Week 14 (2017) – Launching the Detective Science Quest

The beginning of the year is a time of fresh beginnings, reflection on the past, and goal setting. This week has been all of the above. As we returned from break on Monday, a new hero, Beckett, joined our community. The other heroes welcomed him right in, and they have been enjoying his presence and what it brings to the studio.

In addition to welcoming Beckett on Monday, our heroes spent some time sharing what they did over Christmas break, reflecting on their Hero’s Journeys so far, and setting new session goals (goals they want to accomplish over the next 5 1/2 weeks). A few of our heroes have progressed very quickly through their goals so far, and we are encouraging them to keep excelling! We are also encouraging our heroes to take goal setting very seriously. It is simple to set a goal, but persevering and actually accomplishing it can be challenging. We are encouraging everyone to not just start something fresh, but to finish it to the end!

Tracking goals in our new Goal Tracking Binders has been a helpful tool for our heroes in learning to share their progress. These binders can be shared at any time-so if you are ever curious about your hero’s progress, I encourage you to ask him/her to share it with you!

Speaking of sharing, I’m sure your hero has shared that…A COOKIE THIEF HAS ESCAPED JOURNEY ACADEMY!!! As we launched our Detective Science Quest this week, our heroes learned that someone stole the Christmas cookies from the cookie jar over Christmas break. All that was left was a  half eaten cookie, some clothing articles, a recipe, a footprint, and some fingerprints. Throughout this next quest, our heroes will be setting up scientific experiments to collect evidence, learning about DNA, understanding the basics of law, reading mystery books, and will end by creating a visual of their experiences that they will share at our next exhibition. This is the most academically challenging quest our heroes will undertake so far, but everyone is up for the task!

A few of our Discussions this week have included:

1. Which area of forensics are you MOST interested in? Field forensics, laboratory forensics, or medical forensics?
2. Is it better to give grace to the person who commits a crime, or to prosecute? How does this look in the studio? Is it better to give someone grace in the studio, or call him/her out for violating our hero’s contract?
3. Is there a difference between setting a goal and accomplishing it?
4. What do you do with freedom: Do you use it for your pleasure, or do you challenge yourself to grow? Would you rather have a comfortable life, or a challenging life?
5. What kind of atmosphere do you want to have at Journey Academy? How will you help to create it?
6. What does it mean to show goodness? What are some ways that your parents show goodness to you? What are some ways that God shows his goodness? How can we show this fruit of the spirit in everyday life? (We are challenging each other to memorize Galatians 6:10).
7. Does giving someone a consequence for their actions mean that you are not being good to him/her?
8. What are some foods that you love to eat? Now that you have tasted that food, would you ever want to go back to drinking out of a bottle? What do you think it means when King David says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good?” (Psalm 34:8)