Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Like Alice, the Elementary Eagles followed their curiosity down the rabbit hole and re-emerged satisfied with newly acquired research skills and a research paper on a topic that fired their passion. This was no easy feat as they learned how to conduct research – how to zoom in on the diamond point, how to ascertain a credible source and how to organise their writing into a coherent piece of writing.
Along the way, the ES Eagles also deep-dived into a few of their fellow Eagles’ interests. They spent a week exploring the concept of Escape Rooms, another week delving into Climate Change, and a week learning how a detective uses the process of elimination to solve crimes. As the Eagles got fired up deep-diving into their passions, one Eagle decided to do an extra bonus project sharing her passion for photography with everyone.
The Middle School Eagles followed a different kind of curiosity … the diagnostic curiosity to discover the medical problem behind an illness. Following in the footsteps of Dr. House MD, they became medical detectives and followed symptomatic clues to deduce what diseases plagued their patients. This entailed honing their analytical skills to the point where random guesses became educated deductions.
On the flip side, the MS Eagles also learned what it means to be a cooperative patient as opposed to a deceitful one. Understanding your own body and what diagnostics tests are looking for goes a long way towards a successful diagnosis that will help treat your affliction. Finally, the MS Eagles researched into what aspects of the medical industry they feel should receive more research funding. One chose Parkinson’s, another chose lung cancer.
Curiosity … it’s what created penicillin, the computer, the telephone … and cronuts. What will our Eagles create or discover in their futures?
ES Growing Curiosity Exhibition
As you walked into the ES Exhibition, you could see that the Eagles had taken feedback from the previous Exhibitions into consideration and strived for a more organised and calm Exhibition this round. The booths were spread further apart and the Eagles had decided to tweak the flow of the Exhibition to tighten up timing.
Project Presentations
The 4 Project Leaders throughout the Sprint either presented their topics or the Hero’s Journeys they went through while leading the week’s Quests. This was a very insightful sharing and served as self-reflection for the Eagles as well as highlighting to the guests that the process taken to arrive at the final product is just as important, if not more important, than the actual product itself.
Writer’s Workshop Presentations
This time around, some Eagles opted to present their projects or the writing process that they went through as opposed to displaying at a booth. Again, this allowed for self-reflection and analysis of the process, as well as allowing the Eagles to hone their public speaking skills. It was a good idea for the flow of the Exhibition, too, freeing up some time and space to achieve a calmer booth visit session. It was a very entertaining and informative sharing session as the Eagles put their best presentation faces on and powered through their pieces despite nervousness and technical difficulties.
Booth Presentations
Guests were then invited to the booths to talk to the Eagles about their individual curiosity projects. The topics ranged widely:
One more good response to feedback from previous Exhibitions was that the Eagles did away with the feedback forms and used a Google Form instead – a much tidier and efficient feedback format. Kudos to the Eagles for thinking of this!
At the end of the Exhibition, some Eagles had a special surprise for the guests … a little nod to the upcoming Christmas celebrations!
MS Biology – Medical Biology Quest & Medical Research Proposal Exhibition
Up in the MS Studio, it was also obvious that more consideration had been given to crowd and noise control this time around and the environment was also much calmer. It was also evident that Emcee Evan had properly scripted out his introductions and proceeding got smoothly under way.
Medical Research Funding Pitch
Evan also kicked off the Medical Research Funding pitches by talking about how research into lung cancer has helped many victims of this devastating disease. Leanne then pitched that funding should go to finding a cure or a way to manage Parkinson’s disease. Both pitches were impassioned and well-researched and highlighted points in favour of the intended beneficiaries.
Body Systems Display
Circulatory System
Andre represented himself and Ra’ees as the team who worked on the circulatory system. After some technical difficulties trying to get the video presentation started, he heroically took it into his stride and restarted his presentation again to deliver a very animated talk. The team’s large, colourful diagram caught the eye of the guests and very succinctly detailed how oxygenated blood is pumped from the heart to the lungs where it is oxygenated, circulated around the body and returned to the heart oxygenless.
Muscular System
Gibran presented the muscular system in a short presentation and was very honest about the challenges that he faced that resulted in the abbreviated presentation.
Respiratory System
Morris and Evan detailed how air enters our body, circulates through and is expelled in a very detailed and scholarly presentation. Their animated slideshow showed many details and a lot of information.
Immune System
Dhanya and Aqueesha presented a stop motion animation to describe how the body’s immune system works. Their life-sized diagram was very detailed and clearly illustrated all the factors that are at play in the immune system.
Diagnosis Games
The Exhibition Committee decided to spread the the ‘diagnostic clinics’ over 2 rooms so that each ‘clinic’ wouldn’t feel too crowded.
Throughout the 5 weeks, the Eagles learned about the body systems and their corresponding diseases by playing online diagnosis games and diagnosis card games like Occam’s Razor. They tested themselves using lab test results, angiograms, body scans and imaging tests like CT scans.
They also practised their bedside manner and ran through many doctor-patient interviews. All this led up to the highlight of Exhibition Day – the Diagnosis Games!
Parents and friends of the MS Eagles were invited to act as ‘clinic patients’ who needed to visit the ‘clinics’ for diagnoses. ‘Patients’ were given scripts prior to the Exhibition which detailed their patient profiles, back stories and lab test results. The Eagles had to use their diagnostic skills, knowledge of illnesses and corresponding symptoms and lab tests to confirm each patient’s ‘disease’ and give an accurate diagnoses.
The 3 teams of doctors comprised of Evan and Morris, Gibran and Andre and Aqeesha and Catelyn. The winning team would be the one that used the least amount of time and lab tests to diagnose each patients illnesses.
The ‘doctors’ noted that they were thrown off by how some illnesses (deliberately chosen to get them thinking twice) took a much longer time to diagnose in a ‘real-life’ setting: “The first patient really took so long. It’s different when we were able to eliminate from a list of possible illnesses, but now, in real time there was nothing to refer to.”
The ‘doctors’ were stumped a lot of the time, yet they felt the pressure to diagnose quickly as they saw the line of patients getting longer and longer. The ‘pushy’ Chief of Medicine characters, played by the Guides, piled on the pressure to diagnose fast and use the lab tests that were available to them to confirm a diagnosis. If it was incorrect, they sent the doctors back to the drawing board.
When an accurate diagnosis was made, the whole team felt the high of a triumph, but the Chief of Medicines pushed the ‘doctors’ to be 100% sure. One doctor said, “I knew that it was migraine in the first minute, but the Chief of Medicine pressured me to continue with the lab tests before I diagnosed.” Another doctor had a similar experience: “I immediately knew it was Diabetic Ketoacidosis when she said she had fruity breath, but the Chief of Medicine asked for conclusive proof with lab tests. That took an extra 2 mins off our time.”
The ‘doctors’ bravely took the hard knocks that came with the Diagnosis Game that was designed to put them in a world of pressure, demanding them to be logical and methodically sift through the information amidst real emotions and stress. All the heroes bore it well, and the winning team was Gibran and Andre! Great job, heroes!