For grown-ups & educators
DocentForge teaches the skill a museum hands a teenager at 14: the three-minute object talk. It's the docent's craft — make a curious stranger care about one object, fast — built on a real structure: a hook, a look-closely, a true story, and an open question.
How it works
- Name an object — a rock, a family heirloom, a specimen photographed at a museum.
- Write the four moves of the talk.
- Score it against the rubric — the same criteria a docent trainer uses. The learner rates their own work Got it / Almost / Not yet.
- A finished, self-assessed talk becomes a printable card for a real portfolio.
Why no AI grade?
A spoken talk is a performance; an app can't fairly judge it, and shouldn't try. DocentForge never scores the teen's speech — it gives them the professional's rubric and lets them assess themselves. Self-assessment against a clear rubric is where the real skill grows, and it's honest about what a tool can and can't do.
The real outcome
Over a season, the talks and a résumé line assemble into a volunteer-application portfolio aimed at real programs — museum teen corps, zoo docents, library pages. That's the point: not a score, a foot in the door.