Middle School Girls Explore Genius Hour

Fifth grade girls recently participated in Genius Hour, a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.
Genius Hour provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school day. It is modeled after Google, which allows its engineers to spend 20% of their time to work on any project that they want. Google’s policy has worked so well that it has been said that 50% of Google’s projects have been created during this creative time period, including Gmail and Google News.

At Hutchison during Genius Hour, some girls huddled around a laptop doing research on what they are interested in, while others created websites, PowerPoints, and slideshows. Some girls were out in the hallway filming video tutorials, while other girls created jewlery, made blankets, or came up with recipes for dog treats to take to a local animal shelter. Some girls didn't use technology at all, but built and created things with their hands. No matter what they were working on, the common thread was that it was something they were interested in and/or passionate about.
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