1. Genius Hour
The 20% Project

2. Pipe Dream Meet Robbie Maddison Watch his “Pipe Dream” Video
Watch the behind the scenes footage
As we watch the videos, Sketchnote a full page of your journal
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3. Why? Why did I show you the two videos?
How does this link to Social Studies?
What do you think we’ll be studying?
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4. What do you want to think about?
Caine’s Choice
What did you make when you were Caine’s age?
Why did you stop? If you could start again, what would you make?
Caine’s Arcade is just to get them thinking about how they used to be more comfortable living in their imaginations. Also, to think about how kids will put a crazy amount of effort into something they enjoy, even if other people think it’s silly. Why are teens and adults so self-conscious?
Robbie Maddison proves that not all adults are trapped by doing what’s “normal” but the scope of his project is a bit beyond what any of us could afford/pull off. However, their Genius Hour projects might be step 1 of a larger dream.
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5. What is Genius Hour? An idea made famous by Google
20% of an individual’s work time is set aside for individual projects
In this time, you work on what you want to work on
It improves productivity, ingenuity, grit, and performance
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6. Genius hour at gms… Duration: Term 1 (at least)
Must be some kind of learning that you will enjoy
Must be documented regularly (i.e., blog, journal, video, podcast)
Brainstorm the different apps, websites, programs that you could use to document your learning
Come up with your top 3 choices for documenting your progress
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7. Brainstorm Bad Ideas :
Create a list of 20 things you already know too much about (or really don’t want to know anything about)
Create a really, really, really bad ideas wall
Watch this video and consider what you’re doing with your time?
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Bad Ideas wall – Get them to brainstorm the worst ideas possible for this project and then have them write them on the big whiteboard. Go over them as a class and laugh at the silly ones and point out the good ones that ACTUALLY could be used.
Jelly Bean video highlights using their time better.

8. Despicable me: Light bulb
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Despicable Me:
Lightbulb:
Light bulb

9. Brainstorm Great Ideas:
Create a list of 20 things you love
Create an Awesome Ideas wall
Pick a possible topic (that you plan to use) and report out
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Passion wall – Give each student a stack of sticky notes (A Genius Hour Invention) and then have them cover the small whiteboard with things they are passionate about. Tell them to write them on the pad and then stick them on the wall so the stickies are more sticky. This wall will help them in the future for brainstorming their ideas.
Jelly Bean video highlights using their time better.

10. What’s the point of Innovation?
What is the purpose of Innovation?
Have you ever looked at something and said, “this really doesn’t work that well” or “why can’t this be better?” or “I could make a better version of this!”
Here is an example of Innovation
Is there anything you would like to research to see if you could make it better?
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Get them thinking about taking an existing idea and making it better.
Bubba’s Hover is a great video about innovation and making something better.

11. Asking questions What is the point of a Driving Question?
Watch this video and then tell me what is the point of asking questions
The Driving Question is the big understanding you will have at the end of Genius Hour
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12. Construct a driving question
The Driving Question is the big understanding you will have at the end of Genius Hour
Spend some time brainstorming your Driving Question in your Genius Hour package
Remember: It needs to be broad enough to need a months worth of research, but narrow enough to be answered in that amount of time as well
Use the example questions to help you create a few different questions
Then choose the best one as your Driving Question
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