The Wooster Teacher Learner Blog

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Genius Hour - Uncovering Passions

PBL? Genius Hour? No, we are not talking about a Public Television station or a show that you might see on one, but rather, a new(ish) and exciting way for kids to learn. Here at Wooster lots of teachers have been teaching with a PBL (Project Based Learning) approach for many years and our students have benefitted from being challenged to take charge of their learning as they work to solve problems and demonstrate their understanding in a wide variety of ways. This year we have formalized the concept of PBL in the Lower School with our addition of both time and space to support projects across the curriculum. Our Lower School schedule builds in time at the end of every academic day for teachers and students to pursue projects of their choice, and a place to build and create those projects in the PBL space on Grover second floor. Our PBL space has been the scene for many creative and educational projects including medieval castles, ancient greek artifacts, dinosaur habitats, topographical maps, Ellis Island simulations, animal adaptations, food webs, and more. Having this space to spread out and work (and the storage space for supplies and works in progress) without having to rearrange their classroom allows our teachers to dream big and have students work on a grand scale. And that gets the kids excited about their projects - who wouldn’t rather create a 9 foot square topographical map with papier mache than just look at maps in a book or on a screen? And if you build a 6 foot long dinosaur habitat, you might as well have dinosaurs roaming through it as students share what they have learned in a stop-motion video. Learning is happening and students are excited and engaged in the process.

So does all this PBL make our students into geniuses? Well, no, but they are definitely enjoying the benefits of Genius Hour this year! The concept of Genius Hour is that students are given 20% of their time in the classroom to work on what they are passionate about. Our teachers and students have taken this idea in a wide variety of directions, including the Umbrella Project, where a group of 5th graders planned and instituted a loaner umbrella system throughout campus (check them out near the doors in most building and borrow one if it’s raining!). Other Genius Hour projects included researching and making healthy pet treats, learning more about lymphocytes, and building a life sized skeeball game. Our own Wooster version of Shark Tank is taking place in the 4th and 5th grade classrooms, with students creating a business plan and logo for their dream products. The students are looking forward to creating commercials for their products as their next step in becoming successful entrepreneurs.

Going forward, students will continue to learn by doing with expanding opportunities in both PBL and Genius Hour inside and outside of their classrooms. Our 5th Grade Science Fair is a great example of Project Based Learning and it puts the responsibility for the learning directly on the students as they choose their topic, research to learn more, and design an experiment to test their hypothesis. This spring our 2nd and 3rd grade students are revitalizing our Wooster School garden (behind McAllister), another great PBL project that has students planning, thinking, and working together.

~ Robin Lindquist
Wooster School Librarian
and
Molly O'Leary
Wooster School Science and Coding Teacher