You can download any of them for free!
Great ideas for creativity, genius hour, design thinking, writing prompts, maker products, video making, divergent thinking.

The 20% Project is your chance to learn about something that you are personally interested in, intrigued by, and/or are passionate about. For the rest of the year, you will be given 20% of class time to work on your project, which will be worth 20% of your final grade.

The students were given one period each week for 5 weeks to explore their interests and plan, implement and produce a Genius Hour Presentation in a format of their choosing. They began with a few worksheets to identify their interest areas and various ideas in which they may present their information and also various formats both electronically and paper-based which they could use to showcase their learning. The students used books, ipads and computers to access information. Various showcases included working replicas of battery-operated cars and helicopters, working volcanoes, a hockey rink, baking, painting and posters. Students were so engaged that most students completed the majority of their projects outside of school on their own time.

This article discusses how to make:
Virtual Tours (Google VR), a News Podcast (Anchor.fm), Build Augmented Reality History & Geography Games (Metaverse), a Short Documentary (Adobe Spark) & Build Multimedia Timelines.

The article provides a link to the site to make the product, describes each option and provides a short video tutorial on how to do it!

These resources can be used by teachers to make items they want to use with students, or they can be made by students as different ways to share their learning.

Some unique ways to get to know your new crew of students at the start of the year!
*surveys
*geeky show and tell
*try a maker project to learn their creative process
*scavenger hunt
*find out what they want to learn with a student leadership team
*tap into sense of wonder

The goal of Genius Hour was to get students more engaged in the learning process and to help instill the idea of lifelong learning. Students were asked to brainstorm what their passion was. Students then had to develop an inquiry question related to their passion. Then they had to decide how they would like to show what they learned. Then, students spent time researching about their projects. They were given one hour each Friday to work on their projects. It was an exciting project that students looked forward to working on each week! Because these projects were quite large, they did not all finish at the same time. As students complete their projects, they were able to present what they did to the class.

This is a great video to introduce the idea that failure isn't failure if you keep on trying. It's only failure if you quit.
This can be used to introduce PBL, genius hour, or any time your students are struggling or want to give up easily.

Consider having the students watch the film, then give them a reflection question. Have them re-watch the video with your question in mind and then respond.

Christmas is coming and the kids are getting EXCITED! To keep them focused and motivated young scientists during this crazy time of year, here are 24 days of fun Christmas STEM Activities.

It’s kind of like a STEM Advent Calendar of learning for the month of December! Included are lots of cool science, tech, math and engineering activities to keep little ones busy.

There are a number of ways to use Genius Hour in the classroom. There are many web resources to view and access to help guide you along your Genius Hour path as well. I accessed Facebook as well and joined several groups that discussed ways to implement Genius Hour. As this was my first time trying this out with the students, there are a few things that I would adjust for next time, but here is my version!
In this project, students were allowed to choose a topic that interested them to create a large scale project on. Students were able to choose to do these projects on their own or in partners/groups. They filled out a proposal and then we met and discussed what they would be working on and what their products would look like.
Every day 4, I gave students one period (56 minutes) to work on their Genius Hour creations. Students were asked to create outlines of their projects and journal entries stating their progress. The final product could be their choice but they would be presented to the class in some way.
When beginning the project, we went over the Creativity Process and discussed the way that student would follow and use this process. We followed each step of the process as we went through the journey and discussed.
Students would receive marks on their overall project as well as their presentation. As well, they completed a self-assessment afterwards.

What is Genius Hour? Genius Hour is a set amount of time for students to create projects based on their passions and interests, research a deeper level of their passion, and finally present on their own learning.

How We Introduced Genius Hour:
1. Show Pep talk video and introduce Genius Hour (see link)
2. Start with what is your passion? – that is all (Students think first then add a post-it telling me their passion)
3. How can we turn your passion into a project? Students write ideas and conference with me.
4. Once they all have projects, the time is their own. One hour every 6 day cycle to work on project. (Can be more than one project; if they finish the first, they come up with another)
5. The less rules the better (mine have to present at a Genius Fair (like a science fair) and have visuals for their table when done their project

The following are a collection of handouts to support Genius Hour in your classroom from Alison Grieg.

This interactive notebook can walk teachers and students through the process of doing a Genius Hour project.

Students should download a copy and complete it with their own ideas.

This resource contains 9 lessons to get Genius Hour off the ground in your classroom.

This is a safe way to give Genius Hour a try The kids just simply start by picking 4 areas of interest, narrowing their choice down, using a think tank to help solve problems and doing a very basic PowerPoint on their topic choice. THEN you can go for it and actually have them do it when you feel ready!

Conferencing with kids during Genius Hour is a game changer. Use this editable template (I suggest kids even fill it out before they meet you if they are capable) to help students project plan and meet their deadlines! This build in accountability to Genius Hour.

A Google a Day challenges users to put their searching skills to the test by asking them to answer a question using Google search. With Google’s search education lesson plans you can take this game even further and begin teaching search literacy in your classroom.

CAN YOU FIND THE ANSWER?