OJCS Science

Welcome to Genius Hour! This is a project that encourages students to follow their passions as they develop their research and inquiry skills by learning about a topic of their choice, making, designing, or building a product based on their learning, and then presenting what they have learned and made.

While students will continue to practice the timeless skills of researching, testing, analyzing, and presenting to an audience like a traditional Science fair project, Genius Hour opens the door to amplify student learning. Along with the previously mentioned skills, students will also be practicing digital citizenship, heutagogy or self-directed learning as they work towards short and long term goals, media literacies, network literacies, and divergent thinking as they think creatively to generate innovative ideas, products, or solutions to problems that interest them.

As students make their own thinking visible by sharing their process, they will also be documenting for others to learn from, and practice metacognitive techniques as they document and reflect on their own process. The autonomy, and self-directed learning that genius hour encourages is student-centered, personalized, curiosity driven, and builds skills that are relevant in today’s rapidly changing world.  

Passion driven projects like genius hour provide learners the challenge to be creative, to design and build, to follow their interests, and to give their work a sense of purpose. Every teacher should strive to create students who are lifelong learners and Genius Hour is big step in that direction!

What will YOU learn and create with the time?

Genius Hour Tracking Sheet

The Scientific Method

Writing a Bibliography

STEAM Tracking Sheet

Grade 6 Flipgrid Pitch Printout

Research and Learn Handout

Make, Create and Design Handout

Students learned how to source in-text citations properly, how to create bibliography citations using online aids like easybib, and then practiced their skills researching the history of the microwave.

They were tasked with taking notes in their own words, writing paragraphs that contain in-text citations, and creating a bibliography, all on the history of the microwave.

Grade 6 students visited MacSkimming this week to learn about biodiversity through a variety of hands on discovery and exploration activities.

 

Students taking up answers after completing the tree dichotomy challenge.

Learning about tree classification based on the physical attributes of a trees leaves or needles.

On a search for birds by learning about their distinct calls.

Exploring the biodiversity and ecosystems in the forest.

A giant yellow spotted salamander.