Walker’s Language Arts class has been working all semester on a Passion Project. This is based on the Genius Hour used at Google where employees are given 60 minutes to develop new ideas or master new skills. Early in the semester, Walker had to identify his passion. Each Friday he spent his Language Arts block working on it. Walker decided he wanted to learn the basics of Java.
To this end, we signed up with Lynda.com, a website dedicated to teaching new skills in technology, business and creativity online. Learning to code is like learning a foreign language and he had to start from the beginning. We encouraged him to do as much Lynda as possible and suggested he do Lynda at home as well.
The passion project contained many components including a bibliography, an interview with someone related to the passion, a verbal presentation and a presentation board for the Passion Project Fair. In his talk, he showed the calculator he programmed. I’m thankful that his teacher, Mrs. J., set up accountability markers along the semester so that the final project would not fall to the last minute.
One neat thing was that the presentation board was done entirely in class. Thankfully, all that 4-H poster work paid off so Walker was able to produce a visually pleasing board.
Walker will have an opportunity to do another Passion Project next year. We will all be eager to see where he puts his energy and effort.
Love the diversity of Walker’s education. Great work, Mom and Dad.
Ah, yes, I am looking forward to hearing his new idea in a couple weeks! Should I make him do something non-tech? 🙂
very cool opportunity…..I agree that 4H really prepares kids to do presentations!