On Tuesday, April 28, Edina High School Sophomores shared their year-long passion projects with staff, fellow students and community members. This project is part of their Pre-AP English 10 course, and also involved completing a research paper, service learning, and digital age learning. This authentic learning experience has led to recognition for students beyond the school walls in the past, and I believe this year's sophomores will be continuing that tradition.
Here are some highlights that were shared out during the presentations.
It was great to see EHS alumni, Alec Fischer and Gabe Aderhold come back to encourage students to continue to foster their passions beyond their projects, as you never know how far it can take you!
This year's "Passion Fair" was the best yet, and it was great to see school and community leaders turn out to learn from the students.
It was also rewarding to see the different ways students incorporated the use of their eLearning2 1:1 devices and digital age learning into their work. Students started the process using NoodleTools for research and Google Docs for writing.
As they declared their passion, several posted to social media:
Here are some highlights that were shared out during the presentations.
It was great to see EHS alumni, Alec Fischer and Gabe Aderhold come back to encourage students to continue to foster their passions beyond their projects, as you never know how far it can take you!
This year's "Passion Fair" was the best yet, and it was great to see school and community leaders turn out to learn from the students.
As they declared their passion, several posted to social media:
— sophia (@sophia7_) October 7, 2014
All of the students maintained a blog for the class (Accessible Here), which allowed them to reflect on not only their passion project, but also the books they read and reflection on their learning.
For the last two years, service learning has become an important component of the project. Students are asked to take action on their passion in some way. One student raised money by holding a pancake breakfast for the St. Joseph's Home for Children, an organization that helped him out when he was younger, another created this video to raise awareness around standardized testing:
Students used a variety of tools for presenting at the fair, including PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, Prezi, Screencasting, and Piktochart, and built Websites using Weebly, Google Sites and Wix.
The Passsion Project is a great way that Edina students are able to personalize their learning and follow their interests in authentic ways. The service component builds on work students completed in the 7th grade Apathy project and 9th grade Government project. As we continue to evolve the Next Generation of Learning in Edina, I hope the Passion Project continues to be a vital component.
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