The last week of the Architecture Quest

That’s it. The final week of the architecture session is behind us and an exciting one-week vacation is ahead of us. But first, I owe you the summary of the past week. As usual, I’ll write mainly about the important and new things I’ve experienced this week at Acton:

The visit of Karen, the architect, in the studio – on Thursday morning the Eagles worked on their models from 9:00 to 10:30, and at exactly 10:30 they all stopped working. Karen, the architect, came to the studio to tell the Eagles about her work and to judge who worked hardest on their piece. Karen’s visit was very interesting for the Eagles: they asked her a lot of questions – about the profession, about her journey, the differences between the different types of architects and especially about the different buildings that she had planned. Karen brought them real architectural plans, and they were very impressed to see them. At the end of the conversation the Eagles presented their models to Karen and she gave everyone feedback in an Acton style: warm feedback, cool feedback, warm feedback. After presenting the models, Karen had to make a decision and she decided that the winning team was the team of the two older girls in the studio.They were rewarded with two Lego Architecture sets of the Buckingham Palace. Here are the two models of the winning team:

Coping with failure in the studio – Naturally, the teams that did not win were very disappointed. In particular, the studio’s two young Eagles, who worked hard on their model, were disappointed and felt that they didn’t really have a chance against the older girls. I can’t say they were happy about this failure, because they felt very sad. But I can say that after a few minutes of crying, and a few more minutes of a one on one conversation with Alden and me, they calmed down very quickly and during the next activity they totally forgot about it. In fact, it seemed that I took their loss harder than they did. I’m not a big fan of competitions in a school setting, but there is no doubt that in this particular case they benefited from a specific experience of failure and going through the recovery.
Treasure Hunt Game – The next activity was a “Treasure Hunt” game, the Eagles had to find specific buildings and features on the facade of these buildings in a nearby town. Karen had given the Eagles a map with the locations of buildings and so they navigated their way to each of the stops and answered tricky challenges regarding interesting architectural elements: arches, decorations, stone works, etc. The game was a great success – although it was cold and it even started snowing, the Eagles navigated well and enjoyed looking at the buildings and exploring them. We finished the game with hot cocoa with whipped cream in the local Starbucks before the snow turned into a real blizzard.
Playground – This week, the Eagles submitted all their suggestions for a playground and then they had a long and complex discussion to choose what they would eventually buy with their allocated budget. The final list includes a zip line, a platform swing, a climbing rope and more. The Eagles found the link to the exact item that was most economically viable, and they actually met the budget that we’ve allocated for them ($500, not including installation). It seems that the playground they planned is going to be super successful!
Planning the exhibition– On Friday the Eagles prepared the exhibition for their parents, designed to show off the work of the session to the parents. The Eagles carefully planned the exhibition and included a presentation of the models, a presentation of the stories they wrote in writer’s workshop and finally stations where each Eagle acted as a guide and the parents were the Eagles in the studio. The stations included an opening circle, core skills,a town meeting, an Architecture quest and a writing workshop. It was all a great success and the Eagles as well as the parents had a great time. I think the fact that every session ends with an exhibition, where the Eagles present their work to their parents is a wonderful idea of Acton. The exhibitions are also an excellent opportunity to reflect on achievements and summarize the path they have walked. Most importantly, the exhibits allow the Eagles to take the roles of leaders and exhibitors, in front of the most significant figures for them.

Off we go to our vacation.