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Waratah Works: Passion Projects

Arts, Science and Social Skills

Learning Module

Abstract

Across our school, students in years K-6 create a passion project that is linked to a topic they have studied during the year in the areas of dance, drama, music, media, visual arts, science, history, geography and values education. In this learning module year 3 and 4 students brainstorm ideas, create a plan for their projects, evaluate their plans and their peers' plans, and then create their passion projects. These are shared through performance/presentations/displays and online discussion forums. Underpinning these passion projects is a focus on developing students' ICT skills and their social capabilities.

Keywords

Collaboration, ICT, Arts, History, Geography, Science, Values Education.

Australian Curriculum

This learning module is based on the Australian Curriculum.

PERSONAL and SOCIAL CAPABILITY

Typically by the end of Year 4, students:

SELF-AWARENESS

Recognise personal qualities and achievements

  • describe personal strengths and challenges and identify skills they wish to develop

Develop reflective practice

  • reflect on personal strengths and achievements, based on self-assessment strategies and teacher feedback

SELF-MANAGEMENT

Develop self-discipline and set goals

  • explain the value of self-discipline and goal-setting in helping them to learn

Work independently and show initiative

  • consider, select and adopt a range of strategies for working independently and taking initiative

Become confident, resilient and adaptable

  • persist with tasks when faced with challenges and adapt their approach where first attempts are not successful

SOCIAL AWARENESS 

Contribute to civil society

  • identify the various communities to which they belong and what they can do to make a difference

Understand relationships

  • describe factors that contribute to positive relationships, including with people at school and in their community

SOCIAL MANAGEMENT

Communicate effectively

  • identify communication skills that enhance relationships for particular groups and purposes

Work collaboratively

  • describe characteristics of cooperative behaviour and identify evidence of these in group activities

Develop leadership skills

  • discuss the concept of leadership and identify situations where it is appropriate to adopt this role

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Typically by the end of Year 4, students:

APPLYING SOCIAL AND ETHICAL PROTOCOLS AND WHEN USING ICT

Recognise intellectual property

  • acknowledge when they use digital products created by someone else, and start to indicate the source

INVESTIGATING WITH ICT

Define and plan information searches

  • use ICT to plan an information search or generation of information, recognising some pattern within the information,

Locate, generate and access data and information

  • locate, retrieve or generate information from a range of digital sources

CREATING WITH ICT

Generate ideas, plans and processes

  • use ICT to generate ideas and plan solutions

COMMUNICATING WITH ICT

Collaborate, share and exchange

  • use appropriate ICT tools safely to share and exchange information with appropriate known audiences

1. What will I investigate?

For the Student

Learning Intention:

To reflect on learning highlights for the year and to choose one for my passion project.

Success Criteria:

  • I can identify, justify and share my learning highlights for 2017.
  • I can name 3-5 topics for my passion project.
  • I can listen to others and discuss ideas.

Comment/Reflection:

My 3-5 topics were .............

I ranked them in this order .........

I chose this topic because ........

For the Teacher

Background: This 5 week learning module is a culminating unit for students to reflect on what they have learnt throughout the year in their integrated units and select a topic to explore in more depth. It focuses on learner engagement, provides students with agency in their learning, and is an opportunity to apply their knowledge creatively - something we don't always have time for.

Term 4 Timeframe

Update 1: What will I investigate?

  • Weeks 1-4: Brainstorm ideas
  • Week 5: Rank Ideas

Update 2: Concept Mapping

  • Week 6 - Generate questions, identify purpose and audience, and develop a concept map

Update 3: Why is this worth investigating?

  • Week 7: Evaluate ideas, give feedback to others on their ideas, and refine concept map

Update 4: My Passion Project

  • Week 7-10: Start projects, report on progress, complete and share projects

Update 1 - Purpose: To support students to reflect on topics they have studied throughout the year in their integrated units and to brainstorm areas they would like to focus on in their passion projects.  

Teaching Tips

In week 1 of the term, conduct a brainstorm for students to think about what they have learnt during the year in their integrated units. This should be a 15-30 minute activity.

Possible strategies for the brainstorm:

  • Inner-Outer Circle (Kagan)
  • Numbered Heads Together (Kagan)
  • One Stay, Three Stray (Kagan)
  • Simultaneous Round Table (Kagan)
  • Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up (Kagan)
  • Affinity Diagram (Langford - Tooltime for Education)

Use prompting questions such as:

  • What was one thing you learnt in ..........? 
  • What was your favourite thing in ........?

After the brainstorm, explain to students that they will be working on passion projects in the last 5 weeks of the term. In weeks 1-5, they will be exploring ideas and coming to a decision about their focus by the end of week 5.

Based on the initial brainstorm, students can then record possible focus areas for their passion projects on post-it notes and add them to a noticeboard. They can continue to add to the noticeboard over the next 4 weeks. Encourage students to sort the ideas - placing like ideas together; this can happen at any time by any students. Making this process visible will enable students to think about a range of ideas and refine their topic choices over time.

In week 5, conduct a ranking activity where students select 3-5 possible topics they could focus on and rank them in order of preference. They share and justify their ranking with a partner. This justification will help them to think more deeply about their ranking and perhaps reorder it. Encourage partners to question each other about their ranking and possible avenues to explore in more depth. They could use a Five Whys strategy to prompt thinking.

Collaborative strategies:

  • Pair Discussion (Kagan)
  • Five Whys (Langford - Tool Time for Education)
  • PMI to explore each of the five ideas

Having decided on their top idea, students can focus on it immediately in week 6. Of course, if they change their mind, they can go with their second or third ranked idea.

Students who have similar focus areas may work in a group - if approved by the teacher. This might be particularly useful for a performance - dance, music, drama etc.

2. Concept Mapping

For the Student

Learning Intention:

To form a learning goal for my passion project and to extend my thinking about what I will include in my project.

Success Criteria:

  • I can identify the purpose of my passion project.
  • I can identify the audience for my passion project.
  • I can describe my learning goal.
  • I can formulate an inquiry question.
  • I can generate ideas for my passion project.
  • I can create a detailed concept map using ICT tools.

Your Passion Project

You have a 5 week learning opportunity to explore a topic that is linked to your learning in 2017 and that you are interested in exploring in more depth. You can decide on your format (performance, artwork, talk/presentation, model, creative writing, information report, Google Slide, video, photo story etc). To support your passion project, you will need to include a:

  • Project overview (focus, purpose, audience, inquiry question, plan and ideas)
  • Concept map that outlines your plan
  • Plus/Delta analysis
  • Reflection on your learning

You can negotiate with your teacher to present your passion project in other formats or in small groups.

Comment/Reflection:

I am excited about...

One thing I found hard/tricky was...

By working with my buddy to create a concept map, I have learned...

My social goal for next session is...

Consider: Giving and cooperative learning skills including compromising, negotiating, supporting etc. Also consider Bucket Filling and how this relates to the work you have done with your buddy. 

For the Teacher

Purpose: In this update teachers set goals and expectations, clarify audience and purpose, model how to formulate an inquiry question, and support students to complete their overview of their passion project, using ICT.

The planning stage is important as incorporates some of the social skills of the Australian Curriculum, ensures the passion project is more than a busy activity, and allows students to develop ICT skills in using mindmapping software.

Teaching Tips

As you complete a model of a Passion Project Overview, make your expectations clear. Students could complete the corresponding section in their overview. 

  •  My passion project focus - emphasise being a person in the field of study -  scientist, astronomer, artist, musician, historian, geographer, author etc.
  • The purpose of this learning - the general topic that students want to learn more about
  • The audience for this project - understanding audience helps students to consider how they will present their projects. For example, a performance could be videotaped and shared or performed live; a research project could be for younger children and so would use different language and multimedia than if it was shared with adults.
  • My learning goal - students are basically creating a learning intention for their focus area; referring to it as a learning intention might help students here and identify the knowledge understanding rather than a task such as create a dance or build a model. The learning goal is more specific than the purpose and links to audience.
  • My inquiry question - model how to turn the learning goal which is a statement into a question; this might change/be refined/become more realistic as students research more.
  • My plan: this is the initial plan of action or steps that the students will take - it can be built upon and modified.
  • My concept map: identify the software that will be use to create the concept map using ICT

Students then use ICT such as Simple Mind, Popplet, Padlet, MindMeister, Mindmup, Mindomo - most of these are available on Apple or Chrome.

A template is attached for students to use and, once completed, to transfer to their concept maps. They can modify their overviews as they think of more ideas when creating the concept map.

Two examples (artist and scientist) are included here. They can be used to model how to complete the overview or you can create your own model related to one of your own interests.

Passion Project Overview Template
Passion Project Overview - Artist
Passion Project Overview - Scientist
Passion Project Overview - Music

 

 

3. Why is this worth investigating?

For the Student

Learning Intention:

To think critically about my project plan.

 Success Criteria:

  • I can reflect and think about the positives and negatives of my passion project.
  • I can complete an evaluation.
  • I can revise my concept map based on feedback about my plan.

Comment/Reflection:

One thing I found hard/tricky was...

I have improved my project by .......

I helped my buddy to...

My social goal for next session is...

Consider: Giving and cooperative learning skills including compromising, negotiating, supporting etc. Also consider Bucket Filling and how this relates to the work you have done with your buddy.

I am really looking forward to...

For the Teacher

​Purpose: This update supports students to critically evaluate their overviews and concepts maps. It also raises the intellectual quality of the work that students do on their projects.

Teaching Tips

Students complete a Plus/Delta (Langford – Tool Time for Education, page 108) to evaluate their projects. Their main focus is to identify the relevance of their investigation and how it could be improved.

 Focus Questions

PLUS

What is good?

What are the positives?

DELTA

What could be improved? 

What would I add/delete?

Relevance:

Why is it worth investigating?

Who will it benefit?

Who will it interest?

   

Research

What sources will I use to find out more/explore the topic in more depth?

   

What am I going to make/do to show my learning?

   
Passion Project Evaluation

As for Update 2, the teacher could model this as students complete the corresponding sections. Alternatively, students work in pairs or in the group they are working in and support each other to complete their evaluations. Once they have completed their Plus/Delta charts, students should revise their concepts maps.

Students can then post their concepts maps to a discussion forum such as Google Classroom or Scholar for feedback from their peers.

Using the feedback, they can refine their concept maps further before embarking on their projects. 

For students working in groups, they can complete this collaboratively and post their combined concept map. Each student should give individual feedback on the concept maps of their peers.

4. My Passion Project

For the Student

Learning Intention

To create and present an interesting and engaging passion project.

Success Criteria:

  • I can follow my passion project concept map to complete my passion project to the best of my ability.
  • I can present my passion project.
  • I can reflect on the success of my passion project.

Comment/Reflection:

Written reflection (after completing project)-

What did I do well?

What would I add/change next time?

Something I learned about working with ICT is…

Something I learned about working with others is…

After completing presentation - 

How do I feel about my presentation?

What would I differently next time?

What am I proud of? 

For the Teacher

Purpose: In this update students start their projects and learn about the criteria to guide them as they complete it.

Teaching Tips

Check in with students to ensure they are making progress. Another check in could be sharing progress with other students in a Kagan structure such as Inner-Outer Circle or in a discussion forum.

Students complete the reflection sheet before they present. Reflection sheets can help them when discussing their projects with their audiences. 

Reflection sheet

In Week 10, students should present their passion projects to their peers and buddies. A Gallery Walk would enable concurrent presentations as individual presentations can be time-consuming. This could be incorporated in the end of year event when parents visit the school. 

Acknowledgements

Title: Source. Photographs by .......