Launchpad in Session Three has featured two major initiatives, an introduction to the Mock Trial Competition and a Negotiating Quest.

Award winning Mock Trial Coach Karen Reynolds is helping LP Eagles begin a two month sprint towards a late January competition with hands-on, in person coaching.

In the Negotiations Quest, Launchpadders devoured a series of DVD lectures by world class negotiator Herb Cohen, preparing for a series of role plays that moved from simple distributive negotiations to complex multi-party win-win scenarios.

As Launchpadders moved between two such different learning experiences, they experimented with six different note taking methods, from the Cornell method to Outlining to Mind Mapping.

Having two intense but different approaches to prepare for hands on challenges gave us the chance to explore which approach to learning works best.   So for a Genre Project, each LP Eagle tackled a “compare and contrast” paper to explore which method packed as much learning as possible, in the least amount of time, in the most enjoyable way, for the lowest possible cost.

Which approach worked best?    We won’t spoil the surprise, but will leave it for parents to discover, as they compare this session’s Genre piece to earlier writing work, to see just how far Launchpadders have come in their analytical and communication skills.