At the end of the year, we did a project called Genius Hour. During Genius Hour, students were given complete freedom to pick a topic they were interested in to research and learn more about. Since this was our first Genius Hour experience, the fourth grade teachers decided to narrow down their choices to the subject of social studies. The students became "History Detectives" and immersed themselves in research and new information about their topic.
This is the list of suggested topics the students were given to help them with ideas, but they were not limited to this list. For example, some students chose the Egyptian Pyramids, which was their own idea.
Students picked a variety of topics including minutemen, the battle of Lexington and Concord, the Korean War, the Egyptian Pyramids, September 11th, the War in Afghanistan, Lowell Mills, Hitler & the Nazis, and more!
Because of the sensitive material that come with some of these topics, we sent a note home to parents to get parent approval. If the parents were not comfortable with the student's choice, they sat down with their child and decided on a 2nd choice together.
This is the graphic organizer students used to guide their research. Students had to focus on three specific questions they had about the event/period of time, along with other important information like who, when, and where.
Finally, this was the list of project ideas we gave the students, but again, they were not limited to this list. Student creativity was encouraged! Just like with their topic choice, students were given free reign with how they wanted to present the information they learned to our class.
We had a variety of types of final products including posters, models, songs/poems, PowerPoints, and PicCollages and Popplets (iPad apps). Here are some pictures of students presenting and some final products:
The kids loved Genius Hour!! Here's what Kaden and Brayson had to say about it:
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