Explore Year 5. Session 3. Week 3.
Explorers entered the last week of Session 3 focused on their math goals and eager to complete the Cartography Quest and reach their final destination!
DEEP DIVE: QUEST
The learners in Explore embarked on a Cartography Quest and traveled to all 7 continents using maps. They researched a country from each continent to complete World FactBook packets with information about a country. Explore’s Exhibition for this quest was in the form of a trip. To celebrate their hard work on this quest, they took a trip off campus. The location of their trip was a mystery for them to solve! For each entry into their World FactBooks, they earned a clue. At the end of the quest, they put their clues together and mapped their way to the destination: Bartholomew Park.
Explorers became cartographers and created their own map of a continent of their choice which included each country’s capital, other important cities, major landmarks, bodies of water, a key and compass rose and any other details that are important to the history of the continent, or that are particularly interesting to them.
Learners in Explore solved puzzles by reading coordinates.
Explorers uncovered the globalized world they live in through investigating their own global footprints. They looked at the tags on their clothes to see where the things they were wearing were made and how far things had to travel to get to them!
The learners in Explore shared whether they would have joined Magellan or Lewis and Clark on their daring expeditions and participated in many enriching discussions. They considered current events from places around the world and what they would do if they lived in those places. Explorers compared and questioned the differences between different world maps and imagined what they would do if they were cartographers. They considered the nature of artificial borders and their meanings. Explorers reflected on their own identities within borders; as Austinites, Texans, Americans, and whether other things, like their character traits, are part of their identities.
The learners in Explorer concluded their trip around the world through cartography on Friday, mapped their way to their final destination, and enjoyed their time at Bartholomew Park!
TRADITIONS: NEW & OLD
The learners in Explore joined Discovery and Spark in an end-of-session talent show! They shared their talents and supported other performers as an engaged audience. Explorers ended the last day of Session 3 with the cherished Ascent tradition of a secret book exchange. They joyfully unwrapped the books and guessed who had given it to them, then enjoyed quiet reading time with their new books.
For more from Session 3 Week 3, click here: Explore Session 3, Week 3 photos & videos