Benchmark Quest
Benchmark Quest is a learning experience using design thinking to address a real-world, personally meaningful problem. Students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.
Design THinking
The projects use the 6 steps of Benchmark's own design thinking process: wonder & connect, describe & clarify, imagine possibilities, share, design & create, reflect & revise, to guide students and help them develop the skills and mindsets to face the unknown challenges of the future, by providing an opportunity to employ the 4C’s: critical thinking, creative problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
Annual Benchmark Quests
Middle School students engage in a Benchmark Quest each year.
The projects are individual or small group and will provide students with the opportunity to bring together the skills and strategies they have learned in multiple classes while pursuing a real-world, personally meaningful problem.
The projects are student-led and reflect each student’s voice and choice. The projects will be scaffolded in ways appropriate to the age and grade level of the students.
Students will develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills (4 C’s) by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience.
The Middle School Quest themes are designed in a particular sequence:
- My World
- My Place in the Community
- Myself
This approach is consistent with the cognitive development of our students and allows for perspective-taking that culminates in more mature self-knowledge in the 8th grade year.
Projects developed during Middle School Quest will become part of each student’s year-end reflection and the final 8th grade portfolio.
6th Grade: My World
Students investigate one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and choose a goal to investigate in a small group and present ideas for helping with the problem to a panel and at the year-end Celebration of Accomplishments.
- Academic Goals
- Explore design thinking
- Explore integrated and project-based learning
- Explore academic choice and agency
- Explore executive function skills of planning and prioritizing, organization, and metacognition
- Individual Student Outcomes
- Group projects related to their design thinking solutions on a particular sustainability goal
- Group projects will demonstrate their understanding of the 4 C's
- Projects will vary, and all will include presentation materials delivered in person in front of an authentic audience
- Presentation materials will be showcased at the year-end Celebration of Accomplishments
7th Grade: My Place in the COmmunity
Students learn about themselves in their community, choose a problem to investigate, develop ideas for helping with the problem, and display their ideas at the year-end Celebration of Accomplishments.
- Academic Goals
- Experiment with design thinking
- Experiment with integrated and project-based learning
- Experiment with academic choice and agency
- Next level of experimentation with executive function skills of working memory, task initiation, response inhibition, time management, planning and prioritizing, organization, goal-directed persistence, and metacognition
- Individual Student Outcomes
- Group projects related to their design thinking solutions that demonstrate awareness of their role in the community and their particular identity
- Group projects will demonstrate their understanding of the 4 C's
- Projects will vary, and all will include presentation materials that will be showcased at the year-end Celebration of Accomplishments.
8th Grade: Myself
Students will pursue a passion project, investigating their passion and presenting the outcomes of their research and design thinking at graduation, along with their portfolios that will demonstrate their growth as students and individuals throughout their school years.
- Academic Goals
- Implement design thinking
- Implement integrated and project-based learning
- Implement personal choice and responsibility in learning
- Next level of implementation with executive function skills of working memory, task initiation, response inhibition, time management, planning and prioritizing, flexibility, organization, goal-directed persistence, and metacognition
- Individual Student Outcomes
- Individual passion projects allow for experimental learning based on a student's unique interests and personality
- Individual projects demonstrate their understanding of the 4 C's
- Projects will vary. Some may require the use of design thinking, and all will require a proposal and student-initiated goals
- All students will make a presentation at graduation