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Author: Laurietta Goosen (Deputy Principal)

What do our students fear most?

We have found that they fear academic failure, they fear disappointing their parents, and they fear disappointing their teachers. Our hope is that our students eventually fear what they should: the disappointment of not reaching the potential they believe they are capable of achieving.

At Assumption Convent School, we prioritise fear-free learning as an essential tool for setting our students up for sustained academic success and personal growth.

What is fear-free learning?

Fear-free learning involves creating an educational environment where students feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them. Although teachers endeavour to ensure that their classrooms are always considered safe spaces for learning to take place, the constant need for formal assessments often hinders these good intentions. It is imperative to offer students a learning experience where the outcomes are not measured in percentages and symbols but focuses on experiential and cooperative learning, teamwork, effective communication and having fun. Formal assessment and the collection of marks need to be put on the backburner to make room for authentic learning and for building our students’ confidence.

Introducing the ACS Space Camp

Our solution was to introduce the ACS Space Camp programme which would achieve all of these outcomes. This initiative was spearheaded by Delia Kench - Owner FunWorks, Founder TeacherWorks, Honeywell Educators@Space Camp Ambassador, and ACS HOD IT. We started off with our first ACS Space Camp in 2021, and it has become a permanent fixture on our calendar.

How ACS Space Camp works

To offer an immersive, rich experience, it was also important for us to allow students enough time to fully engage with the tasks presented and to give them ample opportunity for iteration—giving them space to develop their ideas, try different solutions, and become more confident in their own voice. Space Camp runs over five days and each activity is given a minimum of 90 minutes to complete. This approach encourages students to engage fully in the learning process, fostering creativity and resilience.

Hands-on STEM experiences

ACS Space Camp offers all-encompassing experiences that inspire young minds through hands-on learning and real-world applications of STEM concepts. Students engage in a variety of activities, including building bottle and matchstick rockets, simulating communication in space, working with grapple fixtures, exploring Mars rovers, creating holograms, building heat shields, finding ways to land on an asteroid, and simulating the repair of the Hubble Telescope in a zero-gravity environment.

These activities are designed to be both educational and fun, emphasising teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking. The environment at Space Camp encourages exploration and risk-taking, with facilitators providing guidance and encouragement. This year, we were honoured to host two international facilitators who assisted us with our Space Camp programme: Diana Phillips - CEO Science Yourself! No G’s about it!, STEM/Aerospace Educator, Canada, and Jackie Carpenter - Founder One Giant Leap Australia.

Pushing beyond boundaries without fear of failure

The supportive atmosphere at Space Camp allows our students to push beyond their boundaries without fear of failure. In fact, failure is encouraged and celebrated during this process. Students are expected to deal with scenarios that are, literally, out of this world and outside of their own frame of reference—students gain a sense of accomplishment and self-assurance, despite experiencing continuous failure in an attempt to come up with workable solutions to the problems presented to them. This experience is especially valuable as it instils confidence and a growth mindset. Confidence, coupled with a growth mindset, is key to ensuring future academic success when faced with challenges during formal assessments.

Inspiring curiosity and teamwork

The exploratory nature of the Space Camp learning experience fosters curiosity. Students are encouraged to ask questions, experiment, and innovate. This curiosity-driven approach helps ignite a passion for learning that extends beyond the timeline of the Space Camp programme.

Through collaborative activities, Space Camp emphasises the importance of teamwork and leadership. Our students learn to communicate effectively, delegate tasks, and support one another—skills that are essential both in and out of the classroom.

Student feedback on Space Camp

The feedback received from the students underscores the need to prioritise fear-free learning activities:

"Space Camp was fun, creative, and inspiring."

"Making mistakes was part of the fun. I want to do it again.”

"I learned skills that I know I am going to use again after school.”

Inspired by alumni who have followed STEM-related fields

Not only did our current students benefit from the camp, but it also created an opportunity for ACS alumni to give back to their alma mater by offering their time to assist with the camp. It was inspiring to our Grade 8 students to engage with alumni who chose to follow STEM-related fields of study after school such as Astrophysics and Computer Science. The alumni were so excited by the confidence and skills students gained at Space Camp as it has the potential to translate to more students wanting to follow STEM-related studies after school.

Sharing best practices with other schools

In a collaborative effort to inspire more schools to introduce similar initiatives, we invited educators from other schools to join us at Space Camp in 2024. The aim was to showcase the benefits of Space Camp and to encourage them to promote fear-free and engaging learning environments.

Conclusion: empowering students through fear-free learning

In summary, Space Camp provides a transformative educational experience that empowers our students through exploration and fosters a fear-free learning environment. As experiential learning opportunities continue to gain recognition, Space Camp stands out as a shining example of how fear-free learning can empower the next generation of leaders and innovators.

I encourage all schools to consider the value of experiential learning opportunities like Space Camp for their students. Let us empower our students to explore, experiment, and learn, and fail forward.

What do schools need to be able to offer these types of experiences for their students? You will need fearless teachers who are willing to engage and commit fully to the process, fearless parents who believe in the academic vision of the school, and, most importantly, fearless school leaders who support innovation and who have a deep understanding of the value of building confidence in their students to ensure they have the best possible opportunity to believe in and reach the pinnacle of their own potential.

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