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The reasons to choose Silverquicken for your school, district, or family all center on your kids. What will truly inspire them? What will challenge them and help them grow? What will bring them together?
As you explore our offerings, keep coming back to these questions. We believe that Silverquicken has strong answers for them.
Throughout our programs and in everything we do, Silverquicken strives to embody three mutually reinforcing principles. These principles are supported by a great deal of research about the power of fun, rigor, and community.
Putting it simply, in Silverquicken we have fun tackling hard challenges together.
The fun draws kids in and keeps them motivated. The rigor challenges kids to adapt and learn. And the result is a community of Solvers, Creators, and Leaders, who can solve complex problems in creative and collaborative ways.
How do we do what we do?
We empower teachers to deliver our offerings in ways that inspire and support their students. Our programs are easy to implement with comprehensive instructor guides and lesson plans, and our materials help teachers transform their classrooms into the magical world of Silverquicken. Our focus on expert questioning and empathetic coaching helps teachers transfer new skills to other parts of their practice.
At the end of our sessions, we often hear kids say “It’s over?” They’re both amazed and sad at how fast the time flew. In Silverquicken, kids embark on quests within a world that they don’t want to leave.
Our activities cover a wide range of types, from brain-stumping puzzles to group engineering challenges to self-discovery exercises around modes of thinking. But they all share one thing in common: they’re extremely fun for kids.
Even the self-discovery exercises aren’t boring surveys or worksheets. Instead, after reflecting on how they approached a task, kids select different colored beads to represent their unique way of thinking. By always making sure our activities are fun, we invite kids to drop their guard, participate fully, and take safe risks, all in service of their intellectual and social growth.
In addition, our puzzles and games are all solvable by hard thinking and good teamwork. They don’t rely on unfair traps or “gotchas.” Instead, we seek to reinforce excellent thought processes (e.g., the scientific method) and positive collaboration. Underneath the hood, there is always a worthwhile lesson, backed by solid research about how kids think, learn, and grow.
Our activities draw on a wide range of fascinating topics from a variety of disciplines. By its very nature, Silverquicken awakens the curiosity and wonder that should be part of learning but are so often lost amidst the standards, assessments, and grades that are a necessary (but often overwhelming) part of our educational framework today.
At Silverquicken, we don’t teach with a final exam in mind. Rather, we seek to expose students to a variety of real—and unusual—concepts in math, science, language arts, philosophy, and other subject areas that they would not likely otherwise encounter in “regular” K-12 school. The purpose is to awaken our students to how interesting learning can be, and how much there is to learn, even outside of the areas they are required to study in school! Our goal is for every student to find a “spark” and explore that topic further on their own.
Of course, the skills and mindsets developed through Silverquicken—particularly around comfort with discomfort—will help students in many traditional school subjects and activities. For instance, the math sections of common standardized tests (such as the SAT and ACT) jump from topic to topic. Generalized problem-solving methods, such as we teach in Silverquicken, prepare students for the uncomfortable “jump-around” aspect of standardized tests, which is not developed through typically siloed, sequential curricula.
The fictional story of the Silverquicken School is one of ten kids from all across the country who attend an online after-school program that’s really in a shared world of dreams. Together, the fictional kids learn to work in teams to solve puzzles and crack mysteries—just like the real-life kids!
The magical world of Silverquicken is designed to welcome every child. In the fictional story, every kid has the power to become a Solver, a Dreamer, and a Leader: in other words, a hero who can change the world. In this way, we help our real-life students realize that they have the same power.
Historically, kids in all cultures learned through stories. We are explicitly tapping into the ancient power of stories in the world of Silverquicken, where all kids can find a safe place to belong, stretching their abilities and growing into their potential.
Silverquicken is inspiring to kids; as a result, it’s inspiring to teachers as well. We hear constantly from our partner teachers how much they enjoy bringing Silverquicken to their students. We have designed our orientation and training materials to immerse teachers in the world and help them, as new Silverquicken “mentors,” bring the story to life for their students.
Even veteran teachers tell us how much they learn from our initial training and ongoing guidance. At Silverquicken, we highly value the art of questioning and train our teachers to ask focused (but not leading) questions, inviting students into concentrated thought. The goal is to empower students to ask their own questions as they tackle mysteries.
We also help teachers get better at guiding teams toward productive struggle. They learn to interleave tension-raising and tension-resolving moments, leading their students to overcome difficult challenges. As empathetic coaches, we help them create a warm, welcoming experience for all students, and provide guidance to keep connecting, motivating, and inspiring their students throughout their time with Silverquicken.
Even with these instructor guides and lesson plans, we hope (and expect) that teachers will make the Silverquicken programs their own. No one knows their students as well as the teacher, and we give instructors great freedom about how to implement our programs. If a group of students is extraordinarily inspired by stories, we encourage teachers to add to each session’s story vignette or have kids create their own “fan fiction.” If a certain class loves ciphers, we invite teachers to make use of extension activities where kids make their own ciphers to share with one another. The expertise of teachers always informs their practice. In turn, that expertise helps us develop efficient and effective training and knowledge sharing across the community of Silverquicken teachers across the country.
To succeed in the workforce of tomorrow—and to help the world solve its problems—our kids need to learn how to solve complex problems creatively and collaboratively. Silverquicken programs directly address this need.
We’ve been told that Silverquicken is what workforce development looks like for younger kids. In our programs, we teach students simple, powerful frameworks for problem solving, creativity, and teamwork. These frameworks are flexible tools that kids can apply not just in school but in their careers, in their communities, and throughout their lives. And the experiences that children have with Silverquicken build and reinforce perseverance and motivation, key “character” skills that are at least as important as purely cognitive skills for positive outcomes in life.
Problem Solving is cultivated through fun, engaging—and appropriately difficult—challenges. In Silverquicken, students are frequently asked to tackle unfamiliar puzzles, strengthening their core analytical skills, increasing their comfort with uncertainty, and improving their adaptability. (Compare this approach to standard “drill and kill” sequencing, where students over-rehearse facts or recipes but fail to apply that knowledge out of context, e.g. on comprehensive standardized tests.)
Silverquicken trains students to view problems as opportunities for productive struggle and growth, fostering true resilience. Our Problem Solving framework of See, Wonder, Pretend, Test helps kids ask their own questions to “unstick” themselves out of deadends and try new approaches.
Creativity is nurtured as learners are encouraged to think imaginatively. With creative puzzles and unusual games based in an open-ended “dream world,” Silverquicken challenges students to transcend conventional thinking patterns, see issues from original angles, and explore new possibilities.
Typically, schools and other environments value conformity and “right answers” over divergence and innovation. As a result, kids learn that making mistakes is not rewarded, and they stop trying new things. Silverquicken programs contain many activities designed to counter this trend directly. Our Creativity framework of Launch, Fly, Bounce, Land provides kids (and teachers!) with a structured approach to brainstorming, whiteboarding, and other processes that exercise and develop creative faculties.
Teamwork is developed in the context of collective challenges, together with straightforward guidance grounded in research on how effective teams operate. Silverquicken explicitly teaches kids how to cooperate, instead of throwing them together in groups and hoping for the best. Our Teamwork framework of Listen, Ask, Share, Agree reminds children of key behaviors necessary for good collaboration. Certain team-based exercises focus on just one skill at a time, strengthening each child’s individual ability to function productively in teams.
As they achieve collective victories, Silverquicken teams become authentic communities. Students also learn about themselves as members of teams, increasing their effectiveness in other group settings, both in the present and in their future professional and personal lives.
Whether as an enrichment period during the school day or as an after-school club, Silverquicken has become the favorite hour of the school week for many students and teachers. Sessions are easy to set up and deliver, with clear lesson plans and materials guides. They are self-contained, with light narrative links to previous sessions to provide continuity. Additionally, they are flexible in length.
Both kids and teachers can easily see how to apply the general (and powerful) frameworks of problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork to other subjects, situations, and contexts. For instance, teachers can remind students to “See, Wonder, Pretend, Test” on difficult math problems. Other special Silverquicken language tends to be adopted and used widely by kids and teachers, from “Team is Dream” to “Cocoon and Butterfly” (a maxim that promotes growth mindset).
Silverquicken’s innovative educational approach turns students into true, lifelong learners. Weaving authentic problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity into the fabric of its curriculum, Silverquicken Solvers Society not only enriches the immediate learning experience for students but sets the stage for enduring personal and professional growth.
Students engaged in this dynamic environment are better prepared to navigate the complexities of life, equipped with a mindset geared towards continuous, adaptive learning. This foundation is indispensable, fostering innate resilience and a proactive approach to challenges and opportunities alike.
The impact of Silverquicken training on students’ academic and career trajectories cannot be overstated. In a landscape where traditional educational models may fall short in preparing students for real-world challenges, Silverquicken Solvers Society fills a crucial gap.
By prioritizing collaborative problem-solving and creative innovation, Silverquicken produces thinkers, innovators, and leaders ready to contribute meaningfully in diverse fields. The skills and mindsets cultivated through Silverquicken are those most sought after in today’s economy, and they will continue to be in future workplaces.
Testimonials from both students and educators who have experienced the transformative power of Silverquicken firsthand serve as compelling evidence of its effectiveness. Teachers report a renewed sense of purpose and excitement in their teaching, observing significant growth in their students’ engagement, confidence, and competence.
Students, in turn, articulate feelings of empowerment and enthusiasm for learning, impacting their perspectives on education and their roles in society. These narratives underscore the profound and lasting benefits of integrating Silverquicken into educational practices, heralding a new era of enriched, real-world learning.
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