Hello!

Week 1 in Review.

This week, your student was faced with a complex problem in the form of a game called Polis. In their first attempt at playing this game, 0% of teams were successful at reaching the goal.

Is that bad? No. It’s expected.

Before we can think strategically about a problem — regardless of whether the problem is in business, in medicine, or in a game — we need a baseline process:

1) find its shape ("What are we trying to solve?")

2) have a vision for a solution ("What’s the plan?")

3) set clear goals and coordinate actions ("Who’s doing what?")

As it turns out, kids are great at finding the shape of problems on their own. So we let them do it — all on their own.

"I have more understanding of the problem than I did when I started."

	Agree
	Disagree
	Neutral

Here's how your student responded:

"I have more understanding of the problem than I did when I started.": Disagree

We also analyzed how well teams made a plan and coordinated their actions. After all, a strategy only works if everyone knows who’s doing what.

Team Efficiency

This week, Synthesis teams used their available game pieces ("pops") 38% of the time.

Mabel, you used your pops to build structures 49% of the time.
How does it impact your team when your pops aren't actively building?

If you notice that some of your game data is missing or showing at 0%, it is because you have yet to attend and participate in recent Strategy Camp sessions.
We look forward to providing you with updated data as you attend future sessions.

In our final session of the week, we brought it full circle to the very first game they played.

Same map. Same constraints. This time, 43% of teams reached the goal.

The lesson? Strategic thinking means having a baseline mental process: 1) find the shape of the problem, 2) have a vision for a solution, and 3) set clear goals and coordinate actions.

But how do we do that? When we asked students, “Which of these skills was the most important for your team to find their way though confusion?", here’s what they said:

"Which of these skills was the most important for your team to find their way though confusion?"

	"Communicating clearly"
	"Keeping a positive attitude"
	"Not being afraid to lose"

Here’s what your student said: Keeping a positive attitude (encouraging each other).

Looking ahead.

Skills like these aren’t like a light switch. They’re more like a mental muscle, something that gets stronger with consistent practice. And that means there’s more work to be done next week.

Until then,
Synthesis