For several years now, I have evolved a Genius-hour like Building Outside the Blocks project that comes under the Sustainable Development Goals umbrella to promote research, thinking, communication and media literacy skills for my Grade 8 students. It has come to be titled the Impact Project. Liked with all of my BOBs, I create a framework, and students bring themselves into the equation. Unlike my BOBs, I spend up front class time teaching specific skills that students will need to incorporate into the project. Once we hit their Pitches, they selected their presentation date and backwards design their action plan. Since I am teaching in the EVS (Elementary Virtual School), I have made some modifications. Here is an overview of the steps from my outline:
Graffiti board- you will commit to an area of focus with pictures and words on a shared class graffiti board (including graphic of SDG)
Research and investigate the issue that you want to make an impact about in general and find an area of focus
Pitch- create a 90 second pitch to outline the purpose of your project. Choose between inform, persuade, and inspire (or all three).
I recorded all of their pitches so they could watch them and determine their next steps in learning before conferencing with me. Because you can see their last names, I can't share this year's pitch videos.
Sign up for your presentation date
A key part of my BOB approach is that not all students present on the same day. Pitch Day is the only time, ever, that all of my students present something during class. As such, students presented their Impact Projects over 2 weeks.
Write an action plan with each of the next steps of your project in view of your selected due date and medium (how you choose to present on your topic)
Here is a sample:
Connect with at least 1 person/professional in the field who can speak to you about your topic. (I will help you with this)
Thanks to Michael Drezek and so many others in my PLN, I amassed a large list of resources with whom my students could connect. Almost all of my students spoke to or emailed with someone. We were honoured to have Dr. Ramesh Laungani visit out class and answer my students' questions. He was just amazing.
Create 3 blog entries to share your learning and evaluate the research process.
Using a:
TED Talk style format
Documentary
Video
Podcast
Other idea
you will present your learning on your selected day
Here are some examples:
My students' final blog posts were informative, reflective, and really affirming regarding the process of the learning and result as well as the positive impact of learning from their classmates. Here are excerpts from a few of their (unedited) reflections:
The Impact Projects have ended and to tell you the truth, I feel really good! At the beginning of the Impact Project, I was a little stressed because I had absolutely no clue how I was going to format my presentation. I didn’t know what information I should use, what images are the most powerful and effective, and how I was going to present. The date I chose to present was relatively early in my opinion since I usually present near the middle and not near the beginning. I think that it’s actually good that I chose an early date because once I was done, I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Some things I did well were following the rubric, having a lot of information that was clear and easy to understand, and I think my hook was pretty good. Some next steps for me would be to talk with more enthusiasm and expression and also include more images.
We did so many things in this unit, I can’t even remember them all! I think the Impact Project probably made the greatest impact on myself and my learning. From researching for my own impact project, I learned a ton of new information about global warming and how it works. I also learned what the MLA format was and how to use it. From listening to my peers’ presentations, I learned many new things on topics like acid rain and plastic in the oceans.
Melissa
The Impact Project experience was great because I remember in the past, our class didn’t do projects for literacy and only did a lot of writing and presentations. It felt great to do this project because not only do we do research and learn how to properly credit our sources. We also were able to talk to a person or professional in our field which was a great experience as well even though some people didn’t get a reply to their email. We also put together a pitch and pitched our topics but also made presentations and many resembled Ted-Talks while others were videos or even podcasts. The presentations were all great and there wasn’t a specific one that resonated with me, but they were very well done.
The greatest impact on me in terms of learning in academics was definitely in the media literacy part. Where I learned a lot about balancing text and images and choosing powerful images to go with what I say. In terms of an impact general, doing my topic on deforestation has had an impact on the way I look at trees now. I see them as being useful and one of the best ways to combat climate change and I hopefully also made an impact on our class. Felix
All the presentations were what made the biggest impact on my learning, being taught so many important but different things by my classmates was a fun experience. Especially because we all had all sorts of solutions to our problems. All in all the presentations were great and I had fun doing this project. Andrew
I am really proud that I challenged myself by deciding to create a narrated video instead of a presentation. I enjoyed being able to use my prior knowledge of editing to create the video. Aubree
The thing that has made the greatest impact on me during this presentation is knowing that even small changes can make a difference. After the presentations I would sometimes think to myself, how can I really help this problem? But then I realized afterwards. Yes, I am doing something small, but it's every single person does something small it will end up being a huge action. Also, my presentation made a huge impact on me. I subconsciously would think about my body and I don't want to be a hypocrite so I need to start loving my body and taking some of my own medicine. I think this was a great project especially for the age group that we are in because it really teaches us that we can do something. It also could give us direction in our career path because we could find out what we are really passionate about and make that into a career. Eva
I thought the projects were really well put together. I loved how everyone had lots of pictures on their presentations... Now, this unit is done, I think the thing I learned the most from was our impact projects because we got so much learning into one day and we covered so many important topics. Jake
I thought the projects were really well put together. I loved how everyone had lots of pictures on their presentations... Now, this unit is done, I think the thing I learned the most from was our Impact Projects because we got so much learning into one day and we covered so many important topics. The largest impact on me was listening and learning from other people. Everyone's presentations taught me so much and helped me reflect on my own. I've also progressed in giving effective feedback. This skill encouraged me to become more aware and reflective of my work. Lily
I loved the experience from the Impact Project because I love researching animals so that I have a new fact to share with others. Even when learning about something so harsh I think it’s important to have a mindset where you don’t just get sad by what you learn about but you think about what you can do instead. One of the presentations that spoke to me was from a girl named Lily in our class. Her presentation was about puppy mills and while watching her video all I could think about was what we can do. Her presentation not only informed me about something I knew so little about but told me what to do next. Rameen
I think throughout this unit, the greatest impact on my learning was to listen to the impact projects. Listening to many presentations helped me learn a lot, about cause, effect and what you can do to make an impact. I also thought the emailing stage of the project also made a great impact on my learning. It helped me realize that there are so many different individuals that have helped take action in a Sustainable Development Goal. Finishing up this project taught me that I too have a voice that needs to be heard.
Selina