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…cited 20% time as instrumental to the company’s ability to innovate, leading to “many of our most significant advances,” including AdSense, which now accounts for about 25% of the company’s $50+ billion in annual revenue. Google engineers also used 20% time to incubate Gmail, Google Transit, Google Talk, and Google News, among other projects.

http://qz.com/115831/googles-20-time-which-brought-you-gmail-and-adsense-is-now-as-good-as-dead/

(1) Autonomy—”the desire to direct our own lives;”(2) Mastery—”the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters; and”(3) Purpose—”the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”

 Allow students 20% of class time, or one hour per week, to work on and explore one topic of their choice.

We need scaffolding!

Proposal system

Let’s start individually

Both inside and outside school time

OUR FIRST TRY…• A topic they were- Passionate about- or- Interested in learning about

• Five subareas • Scaffolded sections within each (that would work over all

types of project areas)• Speech at the end (to their peers)• Exhibition of their work to

parents/teachers/students/community.

WHAT WE LEARNT THE FIRST TIME AROUND• Lots of enthusiasm!• Massive amount of engagement• Parents hated us through the process but loved us at the end • Great for PR

• But all we got in terms of learning was a series of information dumps on different topics. Was there real learning? In some it was a copy and paste job only.

• We needed to tweak.

http://notosh.com/lab/googleable-vs-non-googleable-questions/

WE REALISED NON-GOOGLEABLE QUESTIONS WAS THE ANSWER (OR AT LEAST PART OF IT)…NO MORE“I’m want to ‘do’ ‘Astronomy’.

NOW“ Is the space race a waste of society’s time and money?”

NO MORE“I absolutely love Manchester United.

NOW“What makes Manchester United one of the most influential teams in the

world?”

WHY FOS?• To build agency and ownership of their learning• Foster engagement• Build research skills AND application skills. Not just get information

but DO something with it too!• To create• Consider design components• To incorporate audience into learning• Multi-media• Build time organisation skills• Build presentation skills – speech making, kiosk one-to-ones• Create a project that could be shared with Mum and Dad• Transition into high school learning because of its- Criteria based rubric marking system- Longer time frame for working- Independent working

SOME EXAMPLESOverarching Question: Can you still be successful if you don't believe in yourself? The Three Sub Questions are:1. What is success? And what is believing in yourself?2. Do successful people share particular personality traits or core beliefs? (You could do case

studies here or even a survey of successful people you know).3. How can people learn to build a self esteem (believe in themselves)? 

Overarching questionDoes reality TV reflect society? Does it benefit or damage society?subquestion1What is reality tv, what are the different categories and how did it begin? Subquestion2What is popular opinion on reality tv shows? Why do people like watching it? (Do a survey

here - I can help you design the questions). Subquestion3When is reality tv controversial? (Wedding show, goggle box, struggle st) what does this say

about our society?

MOREOverarching"What role does superstition have in our society - does it rule our lives!" Subq1What is a superstition? What particular superstitions do we have in our community

- what are their origins?Subq2Are superstitions different from culture to culture (or in different countries?)Subq3What role do superstitions play in sports?

 Overarching"What impact does music have on our society? Subquestion1Why is learning a musical instrument so good for your brain? Subquestion2The piano was first created in 1655. How was it created and what makes a piano

such an unusual instrument? Subquestion3What place does music have in memories?

THE INTERNAL SCAFFOLDING

Deeper Thinking – what are they doing with the information they uncover?

MARKING, THE SPEECH, THEIR AUDIENCE

• Marking is done in the holidays. We now give feedback sheets with comments. Then a day later the same sheets with the marks on them. Otherwise they don’t read the comments

• Their speech - we are not marking for content. Looking for audience impact.

• We run our exhibition kiosk style. Students stand and talk informally with people who approach their project. Have to be on their toes! What they say changes depending on the age of the person asking and the area they find interesting enough to ask about. Much harder than giving a set speech!

• Year Seven teachers are specifically invited to meet, discuss and mingle with the students and their thinking and discoveries.

WHAT WE FIND NOW… AFTER OUR TWEAKING…• FOS is a hugely anticipated Year Six project. We do three a

year.• More and more community people (parents, relatives,

friends etc..) come to our exhibitions.• We now include a feedback wall at the exhibition• The students are hugely engaged in this. We generally have

1 – 2 students (out of 45) that do a ‘sublevel’ job. • Repeating the process means students take on board

feedback and reflect on their learning for the next time around.

• Design is a big factor at the exhibition. People are attracted to interesting layouts, props, colours. Kids learn the hard way. FOS 2 is always better visually than FOS1.

Parent wall of feedback

SO, BACK TO THE WHY…• To build agency and ownership of their learning• Foster engagement• Build research skills AND application skills. Not just get information

but DO something with it too!• To create• Consider design components• To incorporate audience into learning• Multi-media• Build time organisation skills• Build presentation skills – speech making, kiosk one-to-ones• Create a project that could be shared with Mum and Dad• Transition into high school learning because of its- Criteria based rubric marking system- Longer time frame for working- Independent working