What I did today...

Today I went into a classroom as a reliever and ran my own programme. It was with year 7 & 8 students and I set them up to do a one day project. I said to them that today was going to be a little different than their normal school day. They could pick one topic to research, and they could do it all day.

Step 1: We completed a brainstorm on our topic answering three questions:

• What do you already know about your topic? 
• What would you like to know about your topic? 
• How is you, finding out this information going to help you, or someone else? 

The students came up with some great topics, some decided to focus on helping elephants, some helping endangered turtles, some decided to improve their drawing skills, and others made a vortex air cannon. They were really keen to get stuck straight into finding out more about their topics as soon as they had brainstormed but I made them move on to step 2. 

Step 2: Make a plan. We used this sheet, which is one that we developed at my previous school:

Once they had worked through the questions on here (Which they had mostly covered in their brainstorm and were pretty much just organising) they were ready to go and research and collect the information on an information gatherer sheet:

Step 3: At the end of the day we came back and shared the learning that we had done that day. I always seem to run out of time for this, but I think it's a really important part and usually tell the students to get their normal teacher to let them share the presentations if there is any spare time.

The amount of engagement, and focus that I had from these students was incredible. The amount of energy that they put into the projects was amazing, and because they were all passion based there was no behaviour management issues at all.

Whenever I do this in a classroom, I am always incredibly astounded by what the students come up with to research into, and how they will turn their research into something that will physically help other people. Their developing sense of empathy, and understanding of how they fit into the world is great to watch. One girl today said "I want to do my project on baking, because when I grow up I want to be a baker." I asked her why she wanted to wait until she grew up, and why doesn't she use her project time to develop a bakery at school where she takes orders one day a week and bakes the food and brings it back. She was so excited at the prospect that she worked all day crunching numbers, finding out how much ingredients would cost and then dividing it amongst the number of muffins.

The best thing about it though was the students feedback. I asked them to give me some written feedback on some specific questions, and reading it made me so happy that I had done it with them.

What did you like about your project today?
"We got to choose what we wanted to do we could do almost anything."
"I think it was epic."
"I found that since you entrusted us in our day I think the majority of the freedom was well used."
"I liked working on the project because I got to do a topic I enjoy."
The rest were similar to the above.

I also asked questions like What would you change? And What did you not like? but no students had anything that they would change, or anything they didn't like, apart from a couple who didn't like their choice of groups - which was completely their choice. 

I talked to one of my mentors after school, who asked me some questions and told me to write a blog post about them:

Do any kids have trouble with it or finding something to do it on? 
No students found it too difficult in this class, however I have had students who have found it difficult in the past.

Why do I think that is? 
Usually when a student finds it difficult, I get them to think about what they do outside of class-time, because it really is a passion project. It should be based on things they enjoy doing, and things they'd like to get better at doing. Many students who struggle to come up with ideas really enjoy something very specific, like gaming, or shearing. They don't expect to be able to do that as a project, and so dismiss it out of hand. Once I talk to them and explain that it's not actually about the content, it's about the method, and what you focus on, they find their way.

Why does it work so well?
I think it works so well because it is based completely around their ideas and their passions, but it's also quite directed. I don't think it would work so well if they were left just to go and find out on their own, without any planning and guiding questions to direct their inquiry.

What are the challenges?
The challenges for me are the polar opposite to the classroom. They are not behaviour management, or keeping people on task because groups will do that for each other. I think the challenges are interpreting where students are up to in their inquiry, and where they are going to go next. When you have 9 groups working on 9 different projects and they are all at different stages and doing different things, it can get very hectic, but because they are all so focused, it is a fantastic kind of hecticness.

What curriculum links are evident?
All the projects are working on key competencies, participating in a group and contributing to one project, thinking about how you can make a difference to the world and how your topic connects to you, using language symbols and texts, reading information, calling people up, watching youtube videos and summarising your learning. Managing themselves, their steps, and their day. Making sure they're recording their information to use later on in their presentation. Relating to other people in their group, going through the motions of success and failure together. Feeling and working through both the disagreements and the triumphs as a team.

Quite apart from the Key Competencies there are so many links that can be made to the curriculum through the topics the students choose. The project itself can be classed as a scientific investigation: "investigating, understanding and explaining our natural, physical world and wider universe." and also taps into the technological design method.

Take the group of boys today who made a Vortex Air Cannon for example. They had seen a cannon before, and made a prototype with a cardboard box. They then watched Nanogirl's video of her shooting cannons and tried several different prototypes throughout the day, using different kinds of materials, and videoing the effectiveness each one had at knocking over a cardboard strip.

All the way through they were talking about air pressure, and vacuums, and developing vocab from youtube videos that they could share with classmates during their presentation. This links into both the physics, and material world of level 4 on the curriculum.
They were looking at other people's past models of Air Cannons and thinking about how to improve their own, which links into level 4 of the Technology curriculum.
Had this not just been a day project I could have sat down with this group and intricately explored the maths behind what is actually happening inside the Air Cannon when they pull the elastic back.

Beyond the curriculum, it also hits the 21st century fluencies that are aiming to prepare our students for an unknown future. We talk about creativity, looking at ways around obstacles or road blocks. We talk about digital citizenship and information fluencies, the students get their information from three different reputable sources (we call it triangulating). We discuss the groups they're working in and talk about how to collaborate, to work together to achieve an end.

How could it be extended in a regular classroom?

I think this is a really valuable piece of learning to do in any classroom. If I was going back into the classroom full time, passion projects would be something I would leave running in the background as an option for the students to turn to as a group when the need arises. I would make sure to set some time aside in the week for me to be available to conference with groups so that they could still get that all important 1 on 1 time with me for it.

I have done projects with students from both low and high decile schools, I've done them with students from year 4 to year 13. I think they're valuable, I think they're so so important, and I think the learning from them is tremendous.