Q2L RELAY: A Weekly Update from the Q2L Team

Q2L RELAY is an email newsletter sent out to all Q2L families and friends. Stay tuned for new updates coming soon!

Week of December 14 – December 18, 2009
We have had another amazing week at Quest to Learn! In Phase One of Boss Level, students moved through a series of workshops including Rube Goldberg basics, Podcast Scriptwriting, Technical Podcasting, Research, Reading, Teamwork, SMALLab and Systems Games, developing skills they needed to move ahead in the Boss Level Challenge. On Wednesday we entered Phase Two: the building of the machines! Individual Home Bases were challenged with building a machine capable of completing a specific task—from turning off a light switch to feeding the turtles! On Thursday, as construction began in earnest, we all came to appreciate all the amazing and unusual objects donated by families.

Hopefully everyone has had the opportunity to follow Home Base machine building progress each day via Podcast! Home Bases are creating new podcasts each afternoon to keep families updated with the latest successes and challenges. If you experience technical difficulty, please send your questions to Lassina, our technologist extraordinaire, at louattara@q2l.org for assistance! The podcasts are really amazing!

Boss Level will culminate on Wednesday, December 23rd with an exhibition of machines, competition and judging. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered their time and energy to help us during Boss Level.

Kudos for Q2L Community Service! Jeanne Grecco, mother of Q2L student Liam Clayton, received a donation of soaps, baskets and toiletries. Julia, Jeanne and a group of about ten socially conscious Q2L students delivered and distributed boxes of soap at a local homeless shelter! Additionally, with tissue paper and ribbon donated by Sue Tse, they decorated and filled beautiful gift baskets to distribute at a senior center on Monday afternoon. Great work, everyone!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Alicia: This week, we completed our Boss Level: Phase One classes in order to prepare to work as a team to build a Rube Goldberg machine. On Thursday, we began building our machines and making podcasts to capture our progress. Our group came up with a team name and worked together to problem solve our way through building half of our machine. By the end of the week, our Home Base was working well together to accomplish our goals. Next week, we will be building Monday and Tuesday in order for our (hopefully working) machine to be judged and presented on Wednesday.

From Ginger: Ginger's Home Base has been tasked with the job of designing a machine to turn on a power strip. After finishing up our week of Boss Level Phase One training sessions, we began work to design our machine on Wednesday morning. The students in our Home Base came to consensus that it would be easier to work in smaller groups. Brandyn, Armani, and Liam C. have been working tirelessly on designing the beginning of our machine. Dakota, Zakiyyah, Danaeyah, and Liam S. have worked methodically on the middle section, and Nuridin, Charli, and Kareem have worked through several creative iterations of the grand finale of the machine. The students in each group have put a good deal of effort into goal setting, planning, prototyping, and adjusting their machines. We are working hard on learning how to work well has a team. Thursday was a particularly challenging day for the group, but I am especially proud of our team for their resilience today. We finished the week with a successful work session and higher morale. Please tune in to our podcasts to learn more about the students' work each day.

From Julia: Our Home Base started phase two of the Boss Level with a new team name: "The Dark Knights of Godzilla!" The DKOG's mission is to create a Rube Goldberg machine that turns the page of a book. The kids spent yesterday playing with materials, taking inventory, and drawing and sharing ideas. Today they designed a fantastically clever mechanism to turn the page, ingenious ramps for the middle, and a sling shot to start the machine. By lunch time they had a bunch of interesting photographs for the pod casts. There were periods of dispute and frustration, but at the end of the day the team members surprised themselves at how they cooperated and began to connect parts of the machine. Tomorrow, they will continue to refine and connect the various parts they made.

From Lara: This week in Lara's Home Base we prepared and then got started with our Boss Level challenge. At the beginning of the week we used our teamwork skills to brainstorm, vote and then compromise on a team name that everyone liked: Vamelepiremenest (the "t" is silent). On Wednesday we found out what our challenge would be: to create a Rube Goldberg machine whose goal is to feed one of Ameer's animals. We chose to feed the turtles, Lettuce and Tomato.

The students tinkered on Wednesday and Thursday and by the end of the day on Friday had a big portion of the machine up and running. The challenge next week will be to connect the beginning section to a pulley in the middle and then the final pulley which feeds the turtles.

We are all excited to test out our machine and to see what the other homebases have created next week!

From Al: As part of Phase One of the Boss level preparations, all students learned the subtleties of making interesting and compelling Podcasts using Garage Band. Students mastered trouble-shooting audio input to the Macbooks, recording their voices, adding music and outputting to the M4a format. Students also mastered taking digital photographs and uploading them onto the Macbooks and inserting them into their enhanced Podcasts.

In Al's Home Base the self-titled "I Don't Knows" group was busy constructing the first and second iterations of their Rube Goldberg machines. Several tests revealed some structural weaknesses and hasty construction methods that indicated the need for more robust construction. Students used wood scraps and became adept at using several hand tools (C-clamps, hacksaw, wood saw) to aid in the construction process. Carpenter's glue and clamps were used to make the structure more elegant and more sound compared to the early "tape and a prayer" method.

From Ameer: This week in Ameer's Home Base, students worked together in small teams to create the beginning of a very awesome Rube Goldberg machine. Working in small groups of 2-4 students each, every group was responsible for creating a different part of the machine. The goal of our Rube Goldberg machine is to turn on the faucet. So far this week, students have brainstormed daily ideas for our machine, and built a very impressive machine which starts one table and makes is way to every other lab table. Next week we will be connecting it all together, testing and perfecting the machine as a whole and preparing it for the judges coming in next week.

From Ross: This week at Quest, my Home Base began working on their Boss Level challenges! We were assigned the task of turning off our light switch, which is challenging, since it is almost 5 feet off the ground! My Home Basers did a great job completing the beginning and end sections of their Rube Goldberg machine and are ready to fill in the next few sections. Be sure to tune into their fantastic podcasts this weekend to hear from them just how well they did!

Week of December 7 – December 11, 2009
This Thursday morning students were presented with their challenge for Trimester 1 Boss Level – to work in Home Base teams to build a Rube Goldberg machine!

To provide Q2L families with some information on what our kids are so excited about, here is an episode “Tour de BBQ” from the TV Show “Design Squad showing teams working together build a Rube Goldberg machine. Go to this link, http://pbskids.org/designsquad/season3/index.html, and from the episodes pictured on the right-hand side click on the “Tour de BBQ” episode. Students will be watching this video and answering questions about it during the "Research" strand of the Boss Level.

A question that has been on all of our minds: Where will our “home” be in September? Although the official DOE announcement has not yet been made, we were informed that Q2L will be sited at the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex, 351 West 18th Street, 10011 (between 8th and 9th Avenues). The PTA Committee working on this project will be active in this process as we sit down with School Construction Authority to plan and make capital improvements before September!

The deadline for Middle School applications is Tuesday, December 15. If you are hearing questions or concerns from parents of 5th graders that you know and who are interested in applying to Q2L for next year, please feel free to direct them to call me at school (212) 679 – 4854 or to contact me by e-mail.

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Arana and Rebecca: This was a very exciting week at Q2L as we kicked off our very first Boss Level on Thursday! Thursday morning the entire 6th grade was presented with the Boss Level challenge: to work in home base teams to build a Rube Goldberg machine. The first phase of the Boss Level, which will last until this Wednesday, involves the students moving through a series of workshops. Workshop topics include: Rube Goldberg basics, Podcast Scriptwriting, Technical Podcasting, Research, Reading, Teamwork, Smallab and Systems Games. The workshops have been designed to teach students the skills they need to be able to move into the second Boss Level phase where they will begin to build their machines. Our first two days were a huge success! The students have been working hard and learning a lot. Looking ahead to next week, students will continue working in their workshops and will start building on Wednesday. During the building phase, students will also be documenting their work via podcasts that will be available for parents to listen to daily. Details to follow soon! Boss Level will culminate on Wednesday, December 23rd with an exhibition of machines, competition and judging! Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered their time and energy to help us during Boss Level!

From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds, we worked under very strange and creepy constraints to make Professor Pie's Perfect Pie and figure out who had kidnapped him for his recipe. Our pies turned out perfectly and we were able to compose reports explaining that Mori took Professor Pie because she ate her own pie recipe! Our first case within Systemia has come to a close, but students should be working on their Fraction Check-in corrections over the weekend to turn in by Monday.

From Lara: This week in Wellness we finished the first ever Q2L Mind Balance Olympiad with an awards ceremony where students won bronze, silver and gold medals generously donated by the Parents Association. The top prize--a pizza party and gold medals--was awarded to the team who named themselves "The Something Somethings". These three students had a perfect teamwork score, earned the most points at the Teamwork challenge station and won medals in a number of the other Challenge Stations.

Amazingly, we ended the Olympiad with no single winner of the One-Foot-Eyes-Closed Balance Challenge. After a second round where 14 students stood for 8 minutes on one foot with their eyes closed, we had to move on to round three. An impressive group of nine students were still balancing after 18.5 minutes when we had to break for lunch! Thank you again to all of the parents who donated their time for this event--we really couldn't have pulled it off without you!

As a final assessment for this trimester of Wellness, students wrote letters to future 6th graders, explaining to them what the Mind Balance Olympiad is and how we prepared for it by making teams, practicing the Athletic Training Components and using the skills we had learned over the trimester.

Lara has updated the Wellness homework site with the final journal entries and assignments. Students can email or hand in late journal entries or other assignments until Wednesday, December 15.

From Al: Sports for the Mind concluded with the successful First Annual Q2L Game Jam! Students were busy rating the games made by other students. Several games were extremely difficult, so part of the process involved proving that there was a winning strategy. In several instances, the student designer could not beat their own game and it fell upon others to offer proof that the game was not broken! Several parents dropped in to playtest games. There were literally hundreds of games to play since each student produced a minimum of 4 required games plus a large number of extra games created, so the Game Jam lasted several class periods.

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work students wrapped up the trimester reviewing Potential and Kinetic energy. Activities included a jeopardy review, poster creations and in-class time to finish up any of their online Google documents. Thursday marked the beginning of BOSS LEVEL where students were challenged to create a Rube Goldberg machine. Alicia and I joined forces to teach "RUBE GOLDBERG", a class designed to teach students the relevant science and math content necessary to build one of these machines. In class students working in groups are given plenty of hands-on time to tinker and plan out the details of their machines.

From Ross: This week, BSP (Being, Space and Place) concluded with a bang. Students finished up their location proposals for Hampton's reality show, Forgotten Territories and were able to put together presentations on Google Earth. Some groups went as far as to record sound and match it to a virtual tour of the planet! Hampton is in Los Angeles for the holidays, but wants to come back and see the work that our Q-dents prepared for him. Good work!

After School: It was a busy time in Mobo Studio this week. All of the pods were finishing up the work they have been doing throughout the after school program in order to prepare for the Mobo Studio Finale! Friday. The comics group presented a collaborative animation project, as well as a slide show with images and work documenting work from throughout the term. The fashion podders worked on another fashion show that they choreographed and had a great time showing off their cool and bright LED bracelets. And the generating buzz group worked on their final power point presentation, which they presented on to everyone with outstanding skill. It was an exciting fall trimester in Mobo Studio-- the kids were amazing!

In the Comics, Character and Creativity pod the young artist worked on publishing their own real comic books. They traded the comics with one another and also gave some away as thank you gifts to people. Later in the week they enjoyed rehearsing for the final presentation.

In Mobile Fashion and Wearable Technology, the fashion technologist worked hard to meet the deadline of the final Mobo Fashion Show Friday. They incorporated the soft circuit into their bracelets and made the LEDs glow. They also learned how to troubleshoot a soft circuit when it did not light properly. They used coin cell batteries and multimeters to check to see where break in the circuits might be happening or if they had attached the LED correctly. The fashion technologists were excited to perform for their parents, the staff and teachers and had a lot of fun.

This week in Generating Buzz we finalized our advertisement using our client feedback from Marc Fernandez. Students created backgrounds for their advertisements by sketching different I Heart Geeks elements on grid paper. They then used those backgrounds in Gimp (image-editing computer program) and placed the video game characters on top. Tuesday and Thursday were spent preparing and rehearsing presentations for the Mobo Studio Finale!

Week of November 30 – December 4, 2009
Our very first Boss Level begins Thursday!
During Boss Level our space will appear quite different—students will work in Home Base groups and regular programming is put on hold. During the first couple of days home base groups will participate in small workshops. They will be learning some specific skills they will need to apply during Boss Level, in addition to team building exercises, as the success of this project relies on strong team collaboration… and then the creativity begins!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds we spent the week reviewing and preparing for our Fraction Check-In, which included all we've learned about fractions so far this year. Each code breaker worked diligently to complete the Check-In Thursday and Friday. We spent the last bit of our time together solving the fifth and final code of Prof. Pie's Perfect Pie Recipe. Monday and Tuesday all of our hard work this trimester will finally pay off, for we will be following the decoded recipe to make the pie and to figure out who kidnapped Professor Pie. The students should be working on completing any late or redo homework they have yet to complete (a sheet was handed to them at the end of the week).

From Ameer: This past week in The Way Things Work, students reviewed all of the content that was covered throughout the trimester. Students completed a review document containing questions about all of the topics we have covered. Towards the end of the week, students were given a more traditional assessment and were also given some time to catch up on their VOCABULARY and SYSTEMS: Simple Machines google documents.

From Ross: After compiling research on a particular biome (desert, tundra, savannah, tropical rain forest, etc), students in BSP (Being, Space and Place), are hard at work formalizing their "Location Guides" for Hampton. This involves selecting crucial information from their "Location Prep Pages" that highlight the important animals, plants, and challenges of their particular biome. As a conclusion to this mission, students will create a Google Earth presentation in an attempt to convince Hampton to select their location for his show, Forgotten Territories!

From Lara: This week in Wellness we prepared our teams and then kicked off the first Q2L Mind Balance Olympiad. Students played team-building games, made commitments to their team as to which challenges they would each take on, and play tested some of the student proposed Challenges for the Olympiad. Some classes wrote emails to Pleku as a coach or a moral supporter (a fan) to encourage her/him to continue practicing and to do the best that s/he can in the Mind Balance Olympiad.

Parents and staff joined Lara & Will in the gym on Thursday and Friday for the first two days of games in all eight Athletic Training Components. Students traveled from station to station in their teams to either compete or to cheer on their teammates at each of five Challenges. Next week, the teams will travel to the remaining stations and the games will end with a semi-school wide One-Foot-Eyes-Closed Balance Challenge.

A huge thank you to all of the parents who are volunteering their time to make this event possible!

From Al: In Sports for the Mind formal play-testing has begun! All students have been working on the Domain Game Feedback Forms. These Feedback Forms are designed to get the students more familiar with Gamespeak. Students play and evaluate different components of each others work in categories of Space, Rules, Originality, and Challenge. This is the final preparation for the First Annual Q2L Game Jam!

All parents and staff are invited to play student created games at the First Annual Q2L Game Jam! Students will be sharing their works in an open and inviting play testing celebration. Come play student games and sign in each student's Game Design Journal as if you were leaving a greeting in a Guest Register at an Art Gallery.
Game Jam Schedule:
601: Monday, 12/7/09: 1:20 - 3:10
602: Monday, 12/7/09: 10:55 - 11:50
603 Tuesday, 12/8/09: 10:00 - 10:55
604: Wednesday, 12/9/09: 9:05 - 10:00

From Afterschool, Mobo Studio: The after-school podders are very much enjoying their time in Mobo Studio as they have been working tremendously hard throughout the trimester to become experts in their fields. Students are all gearing up for the Fall Trimester-I Mobo Studio finale next Friday, December 11, 2009. It is an exciting time as the kids will have a chance to showcase all their work from start to end. We are all looking forward to a fun exhibition of work that all of the pods will be take part in, hope you can join us for the showcase.

This week in Comics, Character and Creativity the young artists in the pod worked on mini-comics, which they will finalize in the coming week. Kids were given an assignment to write and draw an 8-page story. They wrote simple scripts, drew the pages in pencil, inked them, and started pasting them up on templates, all in pursuit of creating their own printed comic books.

Once completed next week, each student will make several copies of their comic, to trade with one another and give to friends, teachers, family, etc. In preparation of the Mobo Studio finale presentation on December 11th students will be working on compiling a PowerPoint presentation to showcase their work and share the thinking behind their comic creations.

In Mobo Fashion and Wearable Technology the podders have been exploring their inner scientist these last couple of weeks. They have been learning about circuits, power and LEDs (light emitting diodes) while gaining a hands learning experience in prototyping circuits on breadboards. On the breadboards they have been building series and parallel circuits to light LEDs. It is impressive to see how the fashion professionals have developed an excellent habit of using the multi-meter to troubleshoot and redesign their circuit when it does not work the first time around.

Now the podders have moved off the breadboards and are working on making their LED bracelets. The challenge here will be taking their knowledge from hard circuits on the breadboard to designing soft circuits make up of conductive thread and coin cell batteries. They are excited to make their bracelets and light them up!

This week the students in Generating Buzz! worked on refining their concepts individually in Gimp (an image editing program). In addition to refining concepts, students were asked to develop detailed descriptions to begin articulating their ideas. After selecting the final two concepts for the advertising campaign, students worked on placing characters, text, and objects into a draft advertisement. They discussed the sequencing of characters and objects and how these impact the overall effectiveness of the advertisement.

On Friday the pod went on a field trip to Marc Ecko Enterprises to meet with Marc Fernandez, the Executive Producer of the I Heart Geeks video game they are working on, and to take a tour of the facilities and the Sweat Equity Enterprises (SEE) Design Studio. Marc spoke to students about his role in the video game industry, and critiqued our design concepts. The critiques went well and our students left with great ideas on how to improve their advertisements. Following their session with Marc, the students were introduced to previous SEE student work and enjoyed looking around, asking questions, and relating it to their own work in the pod as a way of gaining inspiration for the presentation next week.

Week of November 16 – 20, 2009
It is totally amazing that Monday we are entering the week of Thanksgiving!! Q2L parents are planning a Thanksgiving Luncheon on Wednesday, November 25. It will provide us with the opportunity to reflect on all the experiences we have enjoyed as a community since the launch of Q2L! We are thankful for the contributions of all of our parents—for attending our meetings, participating in PTA and SLT, for volunteering on trips and chaperoning during lunch time. Thank you!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Rebecca and Arana: As we mentioned in last week's relay, we will begin our Boss Level on Thursday, December 10th. Each Home Base group is collecting materials to be able to complete the Boss Level Challenge, which will be revealed when the Boss Level begins. Students should have brought home a flyer on Friday with the list of materials we are asking families to donate by December 4th, but we have also attached it here for your convenience. Also, please have your child select and obtain a copy of their book choice for the Boss Level by Wednesday, December 9th. We are attaching the list again in case you need another copy. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, students continued to learn about simple machines as systems. In class we learned about the three different types of levers and discovered how the arrangement of their elements determines the class of lever. Students have continued to update their "Simple Machines" and "Vocab" Google doc throughout the week. The week ended with students working collaboratively to investigate the three different types of levers, collecting data to facilitate their learning. We are waiting to hear back from the Troggles who will hopefully check in next week before the Thanksgiving break.

From Alicia:We began our week in Codeworlds working with fractions. We looked at the relationship between the numerator and denominator, and what happens when they're manipulated. Some of the things we learned about were: equivalent fractions, simplest form, LCM (least common multiple), LCD (least common denominator) and adding fractions with both like and unlike denominators. These are skills that we applied in SMALLab at the end of this week when Arithmus sent us a broken game and requested that we fix it ASAP. Our apprentice codebreakers deduced that the game worked when two fractions were added together with like denominators, but a sum larger than one whole would break our game! Arithmus is very excited to work with the game to (hopefully) make it work in the future.

Next week we will continue the development of our skill with fractions that contain like and unlike denominators, practicing addition, and progressing right into the rules of subtraction. Students should be working on the notes we've taken in class all week and the problems that accompany those notes.

From Ross: In Being, Space, and Place this week, students took Hampton's geography assessment. They were challenged on cartography skills, physical geography, and climate and weather. Hampton now knows they are ready to scout locations for his reality show, "Forgotten Territories!"

From Lara: This week in Wellness, students are gearing up for the Q2L Mind Balance Olympiad! Students deepened their understanding of the Athletic Training Components they've been working on by doing research and presenting their findings to their classmates. The students also completed personal training plans (and took on the role of "coach" to help each other to refine their plans) to get ready for the One-Foot-Eyes-Closed Balance Challenge--the one event in the Olympiad that everyone has to compete in. As you read this, the Olympiad Committee is in the process of reviewing the many Challenges that our apprentice designers have created and submitted online. The winners of this competition will be announced this week!
Parents who are interested in volunteering as score keepers/facilitators during one or all of the sessions of the Mind Balance Olympiad should contact Lara directly at lgerstein@q2l.org. The dates are December 3, 4, 7 & 8 from around 11:30--12:45. Details are to follow in a separate email.

From Al: All game design apprentices in Sports for the Mind StudioLab are finishing their work on 'non-digital' games with the completion of a technical specifications design document: a tracing on Architects Vellum that includes the rules, the title, and a detailed diagram of the game board drawn with technical pens. Playtesting is begun before any final alterations can be determined to fully complete their board game designs. Playtesting of their digital game is also beginning in earnest as the apprentices are learning protocols of proper constructive feedback for the Domain games. Students have been informed about any missing or incomplete games in order for them to complete the trimester with each of the major challenges of our Mission. The required Gamestar Mechanic games to date include: the Initial Maze, the Domain Game, the Birthday Game and the Night at the Museum Game. All published games are subjected to the play-testing and feedback process, with the goal of improving the “game play”, balancing the challenge and incorporating game labels that are descriptive, instructive and contribute to the player experience of the game.

AFTERSCHOOL
The students in Mobo Studio are enjoying their time in after school as each of the pod groups are working enthusiastically to learn the skills set needed in various professions. They continue to gain valuable insight around their respective fields of work within each of the pods and are equipping themselves with real know-how in various industries of work.

This week the Comics, Character and Creativity pod went on a field trip to First Second Publications in the Flatiron Building on 23rd street and Fifth Avenue on Monday. The students sat in the conference room like junior executives and were treated to a presentation of not-yet-published works. The presentation exhibited the entire production process: from thumbnails through blue lines, cover layouts, inked tracings, color comps, fancy printing techniques, binding and shipping.

All in all, the kids got to learn from a professional editor and designer about the process that goes into publishing and how a comic book is born. Students took part in a Q&A in which they asked questions that demonstrated their curiosity and enthusiasm for the medium. At the end, everyone got a free copy of Tiny Tyrant, one of First Second's new series aimed at young readers. Finally, on the way back to Q2L, we stopped at Cosmic Comics, a comic book store, where the owner let each student select a free comic from the Kids Comics section.

Coming up in the pod, kids will write and draw a one-page comic from the point of view of a video game character. Students used the latter half of the week to begin their one-page comic, which they will take through the production process to a finished piece of work. It will be a challenging task, but one that will be fun!

In Mobile Fashion the fashion professionals reviewed and critiqued the videographer footage from the Fashion Show, which they designed and choreographed, the week prior. The event was well attended by the other after school podders, parents, faculty and staff. The designers did an excellent job of fielding questions from the audience at the conclusion of the show, which demonstrated the amount of work they all put into the fashion show by highlighting everything they have learned leading up to the presentation. The fashion professionals are proud of their work and are looking forward to the next showcase coming up on December 11th.

During the week the students were introduced to the concept of a Postmortem, where one assesses the process of developing a product. They really enjoyed learning about how to use the sewing machines and were proud of their final product. Students are now moving on to learning about electricity and how circuits work. They have been introduced to the breadboards, the device used to prototype circuits. It was a thrill for them when they lit their first LED and they are eager to make a new fashion product, LED bracelets.

This week in Generating Buzz! students worked on Step 3: Concept Development, which is part of the 5 Step Design Process behind the research campaign and the design challenge they are taking on. Students began the week by brainstorming around project ideas and the Nintendo DS game they are working with, I Heart Geeks, to come up with new ideas for the project. They combined the sketchbook drawings they created in the week prior to share their thoughts with each other and offer positive feedback that will be used in the final design models that they are generating for the unreleased Nintendo DS video game (I Heart Geeks).

Earlier in the week, the podders in the group got to review existing advertisements that are currently being shown on the Nintendo World website. The pod also elected a team leader, Kofi, to help guide the team on generating new advertisement ideas for the project. Later in the week, the podders continued to brainstorm advertising ideas as the students began building real models on their laptops while working on concepts in Aviary, which is a vector and image editing software that they are using to generate their finished products.

Week of November 9-13, 2009
This Monday and Tuesday are our first formal Q2L Parent-Teacher Conferences. At your scheduled appointment time you will be meeting with your child’s Home Base (advisory) teacher, who is always your first point of contact with the school about your child. Home Base teachers have all met with each Domain teacher to get feedback about your child’s work in class. Hopefully you have already forwarded any specific questions or concerns to the Home Base teacher to assure that the information you request is available to you at this meeting. Each appointment should last for about 15 minutes, allowing for deep conversation about your child’s progress. At the end of your appointment feel free to e-mail any additional questions that you may have either to your child’s Home Base teacher or directly to a Domain teacher. There are about three more weeks left in the trimester, so hopefully this information from teachers will allow students to respond and to make a positive impact on their 1st Trimester Student Feedback report.

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Rebecca and Arana: We are excited to announce that our first Boss Level will begin December 10th. The Boss Level is a two-week “intensive” where students apply knowledge and skills to date to propose solutions to complex problems. During the Boss level students are given a challenge the whole school works on together to solve, drawing on the knowledge and resources generated during the just-completed Missions. Boss levels are what we call “synthesizing spaces,” and provide opportunities both for students who need a little extra work or those seeking accelerated opportunities to extend their learning.

This week we handed out the reading list for our first Students are to obtain a copy of one of the books by December 9th and bring them into school. Over the course of the Boss Level students will be participating in reading groups during the school day and reading their books for homework. We are attaching the letter and reading list to this relay, but students should also have received a hard copy this week from Al for parents to sign and return with their child on Monday.

Next week we’ll send home a list of materials that families can donate for the Boss Level to help us with the special challenge students will be posed with at the start of the Boss Level. We are also looking for parents to volunteer during the school day during the Boss Level. A member of the PTA curriculum committee will be sending an email with more specific information on volunteering so that interested parents can sign up to help. In the meantime, please feel free to email us with any questions or concerns.

From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds, our codebreakers scanned Professor Pie's favorite cookbook in search of the fourth line of the Perfect Pie recipe! We discovered that Prof. Pie has a passion for fractions, so we've been training around the idea of "part of a whole." Students were able to learn first-hand how pies and their sales are distributed and recorded in Creepytown-- they record their sales entirely in fractions and pie charts. We finished the week working on the concepts of equivalent fractions and simplest form of fractions. Students should be working on their homework around identifying fractions and finding equivalent forms of fractions. Next week we will be working on finishing up our study of equivalent fractions and simplest form, and look into addition and subtraction of fractions.

From Lara: This week in Wellness, we began Quest 4--Not Giving Up! Pleku wrote an email to Lara saying "Thank you" to her and the students for all of their help but that s/he just wasn't going to compete in the Mind Balance Olympiad. We don't know yet why Pleku made this decision, but we're hoping to find out. In the meantime, the Q2L Mind Balance Olympiad was announced. It will take place during the first two weeks of December. Students researched online for definitions of eight Athletic Training Components and presented their findings to the class. Students have already completed their Personalized Training Plans for the One-Foot-Eyes-Closed Balance Challenge and have begun using an online form to submit their designs for Challenges in other Athletic Training Components.

In the gym we had our first experience of students as teachers when "The Dancers" who performed at Thursday’s Morning Meeting led classes 601 & 602 in "Cotton-Eyed Joe" as part of the training for the rhythm/musicality component.

From Ross: This week in BSP (Being, Space and Place), we explored how the Earth's revolution around the sun gives rise to different climate zones around the globe. We then learned how these climate zones give rise to unique vegetation zones in different regions. Students will be playing a game called "FIND IT" that uses climate and vegetation maps combined with latitude and longitude to locate particular cities on the planet. Next week, students will receive their major assignment from Hampton, who will test their knowledge on the different geographic components we studied this week.

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, students designed and tested ramps for the Troggles. Working in teams of "Researchers" and "Engineers" they investigated the inclined plane in order to construct the optimal ramp according to specifications that the Troggles had sent. After creating their posters, each team presented their work to the class in a brief exhibition. The week concluded with the students learning about simple machines as a system, exploring the various elements and rules common to all simple machines. Next week we will be learning about mechanical advantage and how to use this number to help us determine the best machine for a particular job.

From Al: The game design apprentices in Studiolab are continuing their work on the 'non-digital' games. As covered in Studiolab, game design apprentices are expected to make a diagram of the MTA System: Engine / Subway Car / Subway Map / New York City / USA / World / Solar System / Galaxy / Universe. This simplified diagram illustrates our exploration of sub-systems and the rules and goals of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

All students have access to the Gamepedia Google Doc for their group. Students are expected to contribute to at least three topics listed on this document. The Gamepedia is an attempt to begin to pool our collective knowledge of all aspects of Game Design covered in Studiolab to date. Please do your best to contribute your thoughts. The process for the Gamepedia will involve several iterations and the Google Doc is our first attempt to formulate definitions that will eventually be posted to a Sports for the Mind Wiki.

Students are publishing all of their digital games to the Gamestar Game Alley to allow all apprentices to play the games and give feedback as part of the Design Cycle: Design / Playtest / Iterate.

After School: It was an action packed time in Mobo Studio this week. All of the kids in after school are working collaboratively and continue to produce outstanding work in all of the pods. They have invested a great deal of time into their roles as fashion designers, comic artists, marketing campaigners and research detectives as they have gained a real identity in the roles they have taken on.

The kids in Comics, Character and Creativity were visited by two professionals in the comics industry during the week, which gave them a real taste of the work that goes into creating comic materials. Marion, a friend of Raina (pod co-mentor) joined the pod on Monday to demonstrate how digital color is added to comic drawings. They also focused closely on the idea of perspective with her, which gave them good insight into the best ways of enhancing their ideas. On Tuesday, Dave Roman, an editor from Nickelodeon magazine, visited the pod to speak to the group about crafting comics and the steps that professionals in the industry take in developing their finished product. All of the kids were thrilled by his presence and very much enjoyed the time spent with him. Later in the week students continued to create original animations and will soon learn how to export the work they create to a web site for viewing on mobile devices.

The professionals in Mobile Fashion worked on the finishing touches for their products –txt scarves and handmade purses- complimented by the use of Nokia smart phones and sema codes. The week culminated with a Fashion Show on Friday, November 13th. All of the podders took on the roles and responsibilities that lead to an outstanding fashion show performance! The theme for the event was Winter with SET Designers. They all produced a wonderful array of handcrafted snowflakes that enriched the scenery for the show. The sound designer choose the music, the co-directors made sure everyone’s products were ready for showtime as all of their pieces came in place beautifully.

Fashion Designers:
Jade Bove, Julia Campbell, Isis Goodwin, Maya Goodwin, Miya Matthews and Brianna Tse-Wall
Co-Directors:
Jade Bove and Isis Goodwin
Models:
Jade Bove, Julia Campbell and Miya Matthews
Stylist:
Isis Goodwin and Brianna Tse-Wall
Set Designers:
Julia Campbell and Brianna Tse-Wall

Generating Buzz! kids presented their final mood boards this week. At the start of the week, they selected one mood they wished to portray and then began collecting images, which matched that mood as best as possible. Each student had a chance to present their mood and a couple of initial advertisement concepts based on the mood chosen. This presentation concluded Step 2- Research and Inspiration in the 5 Step Design Process. On Tuesday the students began Step 3- Concept Development. The whole group conducted a brainstorm activity, which involved words, and then turned the words selected into individual drawings. They eventually wrote a story about the final product to recap the process involved. Ultimately, the student designers realized that creativity comes from a collection of multiple ideas. On Thursday, the podders began brainstorming drills. They used the day for drawing 1-minute sketches in their sketchbooks and quickly moving on to the each other's sketches. These sketches are concepts for the advertisements they are all creating.

Week of November 2–6, 2009
Dear Q2L Families,
We have had another action packed week at Quest to Learn! The week began with an article in Monday’s New York Times that featured Gamestar Mechanic, an educational on-line design game we use in Al's Sports For The Mind domain. The picture featured Q2L students Kyrese Adams, Liam Clayton, Dimitri Williot and Alessandro Ferron.

Later Monday the monthly PTA meeting was attended by almost thirty parents and teachers. The level of participation, interest and support is really amazing! As founding parents and faculty our participation will shape our Q2L community!

Tuesday was a non-attendance day for students, while faculty and staff participated in a variety of professional development workshops, completed final Boss Level planning and put final touches on Assessment Night.

Q2L had our first Open House on Wednesday Night. Q2L teachers, parents and students contributed their time and enthusiasm. It was a really energizing event attended by 65 families from District 2.

On Thursday ABC news anchor Art McFarland visited classrooms and taped a segment to be aired sometime during this coming week. We will send out a notice when we find out the date and time!

Later Thursday morning PBS Frontline visited classrooms and held interviews with teachers and students as part of a series on education. Our students (your kids!) were incredibly eloquent as they articulated the mission of Quest to Learn, totally impressing the Frontline cast. More information on when the segment will air to follow.

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds, we began Quest 6, which dealt with the four major parts of speech. We began the week by scanning the next page of Professor Pie's favorite cookbook and discovered that he wrote the third piece of the recipe in a code with lots of words. These words were grouped by parts of speech, so we spent this past week studying nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. We were also asked for lots of help from Wordix, who was in a sort-of panic over missing pieces of a story he was reading (troublesome Arithmus spilled juice all over Wordix's new book). After studying lots of methods and playing lots of games to learn those four parts of speech, we began working on decoding the third line of the recipe from Professor Pie. Students should be working on their Once Upon A Time stories and completing any late homework this weekend.

Next week, we're going to finish solving the ELA-driven code in preparation to study fractions as a part of a whole. Students should start thinking about what "part of a whole" means to them.

From Lara: This week in Wellness, students worked in teams to make another round of helpful videos to send to Pleku. This time Pleku needed help with his/her inability to focus due to a little brother's noise and strewn-about toys and Pleku's tendency to fall asleep while practicing in her/his bedroom. Students were Videographers, Secretaries, Directors and Stage Managers/Time Keepers as they wrote scripts, acted and recorded their videos. On the videos, we told Pleku about our own experiences dealing with similar issues and gave our detailed advice about how to create/find a good practice and how to focus even with the many distractions. Over the weekend Lara will be sending the students' videos to Pleku and asking again for a photo. Maybe this time we'll actually get to see a photo of Pleku... In the gym, students are continuing to practice Endurance, Teamwork, Rhythm/Musicality and Speed.

From Ross: This week in BSP, students wrote the final drafts of their Ultimate Room spaces after completing some peer editing. We also continued learning about physical geography for our friend Hampton. This week, students focused on the Earth's rotation and seasons as well as landforms. After learning the Earth's landforms, students played each other in Sculptionary, where they used clay to sculpt specific landforms (mountains, plateaus, plains, volcanoes, etc) for their partners to guess.

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, students reviewed the concepts of force and work. Students worked collaboratively in class to create posters explaining the concepts surrounding force and work. Some classes even got a chance to play Troggledy, a game that was sent over to us via the Troggle Blog which was essentially a mock jeopardy created by the Troggles. Over the weekend, students will be completing a final packet on force before we move on to Quest IV which deals with simple machines.

From Al: The game design apprentices in Studiolab are building their board games using traditional art tools and techniques: T-squares, rulers, colored pencils, etc. We are realizing how the Design Cycle (Design / Playtest / Iterate) helps us make our games better (both Gamestar Mechanic and our Board games).

All apprentices are expected to continue game design work in their Journals at home and to bring the Journals to the Studiolab as well. The apprentices should be looking for game design ideas (they can come from anywhere!), drawing mazes, sketching game avatars and pasting in photos and clippings from magazines that inspire them. Free form sketching is encouraged: the back of their Journal is a space reserved for this purpose.

After School: It was another exciting week as Mobo Studio reaches the midway mark for the 2009 fall trimester. Students are working creatively as they begin to expand their knowledge around digital literacy in today’s 21st century society. The kids have grown into the relaxed professional-like setting and are now able to think more critically about the roles they play as consumers, producers and social advocates in a range of fields within the comics, fashion, marketing and gaming industries.

In Comics, Character and Creativity students drew from different still life set-ups early in the week as a way of stretching their points of view for developing more animated artwork. As kids continued to expand their animation skills they created a storyboards for an animated sequence called “The Open Door.” Kids have also begun to explore more precisely the use of digital animation on laptops and wacom sketch tablets in the pod to help boost their digital literacy skills through self-created and entertaining animations.

The kids in Mobile Fashion are thrilled to find themselves engaged in their roles as constructive producers of “wearable technology.” In taking on the position of real fashion designers they have carried out their roles by sharing their creations in an abbreviated presentation with a Mobile Learning Institute representative. The kids are excited for the upcoming Mobile Fashion and Wearable Technology fashion show that will take place on Friday, November 13th at Q2L. They are working collaboratively to take on separate roles to help produce the fashion show. Roles include director, set designer, sound designer, stylist, fashion photographer and videographer. They all share the role of fashion designer through their hands-on work in the pod and those interested will act as runway model performers during the showcase next week.

The students in Generating Buzz! completed their interview flashcards early in the week that show the most important information obtained during their target market interviews. These flashcards will later be used at the end of the trimester for the Mobo Studio exhibition show. Students have now moved to focusing on mood boards. The idea is to figure out why designers use mood boards, how they help draw inspiration from and create projects around such tools. Kids will use an open source application call “aviary” to continue with mood boards as they develop personal ones for the Design Challenge: Generating Buzz!

Week of October 25-30, 2009
Dear Q2L families,
A highlight this week was our change to a daily Morning Meeting schedule. It is our goal to be very thoughtful as we build the foundation for our community, and to be explicit in our expectations around behaviors and consequences. In our group discussion students listed “friendship”, “knowledge” and “honesty” as some of the core values of Quest to Learn, which clearly mirrored the important values they have all been taught at home! Morning Meeting was also the venue for the super star guest we had on Monday that Arana and Rebecca describe in their update below!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Rebecca and Arana: This week was very exciting because Rebecca Stead, author of our summer reading book First Light, came to morning meeting on Monday to speak to the Q2L community. Our students asked many questions about the writing of the book, the inspiration of the book, and the characters and plot. As you may remember, our summer reading assignment required students to complete a project on the book. We told students that the Home Base group that completed the most projects would win a special prize. We are delighted to announce that Alicia’s Home Base group won, and each student in this group was awarded with a signed copy of Rebecca Stead’s latest book When You Reach Me, which Rebecca Stead handed out herself at the end of the meeting. She also signed autographs for students and viewed the summer projects. She was very impressed with the work students did, and she even took copies of their ghost chapters and photographs of the science presentations and game boards with her!

This week we also kicked off our independent reading program, and students are now reading for 15-minutes as part of every annex period. Students should also be reading at home for 30-minutes each night as well. We are attaching two recommended reading lists for 6th graders for families that wish some guidance in the types of books that are appropriate. We will be sending home another book list later this month for a reading project we are doing in December with all Q2L students as part of our Boss Level.

From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds, we worked on finishing Quest 5: Mysterious Evidence is Estimated. We continued our Mini-Quest from Arithmus, this time showing the twins that we could multiply and divide with integers (last week we showed them our skills with integer addition and subtraction). We also finished our training around "About or Exactly," which dealt with place value, rounding and beginning estimation. We played many games and challenges this week to reinforce our understandings of these topics as well. After working so hard with our About or Exactly quest, we were then ready to crack the second piece of Prof. Pie's Perfect Pie Recipe! This time Pie told us he had written his code in something called a key word cipher. We studied and practiced with key word ciphers and worked to complete the encoded message so we could figure out what page to scan next. Also, every apprentice codebreaker participated in our first Systemia Check-In, which the students were quizzed on their knowledge of integer operations.

Next week we will begin a quest around parts of speech and how they connect to our language of code. Students should be working on their multiplication and division of integers packet and Codebreaker Journal #3.

From Lara: This week in Wellness we continued to look into what helps us to focus, what distracts us, and how our immediate environment affects our ability to focus. We continued writing (silently) with music as a way to get better at focusing and took on some new balance challenges to put our focusing skills into practice. By next week all classes will have created their videos to send to Pleku, full of advice about how to find a good practice space, and things that will help Pleku to focus better--no matter where s/he is!

In the gym, we have added the Athletic Training Component of Rhythm/Musicality and students are learning and practicing the Electric Slide. Next week we'll move on to other line dances. The other components we're working on are: teamwork, speed and endurance. Soon students will have the chance to develop their own Mind Balance challenges based on these components.

From Ross: This week in Being, Space and Place, students used the editing process to perfect the final drafts of their Ultimate Room essays. In addition, our new friend Hampton sent students more information about his show, Forgotten Territories, asking students to collect vital information on landforms. We can't wait to see what Hampton's going to send us next!

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, students reviewed the concept of Force and began to explore what it means to do work. The students used their data from the ramp activity last week to calculate the amount of work required to drag a 1 kg weight to the top of a ramp. Another exciting piece of technology rolled out this week as students began to use Google Docs, which provides students with the opportunity to create web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Every student was able to create their first TWTW Google Doc this week. This online document is the first of many more to come.

From Al: In Sports for the Mind, the game design apprentices in the Studiolab are continuing their work in their Game Design Journals, on their video games, and on their 'non-digital' games. Students have been introduced to our latest game design challenge: design a game called "Night at the Museum" based very loosely on the movie plot of the same title, where the player is trapped in the Museum of Natural History and the exhibits come alive. While much creative freedom is left to each student, the requirements of the assignment stipulate that their game is made up of the different spaces that we explored on our most recent field trip: the World of Birds, the Age of Reptiles, the Hall of Seal Life, etc. This assignment is a chance for the young designers to really concentrate on honing their skills by using certain enemy sprites to reflect the type of creature in each specific exhibit and to realize a depiction of the spaces as part of the design.

We have also begun serious play testing of our games and learning how to give positive feedback as well as constructive criticism. Most importantly, we are learning how to listen to the players of our game, and to use that information to make our games better (the design cycle). Use of design vocabulary is being practiced at this stage in our first attempts to internalize many of the concepts we have explored: rules, space, goals, and components. We are getting ready to work on the "Gamepedia"; a shared Google Document that defines vocabulary, explores concepts and sums of our collective understanding of what we have been "learning by doing".

After School: Mobo Studio continues to be an exciting time for kids in after school as they progress on their relationships and professional skills set with peers in each of the pods. Students are gaining first hand experiences that are amounting to real expertise in respective fields of work. This week, kids built on their sense of knowledge revolving around identity and characteristics as they grow into their roles of Comic artist, Fashion designers, Advertisers and Gaming researchers.

In Comics, Character and Creativity kids began the week by experimenting with waterproof India ink, creating a portrait of their ideal character, which they came up with in the previous week’s pod sessions. Later in the week, they created a full-page comic by writing, drawing and finalizing a comic script to go along. Students also continued working on creating their animated sequences to complement their script.

Mobile Fashion designers expanded their work as prototyping seamstress, tailors and pattern designers by incorporating the concept of “usability” to see how well their newly created products -semi coded clutch purses and txt scarves- function as wearable tech clothing. Students used n85 Nokia smart phones to document the production process within the pod by taping their creation and use of products while later making adjustments where fixes were needed. In this area of work, they have gained a real comfort with sewing machines and are now at a stage where they are able to trouble shoot with more ease.

In Generating Buzz! Kids progressed with their roles as market researchers by extending their content knowledge through written interviews and photos. Kids were given specialist insight to current video game ads while dissecting themes behind the creation of such games. They explored the different areas that make certain video games appealing to the consumers and discussed areas of interest within the gaming market. They will move forward with their consumer research by designing flash cards with answers to their interview questions, which will be used to investigate the industry in more depth.

Super Sleuth kids proceeded in their work within the pod by experimenting with a new Nintendo DS game in “Possible Worlds.” They advanced their previous week’s lesson on photosynthesis by comparing and contrasting what they learned against the process of artificial photosynthesis. While some kids were less in tune with the implications behind the game(s), they gained from their play-testing experience by being able to express in good detail the processes behind both photosynthesis and artificial photosynthesis.

Week of October 19-23, 2009
Dear Q2L families,
As you will see from the updates below, this has been another exciting week full of engaging academic experiences and opportunities to grow as a community! Participation by parents in the PTA elections and as chaperones on the trip this past week has highlighted the importance of parent involvement in the success of our school!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Rebecca and Arana: This was a very exciting week for Q2L students. Our trip to the Natural History Museum was a big success. Congratulations to everyone for doing a great job, and especially to Lara’s Home Base group for winning the museum scavenger hunt. Thank you to all the parents who joined us! This week each class also participated in an introductory session in SMALLab, our motion capture lab. Students will continue to work in SMALLab this trimester as part of the Codeworlds domain.

We also began our school-wide Reading Challenge. Students have been challenged to read 25 books this year. Each student has a daily book log to record their reading on—they should read for at least 30 minutes every night—as well as a log for them to record books they have completed. For each completed book, students will earn game pieces that they can add to a collaborative game the school will be building in Gamestar Mechanic, a digital game that students have been using in Sports for the Mind. Students may check out books from Ross’s classroom library, and they are also welcome to read books they have obtained outside of school. We are in the process of creating a recommended reading list for students, and we will be collecting gently used books to add to the library (more information on this to come at a later date). Students will begin doing silent reading as part of their annex periods each week, and the whole school will participate in DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) every Wednesday for 15 minutes. During this time our entire staff will be reading!

This week continues to be exciting, as Rebecca Stead, author of our summer reading book First Light, will be coming to our Monday morning meeting to speak to students and look at their summer projects.

From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds we began Quest 5: Mysterious Evidence is Estimated! We began our week by scanning page 44 of Professor Pie's favorite cookbook, which was given to us when we solved the last code for the first line of his Perfect Pie recipe. We discovered that the only words that made sense were "about" and "exactly," so we spent some time going through what each word means in a mathematical context. The twins had very different opinions about both words, but the apprentice codebreakers began to work with estimation, rounding and place value regarding these two "code" words. We also played one of Arithmus' favorite games, Number Blast. In the game, codebreakers worked in pairs to solve problems of adding and subtracting integers both with and without the help of a number line. We rounded out our week by reviewing multiplication and division of integers, with a few games as well. Students should be working on homework from Systemia and a multiplication/division of integers packet.

Next week, we look forward to playing more of the twins' favorite games to deepen our knowledge of estimation and place value. We will also be learning a new cipher, a key word cipher, which was revealed in our latest cookbook scan. Our work in estimation and rounding will help us greatly as we work to decode the next piece of the recipe from Professor Pie.

From Lara: This week in Wellness students began to explore their immediate environments. Pleku was really happy to have received our corrected journal pages, the photos of ourselves in our favorite balancing shapes, and our helpful-thinking cards. But Pleku is still having some trouble with finding the right place to practice. Students became architects for a day by looking around the domain spaces and noticing colors, shapes, textures and objects in the room. We discussed how the different spaces affect our ability to focus and what the criteria for our optimum focusing (for practicing) space would be.

The students also tried a couple of new focusing techniques: Everyone walked around the room to find a space where they could focus best, then wrote about or drew anything they wanted to for as long as the music played. When it was finished they wrote about why they chose that particular spot. Up in the gym, students continued their training in the athletic components of strength, flexibility, balance, endurance and teamwork, but we also warmed up by consciously breathing with our movement. Pleku told us more about how the Mind Balance Olympiad works and it sounds like maybe something we could try to do at Q2L...

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, students reviewed basic integer operations through practice in the classroom. They also watched as Tim and Moby (Brain POP cartoon characters) reviewed and explained the mathematical principles behind these operations. Afterwards students were introduced to a new tool, the Spring Scale, and given an opportunity to explore and examine it in order to determine its uses. The week concluded with students tinkering with a ramp that might help the Troggles get their houses onto the machine they've built. In order to figure out the optimal ramp for the Troggles, students tried out a variety of lengths for their ramps, as well as the corresponding amount of force required to pull a 1kg weight up to the top. This data was tabulated on their "Force" handout and will be analyzed in class when we explore work (W = f x d). Next week will mark the end of Quest III and students will again create a tutorial back to the troggles so that they can get back to work over in Troggleton.

From Al: The 'StudioLAB' (our name for the space where Sports for the Mind takes place) is buzzing with creativity as the game design apprentices are all working diligently in their Game Design Journals, on their video games, and on their 'non-digital' games.

Students are really gearing up for our Board Game Challenge which launched recently. While some students chose to 'fly solo', many are working in teams to create a board game of their own design. This is a long range project expected to finish by Thanksgiving with completed prototype board games, rules sets, game bits (pieces), cards, and more. Although the concept for the game may be based on an existing book, movie, or story, all student-created art, writing and design will be original.

We have made some time to play several of the student created board games from the "First Light" summer projects and have been learning much as part of the process; it is great to see these boards come to life as part of our investigations of game space and rules! We also take time for at least one student to play a digital game on the Smartboard to facilitate a feedback session or 'critique'.

Here's a quote from Christo, (a frequent visitor to our class):
"I loved seeing the examples of the students' games today in SFTM. And what a treat to see them participating in a critique; they were surprisingly serious and, well, grown up about it."

Next week, all game apprentices will be invited to contribute to "Gamepedia", our game design wiki.

From Ross: This week in BSP (Being, Space and Place), students used the writing process to begin revising their Ultimate Room essays. However, the big excitement came this week when we visited the American Museum of Natural History. Students used their map-making and navigational skills to play a scavenger hunt game in the museum. After a very successful and fun trip, students came back to the school where they skyped with Hampton Fancher, a writer and director who was so impressed with the student's map skills, that he has requested their help planning his new show.

After-School : This week, Mobo Studio proceeded with its Fall 2009 trimester as the kids in after school have settled into their studio settings with a real sense of professionalism. Young apprentices in Mobo Studio are learning about the identities and characteristics in a range of fields from designing personal comic characters, becoming real fashion designers, 21st century researchers and original game play-testers.

In Comics, kids learned the process for creating comics by exploring the procedures involved. The week began with exercises such as drawing a wide range of facial expressions that they later in the week used to create their ideal comics character (i.e. Slake Cooper- a sly and smart raccoon who avenges his enemies to restore order in the world) through a full out process of drawing with blue pencil, ink and then color.

Students became real designers in Mobile Fashion this week by creating from scratch: semi-coded clutch purses and txt scarves, integrating their use of smart phones while playing the role of prototyping seamstress, tailors and pattern designers. They learned how to design their own patterns from scratch by exploring the use of sewing machines with different cloth fabrics. The expectation for next week is to build up to a fashion show that will exhibit their newly created products.

In Generating Buzz! kids used 21st century skills sets to work on communication and presentation while offering feedback on their work as researchers and interviewers through their use of flip cams. They also used their roles as market researchers to create consumer profiles that will build on critical thinking and teamwork skills throughout the trimester.

This week in Super Sleuths, kids explored the game, Possible Worlds, where students got a chance to play firsthand the educational game designed by the Education Development Center. Students in the pod were given a brief lesson on photosynthesis in order to see how well the game could exemplify the process. Students will continue to refine the game in the weeks to come through critiquing skills as they will be looking at another new game in Possible Worlds dealing with artificial photosynthesis.

Week of October 12-16, 2009
Dear Q2L families,
Q2L began our recruitment of next year’s 6th graders with our first family tours this past Thursday. With tours at 10:30 and 1:30, we did our best to disturb classes as little as possible. Our kids were wonderful, continuing their work as if being observed by groups of strangers was nothing out of the ordinary! Thank you to parents who have already recommended us to your friends! We are also holding two special open house breakfasts on October 27 and 29 for elementary school guidance counselors and parent coordinators, to allow them to go back to their schools armed with first-hand information for the families of their 5th graders.

Hopefully everyone received the ‘backpack” reminders of our PTA meeting scheduled for this Monday night, October 19, at 6:30 pm, in the school cafeteria. The agenda items include voting on by laws, formally nominating and voting on officers, as well as a discussion of School Leadership Team (SLT). The proposed by laws are currently posted on the parent blog @ the Q2L website.

This Thursday, October 22nd, Q2L is taking a trip to Museum of Natural History as a part of Being, Space and Place, deepening our experience with maps, setting and geography. Thank you, Ross and Arana, for visiting the museum last weekend to plan this adventure so thoughtfully!

CURRICULUM UPDATES
From Alicia: This week in Codeworlds, we worked to finish the first line of Prof. Pie's Perfect Pie recipe, which was written in a code that tried our knowledge of order of operations and integers. We also received some materials that dealt with our case from Arithmus and Wordix. We examined a letter from Prof. Pie's niece, which revealed to us that he left a diary entry that might be of great importance, but there were many words that were very difficult to understand. So, we spent the majority of our week learning about and decoding vocabulary using context clues. We decoded the mystery words in Pie's diary entry and looked at other texts to work on our ability to detect context clues. In addition, some apprentice codebreakers worked with math puzzles for extra practice.

I have also started meeting one-on-one with students regarding their performance in Codeworlds in these areas: homework, staying SHARP (class rules), codebreaking, and behavior. They are receiving graded assignments with feedback, and we are discussing future goals for their ultimate success in Codeworlds. Next week, we will be working with estimation and rounding using our newly-honed analysis skills.

From Lara: This week in Wellness, students worked hard to complete all of the items on their checklist of helpful information that we will send to Pleku. First, students worked on correcting Pleku's journal page, which now looks like what we think her/his trainer meant for it to look like. Second, students created a card with advice about what Pleku should be thinking in order to balance longer. We discovered, by timing ourselves while thinking about various things, that sometimes what you are thinking can help you to balance for a longer time. We recorded this information on a training lab page that we also used in the gym. Third, students posed for photos of themselves balancing in the shapes that they thought would be best for balancing for a long time.

Next week, we are hoping that Pleku will write back to us with a picture of her/himself as well as with some answers to our questions about who he or she is and more about the Mind Balance Olympiad! We would like to know what the events are in the Olympiad and whether or not we can also compete. Until we find out, we are continuing to work on our components of athletic training in the gym, which we'll talk more about next week.

From Ameer: This week in The Way Things Work, Quest III began when the Troggles contacted the students yet again. The Troggles were thrilled to have received the video tutorials from the students, and after learning how to build their houses correctly, they immediately resumed construction. Though the Troggles were wholehearted in their efforts, they built all of the houses in Mirrorville – even though the mayor had asked them to construct the houses on top of Mount Rolli Hill! Being a resilient bunch, the Troggles decided they would build a machine to bring the houses up to the top of Mount Rolli Hill. The problem was that in their haste to fix things, they neglected to consider how they would carry the houses onto the machine. Thus, they have asked Q2L to help them figure out a solution to their latest dilemma. To get started, this week students were introduced to the Scientific Method and next week will explore the physical concepts around force,
effort and work.

From Ross: This week in Being, Space, and Place we used our Ultimate Room Maps to begin working on a personal essay entitled "My Ultimate Room." After reviewing the five steps of the writing process, we began to brainstorm ideas into organized sections. These ideas began to take shape as we wrote our first drafts. In the next week, we will continue to explore the writing process, differences between introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs, as well as continue to draft our papers. Additionally, this week we began to explore the globe and speak about it as professional geographers using hemispheres, latitude, and longitude as our vocabulary. What a week!

From Al: Students are in the middle of a "Mini-Game Jam!" This is our first chance to learn the protocol of giving and receiving proper feedback from play testers of our games. We are just beginning to use our new 17" Fujitsu laptops to enhance our use of Gamestar Mechanic in class. In addition, we are ready to get our board game designs into full swing. Students have just about completed their second "Domain Game" using Gamestar Mechanic and will begin to work on the third assignment, "The Birthday Game". For this assignment they are to design a game for a friend's birthday, with the idea being that the game concept will be reflected in the type of game play that is designed.

Afterschool: The Mobo Studio students settled into their pods this week and began to explore their new identities as designers, fashion professionals, comic artists and game reviewers. In Comics, Character and Creativity students worked with two different mentors and explored drawing in both digital and real-world realms. On Tuesday, students were introduced to the idea of character designs and produced an impressive range of drawings in just one afternoon. Later in the week, students were introduced to digital pens and tablets and prepared to animate their characters using Pencil. Building on their Code Worlds code-breaking skills, the Mobile Fashion podders examined their closets and de-coded their own personal style. In preparation for their assignment to design a line of T-shirts that function as a coded messaging system, the fashionistas were inspired by everyone from Chanel to Pucci. The Super Sleuths also came on the scene this week and began honing their critical-thinking skills by playing and testing games. The taste-makers in Generating Buzz also had a busy week, discussing color and the art of eye-catching design and completing a one-sketch-a-minute challenge to help them translate their ideas onto paper.

Week of October 5-9 , 2009
This week was filled with really important firsts for Q2L! Monday night almost forty parents met in the school cafeteria to develop the By Laws for our new PTA. Several parents invested hours of time in preparation and worked with a representative from the Office of Family Engagement, Rita McKnight, to make this meeting a very productive first step! The next PTA meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 19 at 6:30. We are looking forward to having every Q2L family represented!

Another successful first was Curriculum Night, Thursday night! Over a hundred very interested family members got to experience the deep instructional knowledge and passion of Arana Sapiro and Rebecca Ruffo-Teper, Q2L’s amazing Directors of Curriculum. Arana and Rebecca presented an overview of the Quest to Learn design, and the research-based, standards-driven Missions and Quests that have been fully engaged the minds and imaginations our students! Families followed their children’s schedules, meeting Home Base advisors and Domain teachers. There were a lot of “Ah - ha” moments as the Troggles, Pleku and Professor Pie were introduced in an academic context!

Mobo Studio, our after-school program, kicked off Monday. It was really exciting to walk in the different classrooms to see the kids completely immersed in their pod activities! Contact information for Will Moyet is included in the Relay below, for families who would like more information.