The end of a semester calls for our next genius hour. Eighth grade history students will pick any topic or time in history they would like to explore, research, or compare with another time. They can choose a topic about which they want to question, read, or present.
The rules are simple:
- Be a genius! That is, be creative and productive.
- Topic: Anything in United States history.
- Record your learning in a way that it can be shared digitally (video, photos, blog post, or something else)
- Check the rubric, for you will be asked to honestly evaluate your own work.
- Be ready the next day to present to the class what you have created and produced.
Since our high school is taking semester tests, we again have been given some longer time frames to work with. On Tuesday, students will have two hours for genius hour activities. On Wednesday, we will have one hour for presentations.
Students, as you prepare, consider these possibilities for Genius Hour:
- Ask a question you care about and find the answer.
- Check out what’s been happening in current affairs–maybe Occupy Wall Street since we made our wiki.
- Did you learn something about one of the presidents that sparked an interest?
- Keep your ideas small enough for a two-hour time slot. (For instance, don’t think of World War II for your topic, but perhaps you want to learn about the KA-BAR knife adopted by the Marines in November 1942.)
- Make something to show something you’ve learned or you are passionate about in history.
Resources – Check out Iowa AEA Online for great history sources.
Here are some websites that you may consider for presenting:
- Popplet – share your learning in a graphic way
- TimeToast – timeline
- Animoto – video or slide show
- Glogster – digital poster
- Prezi – presentation
- Storybird – book maker
- Tagxedo – word clouds with pizzazz
Good luck, everyone!
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