If at First You Don’t Succeed… (Year 2, Week 33)

Imagine this… you are Elon Musk, a bold and courageous entrepreneur. You have risked your own money and the money of others, hoping to allow human life to live on other planets. In order to achieve this goal, it’s important that you can send rockets into space, and have them return safely — something experts have said is impossible. No one has ever had a rocket return to earth in one piece. Up to this point investors have given you millions of dollars so you could make this happen.

You build a brand new rocket and believe you have everything right so that it will return back to earth safely. You are both nervous and confident as the rocket makes its way back down to earth. You hold your breath as it approaches the ground…

As it gets closer to the ground you realize it’s going way too fast. The rocket explodes and your stomach sinks. You spend the rest of your investment on 3 more launches, all of which fail.

Do you raise more money for more launches (possibly losing more people’s money if you fail), or do you give up now so no one else loses money?

• “I would give up, I wouldn’t want to waste my money or anyone else’s money.”
• “I would keep going, if they are willing to keep giving me money I may as well keep trying.”
• “I would only keep going if I made a lot of progress in the ones that failed before. If it was failing for the same reason every time and I couldn’t fix it after 3 tries I would stop doing it.”

Speed and Velocity

This week the heroes explored the Speed and Velocity quest theme pitched by Jack. As part of his quest, he designed a challenge: The Team Car Challenge:

After separating the heroes into teams, Jack announced that the heroes who created the fastest car would win a prize. The heroes spent Wednesday researching, building and testing different car designs.

On Friday the teams faced off in a speed and distance competition.

• In the speed category the winning team was: Kai, Zane and Jack.
• In the distance category the winning team was: Tyler and Caden.

Studio Guest

The heroes have been working on skits as part of their Process Drama workshop this session. On Tuesday special guest Carrie visited the studio to watch their skits and give them feedback.

The first group on stage was Betsy, Olivia and Caden with Super Bad Villians. Next up was Liam, Cole, Tyler, Jack and Kai in Bamboo Bandits. The final play was Red Redemption by Canyon, Bryn and Jack.

Carrie shared feedback with the heroes after watching their skits and shared her Journey in the world of drama. After answering their questions Carrie announced the winning team: Betsy, Olivia and Caden!

Carrie shared some advice with the heroes including:

• Using props and costumes is a great way to communicate something to the audience without using words
• Use a loud speaking voice so the audience can understand you
• Prepare and practice as much as you can ahead of time
• Use dialogue to set the scene and let the audience know why characters are doing something

The heroes will be using Carrie’s feedback as they produce new skits for the exhibition.

Rules of Engagement

Last Friday, the heroes discussed which Rules of Engagement they felt needed the most work. They finished their discussion split between ‘Listen Respectfully’ and ‘Be Concise.’ Monday morning, they used mini-discussions to try out some strategies for being concise.

First, they tried limiting comments to 10 words or less. After trying this the heroes agreed this strategy did not make for a high quality discussion. Next, they tried limiting comments to 20 seconds or less while deciding how to spend the party money they earned last week.

The heroes discussed and agreed that 20 seconds was enough time to make a point and provide evidence without over-explaining or restating their point multiple times.

Wrapping Up

In the studio guides hold up a mirror, bringing areas that are less than excellent to the heroes attention. Watching them take ownership and tackle areas that are not excellent when given the chance is an inspiring experience. They truly are heroes capable of changing the world.