Team thinking games
Your child will learn through a game-based curriculum. The games surface difficult decisions that require intense collaboration between students.
CONSTELLATION
Collaborate with your team to build the strongest network of connections between nodes.
PROXIMA: ATLAS
Band together with a team to explore space, stake territory, and gather resources.
HYPERBALL
Coordinate with teammates to score the most points in a futuristic match off.
POLIS
Govern an ancient Greek city-state with a senate of peers by solving problems in your district.
Classes led by dedicated teachers
Every week your child will join a class to work alongside peers from around the world. Together, they’ll engage in intense practice, reflection, and discussion under the guidance of two expert teachers.
Small teams, big community
Bond in small teams, tackling game-based challenges and real-world problems. Share ideas with a consistent weekly group mentored by a teacher.
Active learning
Teachers use a game-based approach so students develop their voice and self-confidence through active learning.
Ownership + mastery
We design the classes to help students develop their intuitions and give them practice making consequential decisions as a team.
Deep dives into real-world concepts
In their weekly classes, students play games to explore important concepts about how the world works that schools largely ignore.
Team dynamics
How people form high-functioning teams that are greater than the sum of their parts
Risk
How to make wise choices by managing the possibility of suffering substantial loss
Complex systems
How to interact with systems that have many interconnected relationships
First principles
analysis
How to create superior results by breaking down a problem into its components
Negotiation
How to work with other people to create win-win outcomes for all parties
Second-order
thinking
How to anticipate the consequences of your actions by mapping the possible downstream effects
Play on Wednesdays & Saturdays
Students test their skills by putting everything they learned that week into action. They join pickup games in an open format where they’re in the driver’s seat.
Wednesdays 3-5pm & Saturdays 8-11am PT
Students start when they want, and play for as long as they want. They’re automatically paired with a team, given a warm-up exercise, and placed right into a game.
Self-driven discovery
After each game, students reflect on their experience and identify strengths and areas for growth, turning play into personal insight.
Adult supervision
Teachers monitor the games live and are readily available to resolve any social or technical issues that may arise.
Note: New students must first complete our 13-week orientation program before they can join Play on Saturdays.
Speak with us
In 2014, Elon Musk asked me to start an experimental school with him at SpaceX.
The goal was to develop students who are enthralled by complexity and solving for the unknown.
Synthesis is the most innovative learning experience from that school. It is designed to cultivate student voice, strategic thinking, and collaborative problem solving.
I believe Synthesis builds these skills like no other education experience.
Until recently, Synthesis was only available to a handful of SpaceX families. Today, our community is worldwide and growing quickly. Excited for you to be a part of it.
CO-FOUNDER, SYNTHESIS