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.

Have students complete this inventory at different times throughout the year to measure the growth of their 21st century skills.

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.

Supporting inquiry-based research projects, the Animal Inquiry interactive invites elementary students to explore animal facts and habitats using writing prompts to guide and record their findings.

In this lesson, students consider the different factors that make online sources reliable or unreliable. They then learn quick steps they can take to gauge an online source’s reliability and practice these steps by playing an interactive online game. Finally, students create a media product to teach other students how to do one of the tactics they’ve learned.

"It can be tough to tell what’s true and what’s “fake news” just by looking at a headline. But it’s easy to do a quick check and get the real facts when something doesn’t look right online."

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.

Family History Inquiry Project in action.

In this Grade 1 inquiry project, the students compare past and present. They make personal connections and are engaged in the process of finding out what life really was like in the past, as well as find similarities to their own lives. Through the use of technology, iPod Nanos and mini-camcorders, students will not bogged down by their limited writing abilities. For English language learners, the use of technology permits them to gather stories in their families' native language.

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

Outcomes/Goal- The goal of this on-going project was for students to go through the inquiry process with a topic they were passionate about. With excitement and motivation established with the selection of the topic, students were asked to develop a guiding question(s) that directed their research. Once information was gathered, then the students self-selected a method they wished to use to showcase their answers to their inquiry question. Presentations were made to their classmates, their parents during the tri-conference interviews with the option to other classes as well.

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

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?