Something exciting has been happening in Year 5 called, ‘Genius Hour’. Genius Hour is time set aside in class each week for students to research something they are passionate about.
Genius Hour has allowed students to:
- Take ownership of their own learning journey
- Value lifelong learning, imagination, perseverance, self-awareness, adaptability, as well as other life-lessons
- Promote, support and model creative, innovative thinking and inventiveness
- Discover and further investigate one of their passions
- Develop skill sets that are valuable in any learning situation such as research skills, digital technology skills, presentation skills, experimentation, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking
- Reflect on and share their learning with others in a variety of ways
Students participated in Genius Hour sessions every Friday morning for 50 minutes to 1 hour in Terms 1 and 2. Initially, students worked through some Genius Hour mini-lessons to help them begin their journey.
- Introduction to Genius Hour – What is it? What are the rules?
- Brainstorming: What are you passionate about? What do you want to know more about? Questioning and how do we formulate good inquiry-based questions?
- ‘Shark Tank’ Proposals – What will be your focus for the Genius Hour Project? How will you present your learning to others? What materials will you need? How will you ensure you manage your time wisely? What will your project entail?
- They learnt how to paraphrase and how to reference correctly using APA 7 from the Senior School teachers and present this in a correct Bibliography.
Once a proposal was approved by the teacher, students began their journey of planning, researching, designing, making, creating, preparing, and presenting. This was followed by presenting what they learned in unique and creative ways. Some students created a model, coded something, composed a piece of music or writing, developed a comic or animation, and presented a speech or multimedia presentation. How the students chose to present their understanding was up to them.
Learn about KRB’s teaching initiatives and how they support each student’s passions by contacting our Admissions office.