Billy Joe*, a 6th grader, was having trouble deciding on a central question for his Genius Hour project. He often spent his days caught in different thoughts, but had so many questions swirling around his head, he didn’t know where to start. He began trying to brainstorm to help focus his topic:
By the end of his brainstorming, Billy Joe had decided that he wanted to focus on some sort of puzzle that a lot of people have trouble solving. He started with this central question:
- What am I really curious about?
- What would be something that everyone else would like to know about?
- What tools do I have available to me?
- How much time do I have to do my project?
By the end of his brainstorming, Billy Joe had decided that he wanted to focus on some sort of puzzle that a lot of people have trouble solving. He started with this central question:
What is a Rubik’s Cube?
He looked again at his question and decided that it was too easy to answer and did not require a lot of research. He brainstormed a little more and came up with this central question:
Why is a Rubik’s Cube so hard to solve?
Happy with this question, he submitted his project topic to his teacher for approval.
Billy Joe knew from the onset of this project that he now had two jobs to focus on:
1) Research, research, research…He started looking at online articles and videos to try and figure out the puzzle of the Rubik’s Cube. He found information on: what a Rubik’s Cube is and who created it; The fastest time someone has solved a Rubik’s Cube; How many different permutations there are in a Rubik’s Cube puzzle.
As he found relevant material, he kept a list of citations that he would use as documentation of his findings.
2) Plan for presentation… Billy Joe decided that he was going to create a PowerPoint presentation embedded with different videos showing why Rubik’s Cubes were so hard (for some) to solve.
Billy Joe’s teacher asked each student to create a kid’s blog on their class webpage as a way to keep weekly updates on their projects. Billy Joe used this blog to reflect on what he had learned throughout the week and where he was in terms of completing his project. His teacher posted weekly feedback to help guide Billy Joe during his research and project planning.
1) Research, research, research…He started looking at online articles and videos to try and figure out the puzzle of the Rubik’s Cube. He found information on: what a Rubik’s Cube is and who created it; The fastest time someone has solved a Rubik’s Cube; How many different permutations there are in a Rubik’s Cube puzzle.
As he found relevant material, he kept a list of citations that he would use as documentation of his findings.
2) Plan for presentation… Billy Joe decided that he was going to create a PowerPoint presentation embedded with different videos showing why Rubik’s Cubes were so hard (for some) to solve.
Billy Joe’s teacher asked each student to create a kid’s blog on their class webpage as a way to keep weekly updates on their projects. Billy Joe used this blog to reflect on what he had learned throughout the week and where he was in terms of completing his project. His teacher posted weekly feedback to help guide Billy Joe during his research and project planning.
After 5 weeks of researching and planning, the day had come to present his findings. Billy Joe stood in front of his classmates and introduced his topic and central question. He then proceeded to show his PowerPoint presentation to the class, along with a video clip explaining that the reason Rubik’s Cubes are so hard to solve is because there are 42 quintillion possible permutations! Comments from the class included:
Billy Joe was pleased with the reaction he got and decided that his presentation had been a success.
As a final part of the project, Billy Joe wrote a final reflection to his teacher explaining:
i) What he had learned.
ii) Parts of the project that went well.
iii) Parts of the project that didn’t go well.
iv) What next?
This final reflection helped Billy Joe realize just how much he had accomplished over the past 5 weeks and how much he had enjoyed learning about Rubik’s Cubes. Presenting to his classmates also gave him a boost of confidence and made him truly feel like a genius.
- Quintillion?! I didn’t even know that number existed!
- Woah, no wonder those things are impossible for me to solve…
- You would have to be a genius to solve one of those things!
Billy Joe was pleased with the reaction he got and decided that his presentation had been a success.
As a final part of the project, Billy Joe wrote a final reflection to his teacher explaining:
i) What he had learned.
ii) Parts of the project that went well.
iii) Parts of the project that didn’t go well.
iv) What next?
This final reflection helped Billy Joe realize just how much he had accomplished over the past 5 weeks and how much he had enjoyed learning about Rubik’s Cubes. Presenting to his classmates also gave him a boost of confidence and made him truly feel like a genius.