This past year, Gravitas adopted a House system. Each student belongs to a house composed of students from all grade levels, and each house has faculty leaders, who also serve as the advisors from members of the house. The houses each have a mascot drawn from Christian art and symbolism and representing different geographic locations and biomes. The houses will eventually receive names, mottos, crests, and a virtual building on a virtual campus, but for now, the houses are designated by their mascots, the owls, the lambs, the dolphins, and the lions. 

Houses compete for points throughout the year, and members of the winning house will receive a Gravitas shirt, stickers, pencils, and magnets at the end of the school year. Students can earn points for exemplary individual displays of character, creativity, or intellect, but the large point hauls come from house competitions and challenges. In addition to games we play during weekly meetings, every month or so, I challenge our students with a Director’s House Challenge. 

So far, we have held the following competitions:

1. Show Us Your Love Challenge- Submit a photo of you with the people, places, or activities you love
   1. The Owls won this competition, with the other three houses tying for second
2. Consider the Birds Challenge – use the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s Merlin App to identify and log as many birds in your local region as possible
   1. The Owls won this competition, with the Lambs a close second
3. Sports & Fitness Challenge – Complete any of the following in a given day and submit photos or videos: 50 Push-ups, 100 Sit-ups, 1-mile run, 2-mile walk/hike, 30-minutes playing a sport, dancing, gymnastics, training, etc.
   1. The Lambs won this competition, seconded by the Dolphins
4. Advent Performing Arts Competition – Submit a video of you performing a Christmas song or dance
   1. This competition just ended and will be scored soon

And we have just launched two new challenges, due March 6:

1. Invent an Online Sport
   1. Must be a sport, not a board/card/video game
   2. Define goals, scoring, rules
   3. Demonstrate gameplay with housemates
   4. Can be live or turn-based
   5. Must use items that are readily available globally
   6. One entry per house – either create together or pick your best individual entry
   7. The goal is develop the Gravitas analogue to Quidditch – something we play every year as part of the House Cup
2. Design the Gravitas Virtual Campus
   1. Create in any media (2d/3d art, Minecraft)
   2. Include spaces for all aspects of Gravitas’s programs, people, and activities
   3. One entry per house – either create together or pick your best individual entry

We will have a few more Director’s House Challenges during the third trimester as well. If you have any ideas for future competitions, add them in the comments section!

Here are some images our students submitted of them playing sports and performing Christmas songs: