12 Oct Five Genius Hour Activities With Tract – Students Teaching Students
Disclosure: Tract is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com
Genius Hour can feel empowering to students. But some students can feel overwhelmed by not being told what to do and when to do it. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a middle ground. I’ve always found that middle ground in providing students with a list of suggestions and examples to explore to inspire them to come up with their own projects. Tract is a great place to find ideas for Genius Hour activities. I reviewed one of those last month and this week I’ve gone through the whole library and selected a handful of Tract activities for Genius Hour inspiration.
Create Your Own Paths
As you may recall from my article about it in September, Tract is a platform designed for students to learn from students. Lessons found on Tract cover an array of fun and interesting topics including photography, gaming, cooking, music, sports, and much more.
Lessons are called “paths” in Tract and students can complete the ones they find as well as create their own paths. In fact, there’s a path called How to Create a Learning Path. How to Create a Learning Path is a seven-part path which begins with helping students identify topics they’re passionate about. From there students learn to research, outline, produce, and revise their own learning paths for other students to learn from. The learning paths can all be completed on each student’s own schedule as all of the paths are on-demand and self-paced. One thing that I particularly like about the How to Create a Learning Path path is that it includes helping students develop challenge or practice activities to include in their paths.
Esther Wojcicki wrote a comprehensive guide for teachers to follow when their students are doing the “How to Create a Learning Path” path. You can get a copy of that free guide right here.
Plan and Create Your Own Game
It seems like “professional gamer” is now a career aspiration for almost as many students as “professional baseball player” was for my generation. And while becoming a professional gamer is cool, becoming the person who owns the game is where the real money is. Some of my students over the last few years have realized that and started to list “game designer” as their career aspiration.
Tract has a learning path that teaches students how to design their own games. How to Plan Out and Create Your Own Game has all of the attributes to make it a great Genius Hour activity. It appeals to students’ interests in video games and it is one of the longest and most difficult paths in the entire Tract catalog. Students who are passionate about video games could really dive deep into the nuances of game development through this learning path.
Bigfoot and Legendary Monster Stories!
Is Bigfoot real? And if not, how did the legend of Bigfoot and other monsters begin? Those are questions that students can dive into through the learning path titled Legendary Monsters: Bigfoot, the Missing Link? This learning path concludes with students looking at the “evidence” to decide if Bigfoot is real. A great extension to this path is to have students create their own “legendary monster” tales. Heck, they could create costumes then go out and film a “monster in the wild.”
Legendary Monsters made me think about Halloween. And if you’re looking for some Genius Hour activities to do around Halloween, take a look at this set of Tract learning paths.
Create a TikTok Hit!
This learning path caters to students who want to become the next TikTok “star.” In this path students complete three challenge activities in which they learn the characteristics of music that goes viral on TikTok and beyond. It’s important to note that students don’t have to use the TikTok app to complete this learning path.
How Much Good Can You Do?
Students earn digital coins for completing learning paths in Tract. Those coins can be redeemed for prizes. But what makes Tract unique is that most of the prizes are donations to causes for the greater good. For example, students can redeem 250 coins to make a donation of one meal via Second Harvest of Silicon Valley toward the UN Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger.
So a Genius Hour challenge for some students could be to successfully complete as many learning paths as possible to make as many donations as possible.
How to Start Using Tract
As a teacher you can sign up for a free Tract account at https://teach.tract.app/ (use the code BYRNE to get access). Once you’ve created an account take some time to explore the paths that I’ve highlighted above. Then in your teacher account you can create a classroom and invite your students to join (they don’t need email addresses) and start completing some learning paths. Watch this video to learn more about how Tract works from a teacher and student perspective.
Disclosure: Tract is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.comGenius Hour or 20% time in a classroom provides students with an opportunity to pursue topics and projects of their choice. Rather than the teacher telling students what project they should complete and how they should complete it, students choose the topic and the project that appeals to them. Genius Hour can feel empowering to students. But some students can feel overwhelmed by not being told what to do and when to do it. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a middle ground. I’ve always found that middle ground in providing students with a list of suggestions and examples to explore to inspire them to come up with their own projects. Tract is a great place to find ideas for Genius Hour activities. I reviewed one of those last month and this week I’ve gone through the whole library and selected a handful of Tract activities for Genius Hour inspiration. Create Your Own PathsAs you may recall from my article about it in September, Tract is a platform designed for students to learn from students. Lessons found on Tract cover an array of fun and interesting topics including photography, gaming, cooking, music, sports, and much more. Lessons are called “paths” in Tract and students can complete the ones they find as well as create their own paths. In fact, there’s a path called How to Create a Learning Path. How to Create a Learning Path is a seven-part path which begins with helping students identify topics they’re passionate about. From there students learn to research, outline, produce, and revise their own learning paths for other students to learn from. The learning paths can all be completed on each student’s own schedule as all of the paths are on-demand and self-paced. One thing that I particularly like about the How to Create a Learning Path path is that it includes helping students develop challenge or practice activities to include in their paths. Esther Wojcicki wrote a comprehensive guide for teachers to follow when their students are doing the “How to Create a Learning Path” path. You can get a copy of that free guide right here. Plan and Create Your Own GameIt seems like “professional gamer” is now a career aspiration for almost as many students as “professional baseball player” was for my generation. And while becoming a professional gamer is cool, becoming the person who owns the game is where the real money is. Some of my students over the last few years have realized that and started to list “game designer” as their career aspiration. Tract has a learning path that teaches students how to design their own games. How to Plan Out and Create Your Own Game has all of the attributes to make it a great Genius Hour activity. It appeals to students’ interests in video games and it is one of the longest and most difficult paths in the entire Tract catalog. Students who are passionate about video games could really dive deep into the nuances of game development through this learning path. Bigfoot and Legendary Monster Stories!Is Bigfoot real? And if not, how did the legend of Bigfoot and other monsters begin? Those are questions that students can dive into through the learning path titled Legendary Monsters: Bigfoot, the Missing Link? This learning path concludes with students looking at the “evidence” to decide if Bigfoot is real. A great extension to this path is to have students create their own “legendary monster” tales. Heck, they could create costumes then go out and film a “monster in the wild.” Legendary Monsters made me think about Halloween. And if you’re looking for some Genius Hour activities to do around Halloween, take a look at this set of Tract learning paths. Create a TikTok Hit!This learning path caters to students who want to become the next TikTok “star.” In this path students complete three challenge activities in which they learn the characteristics of music that goes viral on TikTok and beyond. It’s important to note that students don’t have to use the TikTok app to complete this learning path. How Much Good Can You Do?Students earn digital coins for completing learning paths in Tract. Those coins can be redeemed for prizes. But what makes Tract unique is that most of the prizes are donations to causes for the greater good. For example, students can redeem 250 coins to make a donation of one meal via Second Harvest of Silicon Valley toward the UN Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger. So a Genius Hour challenge for some students could be to successfully complete as many learning paths as possible to make as many donations as possible. How to Start Using TractAs a teacher you can sign up for a free Tract account at https://teach.tract.app/ (use the code BYRNE to get access). Once you’ve created an account take some time to explore the paths that I’ve highlighted above. Then in your teacher account you can create a classroom and invite your students to join (they don’t need email addresses) and start completing some learning paths. Watch this video to learn more about how Tract works from a teacher and student perspective.
Elementary School, Free Technology For Teachers, Genius Hour, High School, Independent Learning, Middle School, Peer-to-Peer Learning, Project based learning, TractRead More
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