From Genius Hour to the Minefaire Conference 2016

Garnet Valley Elementary Student shares his Genius Hour Project at the MinefaireConference, 2016


One of our Garnet Valley Elementary students, Jimmy Glendening, had the opportunity to share his Genius Hour project at the Minefaire Conference, 2016. During Jimmy's 4th grade year at GVES, his teacher, Mrs. Amanda Bennett provided him and his peers with the opportunity of a Genius Hour project. Jimmy chose Minecraft. His driving question was "What is the history of Minecraft?" He wanted to dig deeper into the versions of the game and learn all the "ins" and "outs" of Minecraft.
Jimmy, with the guidance of his teacher, Mrs. Bennett, completed the research process by developing questions, researching his ideas, finding answers and finally developing and creating his very own website for Minecraft users.
Early this year, in October, Jimmy had the opportunity to share his knowledge and research at the Minefaire Conference at the EXPO Center in Oaks, PA. He was able to share his expertise and research with other users and lovers of the game.

When providing our students with the chance of a Genius Hour project, driven by student choice, the possibilities for our students are endless. You never know where these projects and research opportunities can lead. The possibility of an invention, a development of an app, a cure, Who knows, when given Genius Hour opportunities the sky is the limit.




Jimmy at the Minefaire Conference 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hands-on Approach to Celebrating Earth Day

Image
Hands-on Approach to Celebrating Earth Day   What better way to teach 1st graders about the Earth than to have them experience what it means to reduce, reuse and recycle. In one of the elementary schools in which I teach I created stations for hands-on learning to teach important concepts to the students in hopes that by providing concrete examples they would walk away with a stronger knowledge of why we celebrate the Earth and how each of them can care for it. There were four stations set up in the Makerspace. Each student completed each station by the end of the class period. Students used recycled water bottles to build planters. Each student added soil and planted seeds to start the growth of a new plant. This activity not only showed students how they can repurpose materials but gave them something to care for. When students create things themselves it gives a deeper meaning to their learning. Students also created cheerio bird feeders. Using pipe cleaners, they strung
Read more

Kindergartners + The Three Little Pigs = STEAM Project

Image
The Three Little Pigs with some STEAM Mrs. Dana Calderone, a Reading Specialist at Concord Elementary School, taught the letter "P" to her class of kindergartners last week. The students learned about the letter P by learning about pigs. After reading the story of "The Three Little Pigs" students were challenged to build a house the big, bad wolf couldn't blow down. Students brainstormed ideas of what they could build their house out of, created blueprints of the houses they were to build  and got to work building.  After two days, each student created a house and wrote about why they chose the materials they did to hopefully keep the wolf from blowing down his or her house. On the last day, students tested their homes to see if the Big, Bad Wolf could blow their house down. Check it out, all the houses survived the wolf. To end this exciting experience, She used Green Screen for each child to tell his/her story of the " Three Little Pigs"
Read more

Broadening Our Communication in the Dominican

Image
The Latest SKYPE in the Dominican In the past several months we have been communicating with students in the Dominican Republic who live in the village of Ascension. A Skype that started with one class at GVMS, with Mr. Burt has grown to multiple classes and teachers who are now taking a part in the Skype sessions and communicating with our friends in the Dominican. The ultimate goal is for students in the Dominican to hold a conversation with students at GVMS in English. In our latest conversation, GVMS drafted questions for the Dominican students to answer in English. 
Read more