Smashing Pumpkins has never been so engaging, as the discoveries that were made by our KSL Academy Scholars (K-3rd Grade) in early October. Our Kids Science Labs Academy offers students a nearly 2 hour hands-on science experience, bi-monthly, where they engage in Design Thinking and Build Confidence in approaching everyday problems with the grit required for long-term outperformance. Each session builds not only awesome passion for hands-on science, but the developmental skills required for long-term outperformance.
To help provide the right environment for our students at KSL Academy, each session attendee receives an Innovation Box on their first day, along with an Innovation Passport that is their ticket for discovering each hands-on science concept. This way students can collect all twelve core science concepts over the academic year, and also provide parents with additional discounts for KSL Academy Scholars who are continuing their experience at Kids Science Labs throughout the year. .
Developing problem solving skills at KSL Academy requires exposing our scholars to three basic principles that they can practice when they encounter challenging problems: (1) Don't Give Up (2) Think of a Range of Possibilities, without Limitation [ Ideate] and (3) Choosing the Best Option Available and Iterate to make it better. We practiced this in our first class session by asking our students to try to build enough mass and swing it fast enough to apply a Force [ F = mass x change in speed] that can burst a blueberry or even a pumpkin. After 12 years of doing Kids Science Labs, we poured the best parts of our program into a design thinking envelope to bring the best out of our students every other Saturday in KSL Academy.
Of Course, we then had to smash some pumpkins and demonstrate that Force does in fact equal the mass of an object, multiplied by how fast it is thrown (or acceleration although we did not use this word). You can view the KSL Academy Experience directly from our blog prior to returning to the next session, by clicking this private link. To register for any future session of KSL Academy, you can use this chat link M-F 9am-6pm -