Curious Geniuses

Coral Reefs - Mars Expedition - Haunted Houses

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arsia_Mons_Cloud_-_Mars_Express_-_Flickr_-_jccwrt.png

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What do these three topics have in common?

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No, it's not a new word association game or one of last week's most difficult Jeopardy questions. And I can tell you the answer right now.

These are three of the most common topics that students chose for their Curiosity Project in the last decade in our school.

I have seen a model of the Great Barrier Reef made of paper mache and heard an extensive, detailed to do list how to save the wildlife in the ocean; watched a green screen video of "an astronaut" demonstrating the gravity of Mars and tried samples of food  that could be grown in a Martian greenhouse (I tasted little green spirulina tablets for the first time, which is apparently the "superfood" for future colonizers); got a virtual tour of all haunted houses in our area and listened to a lengthy explanation of how to operate an ouija board.... And the fact that I still remember these details proves that these projects are presented by passionate experts who find the most interesting details and communicate them with such great enthusiasm that it stays with the audience for a long time even after the paper mache structure lands in the recycle bin and the Power Point presentation gets deleted.

What are YOU curious about?

Curiosity Project, Inquiry Project, Genius Hour, Expert Hour - these are a couple of names for the same activity that we facilitate every year. In a good curiosity project the student

• chooses the topic
• shows lots of interest and curiosity towards it
• asks questions 
• researches the topic thoroughly
• stays engaged and motivated during the project
• presents the findings and a summary in a certain, pre-negotiated form
• and participates in an evaluation process.

There are various models of inquiry that a teacher can use to set up a research unit. In our school district the model that most teachers are following and quoting is the Points of Inquiry.

https://bctla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/points-of-inquiry-poster-eng-8-5-11.pdf

Other research process models include the Information Search Process, Guided Inquiry, Gig 6/Super3 and Research Project. The steps of these models might be called differently, but "in general, each of these models guides students through the process of defining a problem, locating and evaluating resources, and forming conclusions." (Riedling, Ann: Reference skills for the school librarian: Tools and tips, (Fourth Edition, 2019). p.10)

Explain What You've Learned

In every model, and in every Curiosity Project one of the last steps is a Presentation. It can be named as "Create, Present" (Research Project - Stripling and Pitts) Presentation (Kulthau) or Synthesis (Big6 - Eisenberg and Berkowitz). There are several ways to conclude a research, and we usually give some different options to the students.

1. A presentation they create on a chosen platform (Power Point, Prezi, Sway are the most common choices). I like to set the criteria as only pictures should be part of the presentation with minimal or no text. The reason is that students tend to type in their whole presentation and read it to the audience while they are able to read it on the whiteboard at the same time - which creates a situation when nobody is listening to the presenter. I ask them to have bullet points in their physical notes, just to guide them through the major points of the presentation, and speak freely, without reading a text. This requires a lot of practice in advance, but it's rewarding. Sometimes, when the Curiosity Project is set up in a marketplace-format, students create posters or a trifold.

Grade 5 students using laptops Photo: G.D.

2. As Kulthau's Information Seeking Process model points out there are ways to emphasize the Cognitive Learning (More focused Comprehension) and Sensorimotor Learning (Completing a Report) (Riedling, 2019 p. 11) I always felt that it's good to add a physical item to the presentation: it deepens the understanding, adds a fresh layer of creativity, and it's very refreshing especially for the students who excel in hands-on activities, but not very strong in literacy.

Students present their model to younger buddies (Photo:G.D.)

3. Last year with the grade 5 class I tried a new form of presentation at the end of the project. We called it The Metropolis Project. The classroom teacher and I both agreed that it was the most satisfying outcome of a Curiosity Project that we have ever seen. When we watched the presentations it gave us the feeling that each student knows and understands exactly what they are talking about. Nobody needed notes, there was no reading of text or confused looks at question time.