I caught up with Madeleine Maggs, our Stories & Adventure Lead, in Hive HQ today to find out more about what goes into these missions.
Madeleine is an artist, theatre-maker and facilitator, with extensive experience working with children. Working closely with other specialist facilitators in the Hive team, as well as with the Hive's Director Caroline Leroi, she designs the story worlds that are the backdrop for these missions.
Stories & Adventures missions are one of our six Mission types. They're aimed at our youngest age bracket, aged five-and-a-half to eight, and they use fictional narratives to teach children real-world skills such as collaboration, teamwork and problem-solving.
Watch the interview below, or scroll down to read the full transcript.
First of all, tell us a bit about yourself!
I'm Madeleine, I've worked for The Hive for about a year and a half. I initially joined as a facilitator, but more recently I have become the Stories and Adventure Lead, so I write and design the Stories and Adventure missions.
What are Stories and Adventure Missions all about?
Stories and Adventure missions are all about exploring fictional narratives in an outdoor setting. So that really allows the children to get stuck in, and to help the various characters they might meet along the way. We might be spies, we might be detectives, or we might be marine biologists, and we've got to learn and develop our skills as much as we can in order to save a character, or to help a character.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I'm working on a mission in which we are leading a rescue expedition to save somebody who has been stranded on an island in the North Sea. So today I've been doing a lot of research into dolphins. Today I've learned that dolphins have their own unique whistles that allow them to communicate with one another. These whistles are specific to the individual dolphins, and they are all different. So much like we can recognise each other from the sound of our voice, dolphins can recognise each other's whistles in the same way.
And did I see you building your own whistle today?
I have build my own whistle today! I've made my own slide whistle out of a bamboo cane and a bamboo dowel.
What do children learn on these missions?
In our adventure missions children must band together to achieve a unified goal. So they must collaborate, problem-solve and play in really creative ways to make sure that they can achieve their mission all together.
What do kids get out of being in an immersive story world?
The thing that makes The Hive and these adventure missions so unique and engaging, is that they create a world the children can become fully engaged and immersed in. And they just really believe it. It's really, really fun!
Comments (0)