Explore the benefits of admitting when we don’t know something, and discuss the ways that curiosity and an open, inquiring mind can lead to adventures in thinking. Create a visual representation of this in the form of a cartoon critter.

Take a critical, but optimistic look at ways that even young thinkers can contribute solutions to problems in their school, their community, and beyond. Craft works of art in a variety of media that express ideas for improvement, and share and explain them with peers.

Get familiar with different media “languages” (e.g., images, sounds, graphics, and words). Think critically about the media we chose to tell a story, how media influence the stories we tell, and who our stories can reach. Tell one story in different ways, using a variety of media, and consider how this story might be told in the future.

Build an awareness of perception by considering how different creatures of different sizes (e.g., an ant, a mouse, a human child, an elephant) might perceive the same item. Develop a vocabulary to describe how these creatures might see a simple object (like a flower) and create a visual representation of that object from each creature’s perspective.

How do you tackle a big question, especially if it’s one with many different answers? Work together to analyze a challenging, but fascinating philosophical question, and come up with a variety of different answers.

Explore the role of courage in asking “big questions”. Research a great thinker who was willing to be brave, ask questions, and think carefully about possible answers, and whose ideas changed history.

Philosophy can be useful to so many people! Explore various jobs and activities that are made better by asking big questions. Get to know members of the community through the big ideas they use.

Learn to present ideas and opinions in a way that others will understand and appreciate. Examine the right and wrong way to make an argument by identifying common mistakes in reasoning, and develop strategies to correct them.

Understand that reflecting on our thoughts and actions can have positive consequences. Think critically about a choice that has been made recently and consider objectively what the consequences were and what they might have been if a different decision had been made. Identify possible errors in reasoning.

Anyone can be a great thinker if he or she is willing to be brave, ask questions, and think carefully about possible answers. Create a “Great Thinker” super-hero persona around a personal strength that is shared with great thinkers in history.

Everyone wants to live “the good life”, but what does that mean, and how do we do this? Explore the many different meanings of “the good life” and communicate a plan for achieving it by creating a written manual, poster, instructional video, poem, or song.

Create objects and artifacts from a story in which the line between reality and imagination is blurred, and talk about what is real and what is not real. Discuss the importance of things that are real, and the importance of the imagination, by investigating the way a story character understands the world.

Explore the difference between making decisions and having things decided for us, and identify the role our mind-body connection plays in our freedom.

Explore and think critically about various ways to define a “Good Leader”. Create a story board for a video game, or an adventure board game that follows one person’s “quest” to become a good leader.

Research what life was like for a woman of great power/influence who accomplished something unexpected in the time and place in which she lived. Make connections between the accomplishments of these great women and one's own personal goals.

Research what life was like for a philosopher who accomplished something that was unexpected in the time and place in which he or she lived. Understand that not all great thinkers lived in a time or place in which their ideas or actions were considered acceptable or important. Learn about how philosophers overcame these obstacles in order to accomplish great things. Make connections between the accomplishments of this philosopher and personal goals for intellectual achievement.

Great Thinker's Challenge:

Compare various notions of beauty by comparing different historical eras. Think critically about the difference between true beauty and passing fads, as well as the role originality plays in definitions of beauty. Begin to form a definition of the characteristics that make something beautiful.

Great Thinker's Challenge:

Make personal connections to beauty by contrasting two views of what “looks good.” Think critically about the role of personal taste and popularity in theories of art and beauty. Begin to form a definition of the characteristics that make something beautiful.

Make personal connections to beauty by identifying a beautiful place and representing it visually. Think critically about what makes this place beautiful and create a second representation of this place without those characteristics. Begin to form a definition of the characteristics that make something beautiful.

Examine how our senses can deceive us. Make connections between what our senses tell us and what is actually “out there”.