Today I presented a Google Presentation I created to explain the 20 Percent Project to my 10th and 11th grade students. I must give most of the credit to Kevin Brookhouser, who presented on how he ran his project so eloquently at the CA GAFE earlier this summer. He inspired me to do this at Savanna. I framed my 20 percent project around the notion of, "Creating something that will improve someone's life."
I began to explain what the 20 Percent Project was all about. I used an example of creating a giant rubber band ball as a project the students could do for the year long project. At first thought creating a giant rubber band ball sounds silly and childish, but if you were to consider how this project could benefit someone else, there lies the beauty. The ball can serve as a symbol of teamwork. What if all 2000+ students at Savanna gave at least one rubber band. Then the ball would represent a community coming together.
In the process of making a giant rubber band ball, a student might consider questions like, "What if the ball was left for generations to add to? What if the rubber band ball got too big to simply just wrap another rubber band around? Where will the rubber band ball be stored or displayed?" Now the project requires research,problem solving, and students will need to talk to some one on campus on to figure out where to store such a giant rubber band ball. The students began to see that a project like this is going to take a lot of 21st century skills.
I hope the students were as fired up as I was after this presentation.
Also included in the Presentation I collected some neat videos and websites that I thought would spark some creativity in my class for this project. They're all included in the presentation and if you'd like to view it, you can click on the link below.
As Mr. Brookhouser suggested his students do, I started a blog as a reflective piece for the project and I included a picture of myself. I noticed on Facebook that a lot of parents take pictures of their kids holding such a sign as the one below on a momentous day, so here is my first blog post.
Cheers.
Resources
Savanna 20% Project Explained (Google Presentation)
