Launch
Students will launch the Heroic Choices project by testing first impressions about decisions and consequences, then begin analyzing how Odysseus’s choices can guide real middle school decision-making for younger students and families.
Days 1 - 2
🧭 Hero Reputation Lab
Launch 45m
📖 Odysseus Choice Case Notes
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
Research & Plan
Students will gather and organize user evidence from younger students and community partners, compare that evidence with patterns in Odysseus’s choices, and create a research-based empathy foundation for later design work. They will practice interview listening, evidence capture, assumption-checking, and collaborative sensemaking before moving into solution development.
Days 3 - 8
🎤 Interview Notes From Real Leaders
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
🧭 Odysseus Choice Tracker
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
👀 Sixth-Grade Needs Noticings
Community Experience 45m
🗂️ Empathy Map Evidence Wall
Research 45m
🔄 Alternative Paths for Odysseus
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
✍️ How Might We Problem Frame
Assessment 45m
Design & Iterate
Students will turn their Odyssey evidence and user research into a focused design brief, generate several possible toolkit directions, build and test low-fidelity prototypes, and complete feedback-driven revisions before moving into refinement.
Days 9 - 13
🧭 How Might We Design Brief
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
📝 Odyssey Choice Path Sketches
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
🗣️ Two-Peer Concept Critique
Deliverable 45m
🛠️ Paper Prototype User Test
Community Experience 45m
🔁 Revision Log and Prototype Gate
Assessment 45m
Refine & Present
Students will refine their Heroic Choices Toolkit section using targeted feedback, validate its clarity and usefulness with a representative audience, and prepare a concise stakeholder presentation that explains how evidence from The Odyssey, user research, and revision decisions shaped their final design.
Days 14 - 18
🧭 Leadership Lab success moves
Knowledge/Skill Building 35m
🛠️ Toolkit revision sprint
Project Work 45m
👥 Sixth-grade user test
Community Experience 45m
💬 Station critique carousel
Deliverable 45m
🎤 Stakeholder pitch checkpoint
Assessment 45m
Showcase
Students will facilitate their completed Heroic Choices Toolkit stations for authentic users, gather and interpret audience feedback, and complete a final evidence-based reflection on how their analysis, communication, revision, and decision-making developed across the project.
Days 19 - 20
🧭 Heroic Choices Leadership Lab
Assessment 45m
📝 Heroic Choices Compass Reflection
Deliverable 45m