This year I am introducing Genius Hour to my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science classes. You can read more about Genius Hour on the official website, but I want to talk about what it will look like for my students.
The concept of Genius Hour is that students are given the opportunity to research a topic that they are passionate about, and use that passion to solve a problem. The topic can be anything, from pollution at local parks to oil painting. Although I am a science teacher, the Genius Hour topic doesn’t have to be science related. Unlike a traditional science fair project, the result of a Genius Hour project might not fit on a tri-fold display board, or follow the outlines of the typical “scientific method.”
I might choose bread as my topic because I am an avid bread baker. A Genius Hour project on bread would include research into the history of bread in multiple cultures, types of flour, how agricultural, industry, and nutritional research has affected the bread we eat and how we eat it. My final presentation could be a loaf of bread that I baked in a brick oven I built based on my research.
Every Friday, our science time will be dedicated to Genius Hour. Students can do research during that time, but many of them will want to do work outside of class as well, both because they need more time and because they are passionate about their work. All students are required to keep a log of their research in a document I created for them so that I can see what they’re up to in and out of class. The template for the log document is here. I will conference with students about their work during class on Fridays and provide feedback by commenting on their logs. Logs will be graded on a ten (10) point scale weekly. Twice during the school year, they will be expected to present a product. What that looks like depends on the topic and the student.
The Upper School science and knowledge fair will be in April. Every 6th, 7th, and 8th grade student will be expected to present something that day. Students who wish to be considered for the State Science Fair two weeks later must present their project in a traditional science fair format. The science fair project might be a smaller part of the larger Genius Hour topic. So if my topic is bread, I might do a science fair project that tests how adding eggs affects a bread dough, and produce multiple loaves of bread using different numbers of eggs to compare the outcomes. Students who do not wish to be considered for State Science Fair can present their research to date in another format that makes sense for their topic.
At the end of school year, students will be expected to present a summary of their work. This could take the form of a 5 minute presentation in front of the class, a video of a clean up project at a local park, a tutorial for the perfect jumpshot, a website the student created with information about their topic, a prototype for a new or improved device, an informational paper designed to be presented to a government representative in support of a change in policy, etc.
Although students will need assistance from parents and other adults from time to time, it is important that the work be student drive, and that the results show the student’s passion and effort. Students have already started work on a wide variety of topics from Frisbees to candy making. I’m excited to see where their interests take them.
