By Vismai N.
If you’ve never heard about what Synthesis School is, let me tell you. It is chaos. Synthesis School is an extracurricular program that teaches us kids important skills, such as communicating effectively and learning how to figure out how things work before someone tells you. Synthesis has created many complex games and simulations, and they don’t tell us how it works. We have to figure out that part ourselves. When we enter the session, they send us into the breakout room and give us some time (around 1 minute) to strategize with our team made up of other students. When playing the games, we’re very confused. We don’t know how to score points and even play, but we figure it out in the end. At the end of the game, we head back into the main room and share our strategies and knowledge about the game. Usually, we play around 3 games. We play a new game every month, so the value doesn’t fade away over time. Some of the names of the games that we play are called Constellation, Proxima, Constellation 3D, Hollywood, Fish, Fire, Art For All, and GeoBridge. Synthesis was created by Josh Dahn, who was inspired by the “Synthesis” class in an experimental school that Elon Musk founded, Ad Astra. Synthesis even has free extra classes that you can take. Some of the principles synthesis teaches us are the five axioms ( Embrace the chaos, test your assumptions, seek good explanations, expect course corrections, contribute to the good), and the four qualities (Grasp, Voice, Ownership, and Flow. Synthesis teaches us how to be confident and how to speak with intention. It teaches us how to grasp things that we don’t know. It teaches us how to work together. It teaches us to leave perfectionism behind and how to work with the resources that we have. I would definitely recommend Synthesis School. Here are some reviews about Synthesis School from their website.
“My son is expressing complex economics, complex business decisions. I have seen him grow dramatically in his capabilities to operate in a group setting as a result of the games at Synthesis. No question.”-Kent Langley
“We’ve had really good experiences. I’ve noticed recently the way that my son interacts with adults is more confident. He’s more willing to express himself. He feels safe in this environment to be who he is.”-Julz McGuire
“When they go to play that game, they’re free to think. Yes, still there’s a framework, but nobody is saying ‘Hey, by the end of this session, if you don’t connect 50 dots, then you’re wrong.’ That stifles the spark.”-Subhakanta Nanda
Here are some videos about Synnthesis.
Here are the links mentioned in the paragraphs above!
If you have more questions about synthesis school, it might be a good idea to visit Synthesis’ website. If you’d like a tiny taste of Synthesis School, it would be a great idea to visit the conundrums website. You can visit Synthesis’ YouTube channel by clicking “More synthesis videos”. Lastly, if you want more form this website, you can visit our home page or parents’ portal.
Here is something AMAZING that the Synthesis Students of cohort 4780 Made! It’s an actual web public version of a synthesis game! Special thanks to synthesis student Sandeep S for creating the project.