA University art students and was the winner of the network wide learning design challenge a few years ago! 
Discovery Communication Challenge: Communication challenges in the Discovery Studio are built into Core Skills time, meaning heroes have the choice of completing these challenges. This session they will have two choices to pick from: ​Create an info card (with words and pictures) of a zoo animal of their choosing OR create and write a fun, creative story with zoo animals as main characters.

Odyssey Communication Challenge: This session's communication challenge stays on theme with the Zoo Keep Quest. Heroes will be creating an Info Card to go along with their animal and enrichment activity, in hopes of it being displayed at the zoo!

They’ll be doing research about their animal, write out an info card, and then design a poster on Canva to display at the exhibit.

Adventure Studio | Medical Biology Quest

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Quest: "Paging Doctor House" - Heroes will spend 5 weeks learning about human body systems, common diseases and conditions, and the tools and tests used to diagnose them - from medical histories, to MRI's, to simple blood tests.

They'll use all this to ultimately step into the shoes of the diagnostician, Dr. House - the Sherlock Holmes of the medical field - to apply their knowledge to piece together symptoms and ask the right questions in order to diagnose patients at their exhibition.
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Communication: This session's Communication challenge is based on the book 'The Audacious Ask' - In some cases a high likelihood of failure can lead to fear and paralysis. In other cases it can be incredibly freeing - If failure is essentially guaranteed, what do you have to lose, but also, what do you stand to gain?

​This session Heroes in the Adventure studio will be identifying and attempting to contact a number of their own real life heroes. They'll be challenged with making an audacious ask - something bold, something daring, but something they can make a persuasive case for. Will any succeed? Only time will tell, but regardless, all heroes will have a great opportunity to hone important skills and attributes like clear communication, grit, perseverance, and, of course, audacity!

​Onward!


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11/10/2022

Deep Dive - 6 ingredients of a successful Quest

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Projects for the Real World

​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.
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Ingredients of a Successful Quest
  • Exhibition: A great Quest starts with a powerful Exhibition as the goal. For example, in the "World-Changing Speech Quest," learners know on day one that during their Exhibition they will stand on stage for six minutes in front of their family and friends to deliver a speech.
  • Real-world skills: Quests focus on real-world skills, rather than memorizing facts for a test. For example, in the "Medical Biology Quest," learners diagnose diseases and interpret MRIs and X-Rays. At the Exhibition, learners test these skills on their families in a simulation.
  • Narrative and motivation: Learners play a real-life hero at a critical moment in history, solving a problem about which learners care deeply. For example, in the "Electricity Quest," learners develop patents for new electrical devices in Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab.
  • Real-world measurement: A Quest should have some way to measure and track outcomes, in a way that mirrors as closely as possible the real world. For example, in the "Bridge Building Quest," learners measure weight supported by the bridge vs. cost to build in order to determine a winner.
  • Expert valuation: Gone are the days when professionals visit schools to talk about their jobs. Instead, we invite high performing professionals and experts to come to our campus to provide real-world feedback on the work and projects of our learners. What better way to ensure our learners (and Guides) understand 21st century real-world demands?
  • Learner-led: A Guide may play a role setting the stage and facilitating discussion to launch each day and then call for Lessons Learned, but learners are largely on their own to navigate the challenges of the Quest. For example, in the "Detective Chemistry Quest," Guides leave clues for learners to then solve a crime on their own, using forensic science.
When do Quests Happen?
  • Three times per week, learners dedicate roughly 2 to 2.5 hours.

How is progress measured?
  • Points for challenges earned
  • Badges for completed Quests
  • Exhibitions showcasing finished work
  • Feedback from users and external experts
  • Portfolios for work they’re especially proud of

Read About Our Past Quests

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Special Thanks

to our friends at The Forest School: An Acton Academy for originally posting this content.

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5/31/2022

It's Time for Session 7!

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​The Final Session of the Year is here!

And just like that we have arrived at the final session of our first full year! 
​
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​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.
​
If you'd like to look back at previous sessions quests you can do so here, but this year our learners have explored the following areas through their Quest time:
​
Spark Studio
  • Servant Leadership
  • Holidays & Cultures Around the World
  • Space Explorers (Outer Space & Space Travel)
  • Healthy Living
  • Survivor Quest
Discovery Studio
  • Architecture Quest
  • Podcast Creation
  • Art Quest
  • Mechanical Engineering (Arcade Game Design/ Build)
  • Survivor Quest
Adventure Studio
  • World Traveler Quest
  • Edison's Lab (Intro to Science at Acton)
  • Physics Quest 
  • Electrical Engineering (Build a Model City)
  • Survivor Quest

~Session 7 Quests~

Spark Studio

Growing Curiosity - This will be a learner-led quest in which the heroes voted on various topics they were interested in and will get the chance to dive deeper into them each week of this session.
The heroes will be provided with 2-3 options of challenges each week that they will be able to complete independently with the materials provided to them.
  • Week #1: Exploring Electricity
  • Week #2: Exploring Color
  • Week #3: Exploring Farming
  • Week #4: Exploring Trees

​Biomes:
 
"Create your own ecosystem"
  • Heroes will be provided with various craft supplies and get to design their own ecosystem from the rainforest, desert, or ocean biomes, all of which were ecosystems they learned about earlier this year.

Discovery Studio

Quest: World Traveling! We will "fly" to each of the 7 continents of the world, where the heroes will have the freedom to explore individual countries' cartography/ geography, culture, and language. After covering the 7 continents, heroes will choose one country to fully immerse themselves in for a more in-depth study.
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Writer's Workshop: For the Love of Writing Around the World! This Writer's Workshop is all about growth in writing - both growth in skills and in the love of writing. Each hero will complete multiple pieces of writing, but they get to choose a plan in their challenge zone to reach that goal!
They have a variety of prompts all based on the continents and world traveling - with the emphasis on exploration, creativity, and fostering still the love of writing.

Adventure Studio

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Quest - Art and Creativity

Are artists discovered or created?  What is art? Is art valuable?  Your job in this quest is to answer these questions through deliberate practice of art, and careful studying of artistic heroes and their works.

Goals: Study the foundations of drawing and technique, make an educated decision about a specialty or niche to study further and make a deliberate practice of as you work towards a public showcase and gallery art sale of your works.
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Exhibition: Public Art Showcase (with visitors looking to purchase art under a randomly assigned persona and budget).
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Genre - Short Essay and Creative Writing
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The Acton approach to building great writers is to write a lot and to utilize a powerful system of peer review, critique, and revision. This session's genre is designed to both inspire and equip the heroes as writers by offering them the opportunity to write a number of short pieces on topics they choose and then to select their best work to take through a process of critique, revision, and publishing.

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4/19/2022

Session 6 | Survivor Quest

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Survivor Quest is here!

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.
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This session our entire school will be diving into the "Survivor" Quest which, as the name suggests, is focused on a variety of survival based skills and challenges. Heroes will dive into basic human needs like food, water, shelter, and warmth and will learn skills to take care of those needs in a wilderness setting. They'll get to try their hand at a variety of awesome hands on activities like starting fires with magnifying glasses and flint & steel, setting up tents, purifying water, and practicing first aid skills (Adventure Heroes will get first aid certified!). This Quest is built to offer the right level of challenge to heroes no matter their previous experience or initial comfort level with the outdoors. While all three studios will be completing this quest, the specific challenges will vary across studios.

This Quest also culminates in a camping trip for our Adventure and Discovery Studios, where they will have the chance to put their newfound skills to the test! And while they will walk away with some practical skills they can take with them, the more important skills of critical thinking, problem solving and overall confidence are far more valuable take aways!

Spark Studio

Biomes | Desert
Each session hero's in the Spark Studio spend time exploring a different Biome from around the world using our Waseka Biome Readers, with the goal of sparking curiosity & a love for reading. This session they will be exploring the Desert Biome!

Discovery studio

Writer's Workshop | For the Love of Writing - Let's Grow!
This Writer's Workshop is all about growth in writing - both growth in skills and in the love of writing. Each hero will write 6 or more pieces of writing, but they get to choose a plan in their challenge zone to reach that goal!
They have a variety of prompts to spark their writing - from "What would you like to invent?" to "Finish the story" scenarios.

Adventure Studio

Genre Writing | Apprenticeship Prep

Heroes will dip their feet into one of the most important and unique aspects of the learning design at Acton - real world apprenticeships.

Heroes will begin with research on industries, companies, and professionals that interest them, then narrow their list to their top three possibilities, and then spend most of their time on the process of actually securing an apprenticeship. It might sound a little intimidating, but the daily challenges will walk heroes through a tried and true step by step process for finding and securing an apprenticeship.

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2/16/2022

Announcing Session 5 Quests!

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Announcing
​Session 5 Quests!

We are thrilled to announce our quests for our Spark, Discovery, and Adventure Studios for this upcoming session.

As our learners continue to work towards answering their overarching question of the year, "How do we build a heroic culture?" each studio will spend the first week back this session revisiting all things Acton. From their daily launches, to Freedom levels, from Core Skills to their contracts, they will explore how these systems help build culture and why each is an important building block for a successful Acton experience!

On top of that, we are also partnering with Tiger Rock Martial Arts this session, to allow all of our heroes to try out Taekwondo during PE, culminating in a Taekwondo showcase as part of our public exhibition on March 31st!

Spark Studio

Quest: Healthy Living

​It's pretty remarkable if you stop to consider, the only world our youngest heroes have ever known is a world fixated on the pandemic. We are coming up on two years since the world shut down. This world altering event marked the beginning of their school experience and in many ways the outside world of masks and hand sanitizer is the only world they've known.
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But what does it truly look like to live a healthy life?

Our Spark studio will explore how factors like food, exercise, sleep/ screen time, and mental health all contribute to the strength of their immune systems and ultimately their ability to live a long healthy life!
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Biome of the Session: The Rainforest
The Sparks will dive into the world of rainforests, exploring the ins and outs of this diverse and important ecosystem!

Discovery Studio

Quest: Build an Arcade -  Mechanical Engineering
The Challenge:  Use the Engineering Design Process, along with completing a series of challenges, as a team of mechanical engineers to develop and build a new arcade game to be showcased at the exhibition! ​
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Imagine this… you are a mechanical engineer who works for one of the biggest arcade companies in the world.  Your challenge is to create a new arcade game that will win the prize for generating the most income at your company’s exhibition on March 31st.  Not only will the winning team be promoted within the company with the honor of having designed the company's most popular new game, but each team member will receive a Chick-fil-A gift card as well!  Buckle your seatbelts, here we go! 
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Writer's Workshop: Pitch a Pet
​Narrative: The learners have a big responsibility: to better the community by choosing whether or not to purchase a studio pet, and if so, which pet to choose. They come up with proposals, conduct the appropriate research, learn the art of persuasion, ask others to join them, and then vote on a final decision. 

Adventure Studio

Quest: Building an Electric City​

​Do great cities come from central planning or citizens choosing?
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The Challenge: You are placed in the shoes of a mayor/ city planner and must balance the wants and needs of different residents, and ultimately build a great city!

In this Quest, Lions will have the chance to deeply explore electricity and quantum mechanics, and put theory to concrete use by constructing functioning 21st-century cities.  Throughout, they’ll be challenged to function as effective teams - setting goals, dividing work, and managing projects in the face of uncertainty and aggressive deadlines.
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Genre: "I Have a Dream For My Community" Speeches

The learner's genre challenge this session is to write a persuasive speech to designed to help improve something in their community. They have six weeks to work their way through a series of writing challenges, culminating with a speech where they "stand on the box" and give their 5-8 minute persuasive speech.

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.

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12/27/2021

Session 4 Sneak Peek

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New Year, New Session + Quests!

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.

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Spark Studio

From the depths of the oceans to the far reaches of outer space our Spark heroes will be exploring the solar system for their quest this session and 'the ocean' for the new Biomes portion of their week.
Space Explorers Quest
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Week #1: The Solar System

Week #2: Rocky Planets
Week #3: Gas Planets
Week #4: The Stars + Constellations
Week #5: Rockets + Space Travel
W
eek #6: Exhibition Prep 

​Biome of the Session: The Ocean
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Discovery Studio

As our heroes continue to define their question of the year, "How do we build a heroic culture?" This session they will explore the role that art plays in culture?
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As heroes explore the world of art, they will also uncover the artist within them! They're going to dive into questions such as: What is art? Why is art important? What skills do artists need? Can we all be artists? As they discover different mediums of art they will complete challenges which eventually unlock their ability to work on their own art projects! Along the way they will meet fellow local artists to help inspire them as they build towards their very own Art Gallery for public exhibition!
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Writer's Workshop | Memoirs
Heroes will write a collection of short stories from their lives that, when put together, create their very own memoir.

They will be required to go through the stages of the Acton writing process including; Prewriting, Drafting, Revision, Editing and eventually Publication in order to earn their writing badge for this session!


Adventure Studio

For our middle & high schoolers each year they will complete a series of 3 science based quests in a row. Last session our heroes were introduced to how we explore science at Acton with Edison's Lab Quest. This year's series of science quests will explore physics, followed by Biology and Chemistry in future years. ​
Physics One Quest | The challenge that will be presented to our Adventure Studio learners is: Explore and model basic physical systems in order to make predictions in simple hands-on systems. 

They will be challenged to constantly examine the “why” behind studying physics and extrapolate our understanding to everyday real-world areas, including sports, transportation, energy (in the industrial sense), design and engineering.
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All of this hard work will be completed with their exhibition in mind: The Physics Olympics, a series of competition physics events where studio members compete in showcasing their skills and knowledge by calculating and predicting the outcome of real-world physics challenges.
Genre
A Hero’s Progress is an allegory tale about a young would-be-hero who ventures out on a great adventure, only to encounter three villains named Victim, Distraction and Resistance bent on thwarting the quest, killing the would-be-hero and throwing her into a fiery hell of eternal suffering.
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11/24/2021

Ready or Not, Session 3 is here!

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Real World Learning at Acton Lincoln

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.

Spark Studio

In their quest to 'build their own heroic culture', the Spark studio will set out to examine cultures from around the world this session.
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Around the World | This session our quest in the Spark Studio will be titled “Around the World.” The learners in our Montessori Studio will be “traveling” to different countries around the world and learning about their culture, how they celebrate the holidays, and what day to day life looks like. Along the way, they will earn stamps for their passports, which they will then present at exhibition!

Discovery Studio

Does Freedom come freely or is this a price to pay? Is there a freedom you have now, that you wouldn't give up for anything, not even your safety? 
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Colonial Acton |  Lions in our Elementary Studio will imagine that Acton Academy is a British colony. They must pay taxes to King George and are subject to royal proclamations and taxes imposed by the King (via his Royal Governor played by a guide). To end Colonial Acton, Lions must draft a Declaration of Independence and roll a die to determine the consequences.

Putting themselves in the shoes of frustrated British colonists being ruled by King George gives Lions an opportunity to:
  • Feel the resentment and frustration of having to obey a distant and seemingly unfair ruler who knows little about their way of life;
  • Understand the need to compromise and join together as one in order to have any hope for winning a war against a larger power; and 
  • Weigh the possible outcomes of two choices and make a decision with real-life consequences.​

(This is the same experiment that Laura wrote about in Courage to Grow!)

--- A note to parents: Heroes may feel a lot of emotions when this is introduced, as freedoms they normally have at Acton are temporarily taken away by the tyrant King George. Thanks in advance for your support and encouragement through this journey!
​

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Writer's Workshop: Creating a Podcast!
Heroes will discover the world of Podcasts, pick a topic they would like to talk about, decide what kind of podcast they want to create, write down the script for the podcast, record it and add personal touches to their final product. The goal is to practice communicating their voice, working within time constraints, and giving and receiving specific and helpful feedback to peers.

Adventure Studio

How do you teach science in the 21st century?  If you want to inspire young heroes to change the world through discoveries, inventions and innovations, our belief is that you don’t “teach” science at all.
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Edison's Lab | This session the Adventure Studio heroes will get their first glimpse at how we tackle subjects like Science at Acton Academy. This will be the first in a three part physics-focused cycle of Quests for this year.

For this quest Heroes will take on the role of innovators in the footsteps of Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park lab. They will be working in teams to solve challenges dealing with energy and electricity by devising simple machines and systems and creating patents. This Quest will challenge them to be curious and innovative, to work effectively as a team, and to master the basic principles of energy, work and electricity through hands on experimentation.
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​Genre: Gratitude 
​For this project Heroes will begin by reflecting on the various things in life they have to be grateful for - from big important things, to the little daily things we take for granted. They will first be invited to observe, consider, and notice these things and then simply journal. They will take these initial reflections to create a short essay or other creative writing piece on a topic relating to gratitude.

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10/13/2021

Session 2 at a Glance

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New Session Means
​New Quests!

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.

Spark studio

How do leaders build culture? Is it be demanding things or through modeling actions?
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Servant Leadership | The first half of the year will see the Spark Studio spending an entire session on a focus area as they step into the flow of Acton and prepare to launch into more complicated Quests later in the year. Last session the studio focused on "building the tribe" and "defining emotions".

Each week this session the Spark heroes will explore a different aspect of servant leadership through their launches and projects.​
​Week 1: Random Acts of Kindness
Week 2: Paying it Forward
Week 3: Volunteering
Week 4: Thankfulness/Gratitude
Week 5: Thanksgiving/Exhibition Prep

Discovery Studio

What role does architecture & community design play in building culture? Could my calling be in architecture?
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Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture Quest | This quest is completed in pairs, with challenges taking Lions through the process of designing their own Acton School building: research, design (drafting/sketching), and construction (model building). The goals of this quest include: to introduce the Lions to architecture as a calling and the heroes who chose it, to inspire a love of design and creation, and to instill a deeper understanding of process and the importance of knowing when to follow instructions and when to take your own path. The challenges require deep focus, attention to detail, and an understanding of applied mathematics. The creative element of this quest, along with strict deadlines, requires Lions to self-manage and stop creating when time is up.
Writer's Workshop: Poetry
Civilization: Middle Ages
Creativity Time: Improv Workshop

Adventure Studio

Do We Look to the Past, Present, Future, or Distant Lands for Direction? How does travel shape our view of culture?
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World Traveler Quest | During this session Lions explore the world through travel. Asking hard questions like: Do we look to the past, present, future, or distant lands for direction? Why travel? With who? Should it be a tight or loose schedule? Cheap or luxurious?

Along the way Lions will be planning a life changing trip to a city they would love to visit, complete with travel itineraries, budgets, trip preparations and useful travel tools. Lions will also create a Bucket List of places they want to see in the world (and in Nebraska), as well as learning to create a complete itinerary; a trip budget and a Google Earth Tour for a relative who can’t make the trip they planned!
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Writer's Workshop: A Speech in the Shoes of a Historical Figure 
Civilization: Middle Ages
Creativity Time: Improv Workshop

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