Welcome to the first official week of the third session’s weekly newsletter!
This session’s Quest is biology, and we will be learning about cells, plants, animals, humans, and biomes while performing experiments and activities along the way. This week, we learned about both cells and plants. We learned about the differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, as well as the differences between plant and animal cells. We created our own cell games and presented them to either another Launchpad learner or a family member, performed a capillary action experiment, and answered questions such as, ‘What are the most important ways plant and animal cells are different?’ and ‘Are plants alive in the same way animals and humans are alive or not?’. On top of all that, we took A LOT of notes. We were very busy this week during Quest.
In Genre, we write our very own biographies of biology heroes. We will each pick a person in science who has made a significant impact in the field and write a piece about their life and accomplishments. This week, we chose the hero we will spend the rest of the session researching and writing about and learned which online resources are trustworthy vs. those that aren’t.
Civ this week was focused on the unification of China and trade routes connecting China to the Middle East and Europe. During discussions, we discussed the pros and cons of every decision and if they were more helpful or harmful to the people. One of the questions we enjoyed debating was:
Was Qin Shi Huang, who unified China, standardized its currency, law, and language, and built the Great Wall – as well as murdering many, a
Great man, who deserves to be admired?
An evil man who deserves to be vilified?
We are also trying something new with the House Cup during this session. Instead of playing games on Friday, like usual, we’ve decided to try core skills with our Houses one day a week, with a short game in between as our brain breaks. I would say that this was a success (at least with my House), and I know many people are looking forward to next week’s House core skills.
Overall, this was a very busy and exciting week in the Launchpad studio, which was full of learning. Thanks for reading!
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