Final Innovation Projects - January 2015

After a solid week of working two and a half hours a day (plus self-assigned homework) today was the big day. Presentation Day!

Enjoy their projects below...
Remote Control Car by Lucas
Greek/Roman Mythology by Kate
Destiny Classes Video by Cooper, Jacob, and Russell
RAGE by Nathan
Motored Car Video by Will

Each student was given 3-5 minutes to talk about and show off their project.  (The exception would be the group of three. They were given permission to go for 10 minutes.) Overall, I was impressed by what they could accomplish in a short amount of time.

Of course, I have reflections on the whole process.

• I really wanted to focus on the inquiry model discussed in A More Beautiful Question. When I read about The 5 Whys and the Why-What If-How progression I knew I had a winning way to get students thinking on a different level.  I'm still convinced of that. However, I think the way I went about it didn't spark a lot of higher level thinking or new innovations. I think I just created a need hoop for them to jump through on the way to the project.  I need to reconsider how to make that work in the future. 
• I used OneNote Class Notebook to run this class. It was a gem. Everything was in one place. All I had to do was open the notebook, and everything I wanted and needed was there.  I didn't have to hunt for emails or remember where the notes were.  Everything was in one notebook. I will definitely use it again.
• However, I will say that the notebook was easy to manage because I only had 7 students. I think it could feel more cumbersome if I had 20 or more students. 
• I need to be more proactive checking on student work.  For instance, take the Destiny video made by the three guys.  I originally declined the project because Destiny is a first person shooter game. They assured me it would be just characters and no weapons, so I approved it.  Apparently, we didn't communicate properly.  Their presentation included grenades and other weaponry.  If I was spending more time looking over shoulders I would have seen that before the presentation.  

Overall, it was a great week. There was a lot of learning that happened, and I loved their enthusiasm.  Bring on the next project!