What do kids today really care about? On Thursday night, local students will offer insight into this question as they share their passion projects with the public.
Since September, Grade 9 students studying applied communication technology (ACT) classes at Hapnot Collegiate have spent one class a week exploring subjects that interested them personally.
One student, dismayed by the impact of the meat industry on deforestation, created an e-book promoting vegan and vegetarian dishes.
Another group of students created homemade cosmetics that are free of chemicals and not tested on animals.
Three students shovelled walkways for neighbours on a regular basis and kept track of the responses they received.
These projects are part of a pilot exercise led by two ACT teachers, Daniel Dillon and Brittney Henry, who applied lessons learned from a book called The 20Time Project.
In the book, technology educator Kevin Brookhouser explores how schools can increase student engagement by adopting Google’s corporate practice of allowing employees to use 20 per cent of their work hours to pursue projects of personal interest.
By making room for personal choice in the curriculum, teachers can create opportunities for more organic learning, said Dillon.
“When students look at something they are passionate about, they become more actively engaged in their learning, and share that process and development of new knowledge with other people.”
Dillon and Henry encouraged students to choose topics that would hold their interest for several months, and students used technological tools to implement their projects, from building crowd-funding sites and posting on blogs, to using social media to share their learning.
Now that the semester is coming to an end, ACT students are wrapping up their projects and preparing to share their work with the public, a key piece of the 20 Time approach.
“It makes students more accountable to their learning, having an objective to work towards,” said Dillon.
Dillon and Henry, along with their students, are inviting members of the community to come out to the Hapnot theatre at 6 pm on Thursday, Jan. 28, to discover what local youth care about—and the impact they are making on the world already.
