Weekly Update #3

We have had an amazing three weeks at DECATS! Thank you for allowing us to work with your kids this summer. We look forward to more fun next year!

Scholars continued to take their 3D marble mazes to new heights—literally! They added more twisty funnels, swirling bowls, and clever pathways, all in a race to keep their marbles rolling as long as possible. The taller and trickier, the better! In just three weeks, scholars have leveled up their engineering and critical thinking skills with every challenge.

Students are using problem solving skills to engineer and improve their catapults in order to complete levels created by them or their peers.

This week in Brain Teasers, we created our very own escape rooms with a haunted house twist! Students designed original puzzles including riddles, rebus challenges, hink pinks, and logic games. Their creativity and spooky storytelling brought each escape room to life!

Scholars in Challenge Accepted created and tested their own challenges from a choice board of options.

Our final week had coding scholars presenting their own coding project with the class on our big screen! The purpose was to create an innovative product or idea and use storytelling to pitch it. They showed off their creative and critical thinking skills in sophisticated products that could be helpful in school next year.

Scholars design and build a hidden basement in Minecraft .

This week, students created and solved their own mysteries. They created crime scene dioramas, incorporating types of evidence studied the previous week.

This week in Dream House, scholars brought their visions to life by building 3D models of their custom floor plans! They decked out their designs with everything from cozy interiors to eye-catching exteriors. Some even got extra creative, adding handmade furniture to give their dream homes a personal touch.

This week in Broadway, we prepared two plays—Stone Soup and A Sea Change in the Forest—for performance at the DECATS Community Theater. It was a full team effort, with students taking on roles in casting, prop-making, stage management, and line rehearsal. Curtains up!

This week the students had a lot of fun with all the activities. On Monday we went over divinations, and they got to use fortune cookies and Chinese miracle fish to find out their fortunes and “destinies.” Tuesday we shifted to tunes and anagrams where they created an anagram with their name like how Tom Marvolo Riddle is now I am Lord Voldemort. They also then could translate a song back and forth until it didn’t make sense, write their name in Morse code, or hieroglyphics. It really got fun on Wednesday and Thursday when it was potions class! They made their lava lamps with oil and water, slime, and dry ice bubbles. Lastly, Friday was the last Hogwarts game day!

This week students continued modifying their Lego driving bases, adding new sensors and tinkering with the code.

Scholars in the Olympics class were treated to a special visit by former Olympian and Silver Medalist, Bernice Orwig. She competed with the US women's water polo team in the the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The highlight of our week in Once Upon a STEM was getting to choose our own fairy tale, character, problem, and solution for our final engineer challenge. Our engineering skills were put to the test with the added challenge of incorporating a chain reaction with more than three steps, at least two simple machines or a sophisticated product that could move more than three feet unassisted.

This week was particularly fun for the students. On Monday and Tuesday they learned about castles and all the components to them and then got to build their own! They incorporated all the different features like the keep, parapets, inner and outer bailey, and a drawbridge. On the second half of Tuesday and then Wednesday, each student created their own trebuchet and sieged each other's castles. Thursday, they picked out historical figures from the Middle Ages and made a presentation that would be presented on Friday. Friday they had a feast where they ate like how it was done in the Middle Ages with no utensils!

Athletes use creative skills to design their own jerseys, preparing for the world cup tournament!

Follow the Advanced Academics page on Facebook for pictures.