A New Academic Year brings to a start of an adventure. It means a new Overarching Question, a new Quest, and most importantly—renewed friendships and rekindled memories.
Last but not least, a new writer, from yours truly, Mr. Jia. I am sharing the journey of both the Elementary and Middle School studios, while Dr. Ewe and Ms. Caryn are full-steam serving the Eagles! Also, the ActonKL team has decided to bring all our blog posts under one house: www.actonkl.org/blog.
There’s so much excitement to share with you in a new year!
- Hero’s Journey’s Call to Adventure
- Overarching Question: Does the past determine the future?
- Fellow Travellers on a journey together
- New Adventures: Swimming!
- Introducing Cooking and Chemistry: Does the recipe define the dish?
- Egglicious Friday
- Building the Learner-driven Community
Hero’s Journey’s Call to Adventure
The beginning of the Hero’s Journey is The Call to adventure!
Eagles arrived the first day early, pumped up and ready. For the Elementary School, it was one of the earliest ever! The studios were exuberant! Everyone was excited to see their friends.
“Here’s a gift for you, I came back from the U.K.!”
“Oh, did you know…”
“What did you do to your hair!?”
Eagles clearly couldn’t wait to share summer stories, as well as new styles and discoveries 🙂
Ms. Caryn launched the Elementary School’s first day with the Hero’s Journey, inspiring the young Eagles to the Call to a New Adventure. Eagles shared their dreams and rekindled best memories from our last academic year. Then, they wrote a letter to their future self, one in which they will read again in a year’s time.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ewe and the Middle School Eagles dug deep into the Overarching Question for the year: Does the past determine the future?
Does the past determine the future?
“It is neither the past nor the future, it is the present that you need to live in!” one of our youngest Eagles cried out!
Eagles shared their thoughts, argued their cases, and sought clarity in their thinking. Clearly, different Eagles have different opinions. But, are everyone’s opinions valid? It is not a question of fate, but a question of one’s beliefs and how one sees the world. The way one sees the world will decide one’s words, actions, character, and destiny.
Each year, Overarching Question is introduced. The Overarching Question guides Eagles through their Hero’s Journey. In the coming months, sub-questions will also be asked during every Quest to bring everything together. For example, in this Sprint’s Quest of Cooking & Chemistry, ”Does the recipe define the dish?” There are no simple answers. But, it is exactly from here we practice Socratic Questioning to seek wisdom.
Fellow Travellers on a journey together
We do not aim to start learning on the first day of school. We aim to make the day fun with games and challenges to build the tribe. Through these challenges, Eagles discover new habits and mindset.
The experiences are often reflected with questions such as, “Which one of these was the most helpful for completing the challenge? Communication, Compromise or Care?”. However, we all know that not all reflections are taken to heart because Eagles are often more excited about the next thing!
New Adventures: Swimming!
The Elementary School Eagles were all excited. Many of them wore their goggles even before leaving school (that is a good 30 minutes before entering the pool)!
The Middle School Eagles had voted to not do swimming, but are still discussing on what to do next. The challenge: Can they organize ourselves to do what they want? We do ask a lot from our Middle Schoolers. Many times, they have to figure out their plans and then execute them.
We also ask plenty of inputs from our Eagles. A few months ago, we did a poll on Quest ideas and the top vote was none other than Cooking & Chemistry!
Introducing Cooking and Chemistry: Does the recipe define the dish?
How do you make Chemistry actually interesting? Not the Periodic Table. Not the atomic structure. And, definitely not the chemical equations. The first chemist in human history are chefs or anybody who try to make their food more edible through chemical processes, so why not explore Chemistry through cooking?
Our Eagles investigate Chemistry through a combination of hands-on projects, Friday cookouts, books and online learning from various videos and articles.
The first challenge of the week is to investigate properties of emulsions. This means Mayonnaise time!
This was challenging for the Elementary Schoolers. Even though they followed the recipe, some mayo didn’t turn out so well. The secret is the whisking, which requires plenty of strength and hand dexterity. But many of them wanted to go home and try again! Parents, have fun experimenting in the kitchen with our young Chefs!
The second challenge was to understand and observe mixtures of materials. Do water and oil mix? How about sugar, milk and other items? Through these concrete discoveries, Eagles explored the differences of a solution, suspension, and colloid.
Then, there is the qualifying round for the cookout. Middle School Eagles have to research and present their favorite food while explaining the chemistry process. For example, here’s a Hollandaise sauce chemistry recipe.
Meanwhile, the Elementary School Eagles have to research and write their favorite recipes. They got to work really hard, else no cookout the next day!
Egglicious Friday
After all the hard work, the qualified Eagles are now ready to get their hands dirty with eggs. Lots and lots of eggs. This is the first time we had a cookout, so everything is quite an experiment in the garden.
Round 1: Cook your yummiest omelet within 20 minutes
The Eagles had been planning their recipes from yesterday night. What is the right combination of toppings, or the right amount of time to cook the eggs? How about presentation?
Five teams presented their final dish. The winner was a plain omelette that had the perfect texture with melting cheese. The most attractive plate… well, can you guess it from here?
Round 2: How fast can you cook an omelet?
Eagles frantically take on the challenge of cooking eggs. The rule is simple: two eggs, one timer, one cook.
Ready, Set, Go!
Many Eagles hit below 2-minutes, but it is not enough. Few took multiple rounds to beat new records. Brien hitting his record of 57 seconds. All the Eagles who participated put in their best work. There is a challenge of balance, between excellence and getting there within a short time.
Guess how many eggs were involved in the entire process today? 60 Eggs. Eggomania!
Separately, a secret sous-vide machine was brewing three eggs at different temperatures, 60°C, 63°C and 66°C. The Eagles cracked out the results. Did you know that eggs cook near 62°C? That is when you get the perfect soft-boiled eggs. Try it at home!
With so much excitement and movement on a Friday morning, the energy dissipated and focus waned later in the day. It took much longer for any activity to settle in after that.
Building the Learner-driven Community
While there is plenty of learning and fun going on, our work here is still in its infancy stage. Our goal is to build a robust learner-driven community. We constantly ask, how do we give more responsibilities to the Eagles so that they truly own the school? Can Guides step back fully and Eagles take charge? Can they still be Eagles outside of school and uphold the standards of excellence? These are the big challenges. Not how much they learn academically. Not the best Core Skills programs. Not a well-designed Quest. But, responsibility. Responsibility for oneself and for each other.
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