Genius Hour & STEAM Info, Rubric, Tracking Sheets
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 a 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
TED Talk Presentation Handout
Judges Rubrics for Genius Hour, STEAM, & STEAM Innovation Projects