Boss Level Challenge I

For the past week, the Quest to Learn community has been participating in "boss levels," a concept inspired by video game boss levels in which players harness hard-won tools and skills to face an epic challenge. At Q2L, boss levels are a two-week intensive period in which students and teachers work collaboratively on a capstone project that integrates the skills, content, resources and experiences acquired during the previous 10 weeks of the trimester.

Building on the trimester's focus on the relationships between the different elements of a system, the inaugural boss level challenge is for students to build Rube Goldberg machines or complicated machines that accomplish simple tasks. Each team of 8-10 students is charged with building a different machine that will be judged according to their performance, appearance, creativity and use of materials. Some of the assignments include creating a machine to: feed a turtle, turn off a light switch, press play on a CD player, turn on a faucet, hit the spacebar on a keyboard and turn on a power strip. While students build in small teams each morning, in the afternoons they reflect on their practice—writing scripts, documenting their work, and creating video podcasts.

To see and hear the daily reports from the frontlines of the Q2L boss levels, check-out our archive or subscribe to the Quest to Learn (Q2L) Boss Level podcast!