IHC Journey

  Another Wednesday, more time for Genius Hour. My project was supposed to go until Spring Break but it's continuing a little longer. Mr. Funk added Minecraft to the mix and students built their sustainability projects there. While we would love for the projects to actually become a reality, the reality is this might be as real as it gets.  Students created their aquaponics, living wall, environmental field trips, and cafeteria waste projects in the school setting and today presented what they created.  We were a little worried that Minecraft may have been for younger students and eighth graders perhaps aged out but turns out, they could not close their laptop screens to stop working on their world. This project really got the kids to work together to create a more sustainable school and I'm super proud of their efforts. They explored so many issues surrounding their project and tried to come up with solutions.  In the end (even though this really isn't the end), sus...

Last week the 8th graders were assigned to interview someone who could help them solve more issues they were facing. While many of them wanted to interview the head of school, they quickly realized how busy he was and proximity wise, I was a convenient second choice (I wasn't offended). I was impressed with the questions they were asking/issues they were tackling. Serious adult issues, not 14 year old issues. They were very kosher and asked if they could record me while they conducted the interview. You can see the girl holding her phone in the first picture. I gave them some advice to put it near the people who were talking.  Each group has hit a wall in terms of how to fund their projects. WOAH. That is some adult issues. I gave them some ideas such as finding the person who may have done aquaponics or vericomposting at the school before to see if they had supplies left over to defray the costs, researching if any parent at the school specializes in whatever their project is to s...