A quest is a journey toward a specific goal, or an arduous search.  A Whole New World is a class within the FlexQuest series, by Dr. Evans, which focuses on students' desires to thoroughly immerse into a subject and spend a longer time on creative projects and ideas.  The quest is the continuous journey for knowledge.  **This class is a flex class, so no live meetings.**

FlexQuest classes will focus on engaging enrichment activities purposefully chosen to stimulate minds, foster complex thinking, and nurture student potential.  They will also provide a platform that encourages a creative mind to wander where it has not yet explored.

A Whole New World takes students on a journey into space as they live at the International Space Station and work on a top-secret mission to create a new planet.  Students will combine their knowledge of space with new information and turn that into a creative explosion that results in a spectacular brand-new world.

The class interactions will include project based learning, discussion questions on the message board, class analysis and evaluation, personalized feedback, and performance assessments where students demonstrate and reflect upon their thinking.  Students will also have options of doing optional homework, commenting on other students' projects, video presentations and many other choices-based assignments.

There are NO live meetings for this class. The material will be posted weekly and you can view it during the week at your convenience. Each week for 6 weeks students will be guided through a variety of activities using either videos that I have pre-recorded, PowerPoint type slide decks or presentations via iMovie, or other educational choices.  My teaching style is best described as friendly, calm, and creative but also structured. 

Schedule for each week: 
Week 1- Introduction to the Space Mission
Learn about the project details, begin your Space Journal, and start working with your International Space Station teammates (classmates) on ideas to create a new habitable planet. Students will be asked to share their ideas with the teacher via the classroom or private message so specifics can be discussed. 

Week 2- The New Planet
Begin the preliminary design of the planet, including a focus on what the planet looks like from the outside.  Students will be asked to create their planet idea and strongly encouraged to share their project via video, slide presentation, or a different student choice. They will get personalized feedback from the teacher on their project share.   

Week 3- A Twist
The International Space Station Inter-Planetary Project Team will be given a twist and have to react on the spot to re-think the new planet's existence and details.  Students will take the new knowledge and synthesize it with their previous plans to develop a scientific blueprint.  Each student will share their ideas with the teacher and get personalized feedback.

Week 4- Travel to (New Planet's Name)
This week will feature students making a type of travel brochure to begin to illuminate the positives of this new planet.  Students will be expected to share their projects and to also interact and give positive feedback to teammates about their planets, and the teacher will also participate in the specific positive feedback.

Week 5-  Persuasive Powers
The planet scientists will use their persuasive powers to write an article, produce a movie, or do a different student choice project to convince other humans to leave Earth and come live on his/her planet. This week includes interaction with the teacher and classmates using some logic and thinking games.

Week 6-  Presenting the New Planets
Students will build a 3D model or small aspect from their planets and then present them in some manner (video, picture etc.) in the classroom.  Students will be given a rubric to make sure their model adheres to all of the rules and they will self-check to make sure their project fulfills the stipulations from the space station mission.  Students should remark on others' projects and will be asked to use a positive comment and creative idea scale to give feedback to their peers.  The teacher will also use the rubric to provide specific comments on the 3D project. This week will also include student reflection about how their skills have grown and which activities seemed to stretch their thinking.