ATTENDANCE: Project Advisors, please find your tab on the bottom of the attendance spreadsheet and take attendance. Fill in attendance from previous day and Making Time.
GATHERING: Share your "nerd crush" in this discipline. What is a project or person in this discipline that you kind of nerd-out about? Share the details and what makes them interesting to you. (Example (science, social science, engineering): Amelia Earhart....a pioneering woman in aviation, also part of a global on-going mystery...overall amazing.
CONTINUE: Pick up where you left off yesterday. When you get to the part about generating project ideas (for someone, anyone, maybe even you), sort them into categories as a group, and then do the next step....
PAIR UP (group new students with experienced students, if possible): Each pair should select one of the brainstormed project ideas or categories and develop a rough project proposal. Go big. Go weird. Go toward innovation. This is practice, not your actual project....nothing to lose, only great ideas to gain.
- Spend 10 minutes doing some very rapid research related to the project idea
- Look for the topic in the news (What makes it relevant?)
- Look for definitions on wikipedia (Do you know what you are talking about?)
- Find out a little backstory (Where did this stuff come from?)
- Spend 5 minutes formulating a more specific project idea....now that you did a little research, what would be ONE possible way to turn it into an exploratory/innovative/original/relevant project. (Again, this isn't necessarily YOUR project...but it's a project idea.)
- Spend 5 minutes developing a quick pitch for this project:
- What is the project idea?
- How would a person go about doing/making this project?
- Why in the world would anyone care about this project?
*If the group needs more support with this, revisit the example projects from yesterday. Watch them again and talk about the "what," "how," and "why" of those.
CIRCLE UP: Share out the project ideas to the whole group.
REFLECTION:
- Use this experience, the two example projects, and prior knowledge to generate a list of characteristics for what makes a good project AND what makes a not so good project. Be specific. (Example: Good projects about about something I care about and they get other people to care about it too. Not so good projects are too obscure for other people to relate to or too common that they are uninteresting.)
- As a whole class, select one of the practice project ideas that is (by your own criteria) a great project idea.
- Have one person send the "what," "how," and "why" AND the explanation for why you chose it to Kimberly kjohnson@etudegroup.org
CLOSING: Students should look at their own written reflections from the conclusion of Maker Time. Use a highlighter to mark the most important aspects of that reflection for moving forward. Use post-it notes to clarify any details for Project Advisors.
Students should leave mind maps, reflections, and any other evidence of thinking and development with their Project Advisor, so they can review it over the weekend.
Everyone's home learning is to continue brainstorming. Look into the things you are interested in. If you already have a project idea, tell the people in your life about it...find out what connections they have and explore those....get ready to share your "what," "how," and "why."
