What is Quest?
Quest Time at Olivewood is designed to teach Eagles how to work together in groups and strengthen their 21st-century skills, known as the 4 C’s — Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking. During Quest, Eagles are challenged through a variety of engaging, hands-on topics and projects that encourage them to ask questions, explore ideas, and solve problems as a team. Each Quest focuses on a real-world theme that sparks curiosity and imagination, giving Eagles a chance to take ownership of their learning while practicing how to share ideas respectfully, listen to others, and compromise when needed.
The main goal of Quest Time isn’t just for Eagles to learn about the specific topic—though that knowledge is valuable—it’s really about helping them grow as teammates. By working through challenges together, they learn how to communicate clearly, think creatively, and persevere through obstacles. Quest Time helps students discover their strengths, develop leadership qualities, and understand the importance of contributing positively to a group. Over time, they build confidence in their ability to collaborate, innovate, and solve problems, preparing them to be thoughtful, capable leaders in any situation.
What are the Four C’s?
At OliveWood, we stress the importance of 21st century skills known as the 4Cs—collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. These skills help us handle challenges, work with others, and come up with new ideas.
Collaboration means working well with other people. It involves listening, sharing ideas, and helping the group reach a common goal. When people collaborate, they can combine their strengths and accomplish more than they could alone.
Creativity is the ability to think of new ideas and look at things in different ways. It’s not just about art—it’s about problem-solving and being open to new possibilities. Creativity helps us come up with fresh solutions when old ones don’t work.
Critical thinking is using logic and reasoning to make good decisions. It means asking questions, examining information carefully, and not believing something just because it’s easy or popular. Critical thinkers are better at solving problems because they understand situations more deeply.
Communication is sharing ideas clearly, whether through speaking, writing, or listening. Good communication helps people understand each other and prevents confusion. It also makes collaboration easier because everyone stays on the same page.
Overall, the 4Cs prepare us for real-life situations by helping us work with others, think clearly, and express ourselves. These skills are essential for becoming responsible, capable, and successful today and in the future.
The Oceans Quest:
This quest was designed around the issues that are threatening oceans. The primary goal for students was to follow the Design Process in researching the specific needs to address the problem. The Eagles researched ocean animals and how people use our oceans. Eagles explored threats to our oceans and used the design process to address a problem facing oceans today. After each group created and tested a solution to a problem involving oceans, they designed and tested a solution, tested its effectiveness, improved the design, and presented it to the Ocean Advisory Board (guides).
The Middle Ages Quest:
This quest was written with the primary focus of developing challenges that encourage critical thinking and collaborative problem solving. Eagles in each studio created a Coat of Arms, explored castles and ;earned about daily life including the feudal system and warfare to design and develop a model of a museum exhibit to educate others about this period in history.
Older students chose between creating an engaging experience for younger students to extend their learning about the Middle Ages or designed a model of castles using technology and researched a specific topic about the Medieval Times.
The Escape Rooms Quest:
Students stepped into the world of codes, clues, and mystery as they explored, practiced, and applied 21st-century learning skills during the Escape Room Quest. Armed with the Design Process, they transformed their ideas into fully immersive escape room experiences that challenged peers and parents to think fast, communicate clearly, and work together under pressure.
Each group crafted puzzles, storylines, and hidden surprises designed to pull visitors into the adventure. As challengers entered the rooms, they had to rely on critical thinking to decipher clues, collaboration to combine strengths, communication to share discoveries, and creativity to look at problems from unexpected angles.
The Escape Room Quest turned learning into an exciting mission—full of mystery, teamwork, and “aha!” moments—showing just how powerful hands-on problem-solving can be when students take the lead.
The Nature’s Engineers Quest:
During this Quest, Eagles explored an engaging real-world problem centered around how beavers were affecting the flow of water in a connected chain of lakes. They began by studying how beaver dams work, what role beavers play in the ecosystem, and how their natural behaviors can sometimes cause challenges for human environments. Eagles discussed how dams can both help and harm the land, learning about water flow, erosion, and environmental balance.
Their main challenge was to design and build a dam prototype that would demonstrate how to manage the water flow while also protecting the beavers and their habitat. Once their dams were complete, they faced the next step of the challenge—figuring out how to unclog the dam in a safe, effective way, and then creating a long-term solution to prevent the beavers from blocking it up again. This pushed Eagles to think critically and creatively about humane, sustainable solutions that respected nature.
Eagles worked in small groups of two, three, or four, collaborating closely and practicing the 4 C’s—Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking—through every stage of the project. They brainstormed ideas, sketched designs, tested materials, and reflected on what worked and what didn’t. Throughout the process, they learned the importance of teamwork, problem-solving, and perseverance when things didn’t go as planned. At the end of the Quest, each group presented their working prototype at Celebration of Learning, sharing their innovative designs and explaining how their solutions balanced human needs with care for the environment.