My name is Zack Sleep. I am a Masters-accredited educator (UPenn '19) who has taught thousands of students around the world including my current 5th Graders. I designed my Young Detectives program around the model of adventure-based learning and the preeminent social science methodologies being developed at the Stanford History Education Group under Sam Weinberg and my former professor, Avishag Reisman.

My trade is equipping young people with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. Advancements in technology and social media create a tendency among young people to think of learning as a passive act, where information will access us.

In reality, the highest form of learning is doing. When children are given opportunities to apply skills, solve real-world problems & interact with their environment—they thrive! And when these processes are tied into a meaningful narrative—a mystery, let's say—the learning consolidates and the experience lasts forever.

The Young Detectives is built on the Adventure-Based Learning model (Cosgriff, 2000). Our teachers are facilitators, not orators. They pose challenges that allow students to develop communication strategies and innovative solutions. Once more, they sequence their activities, intertwining them into a larger more riveting mystery. When children feel that they are the agents of their own learning, they begin to see themselves as capable future change-makers!