This input lets us know what the hero may already know about the topic and what they don’t know but want to know. This helps the instructor and the student define a beginning point for knowledge and determine progress at the end of the course.

How can it be applied in their life? What benefit do they believe they can get from it? If they don’t have ideas about this, we ask them questions about what they are interested in, and we help them see how the topic can benefit their interest. This comprehension of personal application can pique curiosity and help motivate them.

The students play the role of a hero in a dynamic adventure and have to work together to overcome the challenges using the knowledge they have acquired. We involve scenarios that have them brining their portable devices outside to discover solutions in their environment. They run and they explore while communicating with each other towards a common goal. This team approach inspires a sense of belonging. As well, the stories provide a narrative context for the lesson which can improve comprehension and retention of the knowledge.

Our teachers are not “sages on stages”. Instead, we are “guides on the side”. We see our job as inspiring students to become lifelong learners. This term has become a buzzword that many institutions claim to embrace but rarely enact or support in daily practice. Every step of the way, our objective is to empower our heroes to expand their knowledge by using their own interests as a stepping stone. We do this by providing them with challenges that engage their curiosity, interest, and even passion, and then we walk beside them through their educational journey.

We partner with them to find additional resources and help them establish connections between their interest and a wider set of topics. This approach allows them to expand their focus and include subjects that they may not have considered of interest before they started.

It can be tough to change your mind.  But when you learn a new perspective it can change your objective and open up new opportunities.  This process improves two specific outcomes: It promotes a growth mindset that allows the child or teen to change their mind about a previously held idea, and it improves the transfer of knowledge into their personal life by making it directly applicable to their own objectives.

Our definition of success is not to end up with a predetermined outcome. Instead, it is to show progress in overall knowledge. As such, failure MUST be acceptable. This attitude is illustrated by Thomas Edison’s reply to Mr. Mallory, who expressed regret that the first nine thousand and odd experiments on the storage battery research had been without results. Edison replied, with a smile: “Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I have found several thousand things that won’t work.” We don’t just subscribe to Edison’s idea, we teach it wholeheartedly by allowing for failure and revise it to mean “steps towards success”. This perspective is what builds resilience when a child or teen isn’t able to immediately achieve their desired outcome.