Physics! What sort of emotions spark when you hear this word. Is it joy, or is it ambivalence, or worse—distress and disgust?

We enter Sprint 4, where both studios are studying Physics, using experiments and models. The Elementary School will end with a Newton Toy exhibition, while the Middle School will showcase a Classical Physics exhibition with a challenge of protecting an egg from falling from a 4-meter height. Hence, their’s will be called Eggzibition.

Acton Academy Quests. What we’ve done so far:

While this Sprint is a Science Sprint. How does Acton Academy select the various Sprints? How does it complement a broad learning approach? I will cover this in a table of all the Sprints, based on the Elementary Studio:

Our calendar cycle starts in September and ends in July the next year. We started Y1 in 2016 October.

Sprint	Quest / Project	Type
Y1, Sprint 1	Build the Tribe	Art/ Communications
Y1, Sprint 2	Sandwich Economics	Art/ E-Ship
Y1, Sprint 3	Entomology	Science/ Nature
Y1, Sprint 4	Community Garden	Science/ Nature
Y1, Sprint 5	Entrepreneurship	Art/ E-Ship
Y1, Sprint 6	Architecture	Science/ Design & Logic
Y2, Sprint 1	Cooking & Chemistry	Science/ Nature
Y2, Sprint 2	Programming	Science
Y2, Sprint 3	Drama & Play	Art/ Communications
Y2, Sprint 4	Wilderness Survival	Science/ Nature
Y2, Sprint 5	Marine Biology	Science/ Nature
Y2, Sprint 6	Entrepreneurship Build-your-Business	Art/ E-Ship
Y3, Sprint 1	Animation	Art/ Communications
Y3, Sprint 2	Detective Science	Science/ Design & Logic
Y3, Sprint 3	Growing Curiosity	Art/ Curiosity
Y3, Sprint 4	Physics – Newton’s Toy Workshop	Science
Y3, Sprint 5	Ancient Greece	Art/ Civilization
Y3, Sprint 6	Survivor, Round 2!	Science/ Nature

If you are counting how many Arts vs. Science:

#Art 8 out of 18 ~ 45%
#Science 10 out of 18 ~55%

How does it look if we translate these Sprints into subject areas?

Subject Areas	Related Quests
Art – History	Ancient Greece + Civilizations (part of Integration, I will talk about this in future posts)
Arts – Communication	Build the Tribe, Animation, Drama & Play
Arts – Business	Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Build-your-Business, Sandwich Economics
Science – Nature	Physics – Newton’s Toy Workshop, Marine Biology, Cooking & Chemistry, Marine Biology, Entomology, Community Garden
Science – Design	Architecture, Detective Science, Programming
Outdoors	Survivor (2 times)

The key message is this: The Quests, over the years, form a learning arc that’s broad and deep. Each topic lasts for six weeks. Long enough for in-depth understanding, but short enough to reach deep appreciation (at Elementary) and a fair amount of rigor, similar to High School (at Middle studios). Eagles expose themselves to broad areas of topics, through exciting real-world problems and simulations so that they can discover their calling.

This Week’s Update

Back to Sprint 4. Let’s start with the main highlight of this week: Lion dance! There were other celebrations too: three Birthdays, Preschool’s new toys, and parents’ making slime. Yes, you heard that right, parents’ making slime. More about that later.

Lion Dance at ActonKL

Who’s not fascinated by Lion dance when they were young? As part of the Chinese New Year festive season, we invited a pair of lions to celebrate a courageous start of the Lunar Year. It’s a rare treat for the Eagles. But we don’t celebrate blindly. Before the lion visits, the Eagles shared stories about how lion dance came about and became a tradition. The lion was a hit! Many had an opportunity to touch and love the lion. They followed the two lions as they blessed all the studio spaces. It’s like the pied piper, luring the children in droves.

Soon, the Eagles missed the lions. Abhi asked, “Can the lion come every day?”

Mid February Birthdays

The community celebrated three Birthdays this week: Ee Wern’s on Monday; Cze-Yi’s on Tuesday; and Katelynn on Friday. Happy Birthday to all!

Ee Wern’s mom shared her daughter’s highlights of six rounds around the sun. Did you remember yourself when you were four-years-old? Here’s a recap!

Katelynn’s serving the Eagles her birthday cake!

Football on Thursday

The football session by the Eagles is becoming rigorous. Here’s one drill that they were up to:

Preschool (PS / Spark) Studio’s Risky Play!

This week, we see Eagles engage in risky play.

First, there was an upgrade in the Outdoor Play section. We added the first series of wood plank + blocks. The Eagles were already role-playing even before Mr. Aaron set it up outdoors. Soon, we are seeing Eagles beginning to try risky play. Risky Play is the area where we are most excited to build. We look up to China’s Anji Play, considered the most innovative risky play curriculum in the world. It’s going to be baby steps, as we test and see how the Eagles use the tools. Expect the young PS Eagles to grow strong!

We are testing it (by playing of course)!

In-line with the “risky play” growth, the PS Eagles started climbing trees. Their challenge question: “How high can you go?” They were eyeing on the longan tree for an entire month, and it was only this week many went all the way to the top.

Parent’s Building Blocks: Slime & Learning

You’ve seen many children made slime. Here’s an all adult group, only in Acton :))

The parents did have fun too, with making slime! The goal was to experience the process of learning with something hands-on and then discuss it further. The slime activity was part of the Building Blocks on Friday 22nd, where we explore the ideas of Learning to Do, Learning to Be, and Learning to Learn.

And now, back to Physics.

Physics Quest

Physics. How did you learn Physics?

Here’s a recipe to kill learning. First, remember Newton’s First Law. Newton’s First Law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.

Did the First Law definition mean anything to you? If it sounds like a blur, it’s because there is no relevance.

The ES studio started the Newton’s Toy Workshop Quest. They, surprisingly, learned about gravity, momentum and Newton’s Three Laws through building cars from household materials and powering them using balloons. Their motivation: balloon car racing!

“This is too challenging for me.” to “This is the best day ever!”

“Should we use a bigger straw as the exhaust?”

“Should the back or the front be heavier so it can go down the ramp faster?”

The Middle Studio (MS) also took similar excitement to Newton’s Laws through similar challenges.

However, their Friday challenge was different, where they had to meet a target. Dr. Ewe, the MS Guide introduced Mr. Egg, a very likable character who has many celebrity friends but tends to get in strange problems; somewhat similar to Jho Low in that sense, but Mr. Egg will do his best to help.

This time around the evil Justin Bieber had captured Ms. Selena Gomez and strapped a bomb near her. He needs to race towards her in his custom made car. The near he gets to her, the better chance to save Ms. Gomez…! Hence the challenge of meeting the target on the third race.

Which car won? Notice different features were added to increase speed, wheel alignments, etc.

As for genre, the MS Eagles discussed the difference between Sci-fi and Fantasy. Armed with clear concepts of sci-fi, they started to form a structure and understanding for their genre work in Sci-Fi. Here’s an entire group discussing the potential plot, like an engaged Pixar’s Brain Trust.

Pop Culture, action, and some fun competition—it brings Newton’s law with a new ton of love. Yes, pun intended.