Braving the Wilderness

Serendipity is a wonderful thing.

Late last year I found myself struggling with what it means to belong. How can you be true to yourself and still be part of a community? On the drive home one evening, I happened to tune the radio to NPR and heard an interview with social scientist Brene Brown on that very question. Turns out she had done years of research on the idea of belonging and had recently published a book titled Braving the Wilderness - The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone (click here to learn more about the book)

Like her other books, this one is amazing. Her ideas are challenging and inspiring. And just what I needed.

As we embark on this business venture adventure together, it is critical that we are able to have courageous conversations, we are able to share our ideas and disagree without being judged and we are able to work together as a community where everyone feels like they belong.

Today we read excerpts from Brene Brown's book and reflected on the differences between "belonging" and "fitting in". The top image to the right shows student thoughts from our class. The bottom image is the result of Brene's research "asking a large group of eighth graders (to explain) the difference between belonging and fitting in". You can see that our responses mirror her research almost exactly.

We will continue to work on creating a space where everyone feels like they belong.

Properties of Water

Today we began our investigation into the properties of water. Our first investigation was to see how many drops of water fit on a penny. It surprised us that we could drop between 50-60 drops before the water spilled over. This property is called surface tension. Next step is to use this property to help explain real-life situations.