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Brainado (School Wide Genius Hour)

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I attended a session given by Crossett Brook Middle School in Vermont that presented an exploratory project called Brainado.  The project was based on the Genius Hour model in which students are given time to explore a topic of their choice.  We have had individual teachers at Patton use Genius Hour projects in their classroom, but this was a school-wide project.  Time was set aside each week for all students to explore and research their chosen topics.  As I understood it, the school designated 10 hours of time for the project.  The first few sessions were spent zeroing in on a particular topic and the rest of the time was spent creating a project that could be shared with the entire student body.  Again, students could choose any topic they were interested in and wanted to learn more.  Project examples included tri-fold posters, videos, 3D models, cooking, drama, etc.  As a culminating activity, there was a school-wide fair called Sharenado in which students were able to see what others were working on during the Brainado project.

If interested, click the link below to see the presentation shared at AMLE.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15thzEsydAFs5iYcg2PBBRYP-fYlEF4CjYw2yBp3UzbU/mobilepresent?slide=id.p

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