"Think Big! Do Something Awesome! Change the World!" I created these statements out of frustration six years ago with a class of juniors who claimed it was too hard to research anything they were interested in and do anything they wanted with it, has become a mantra we whith which begin each Genius Hour session. It is easily chanted or repeated as a class, but this year it is evident it missed the mark because people seem to focus on the third part and feel they have to raise money rather than doing something they are truly interested in doing. They may learn about a topic, but most of their time is spent in doing the logistics of an event. It doesn't come off quite as pithy, but using Tim O'Reilly's lines "Work on stuff that matters," and "Create more value than you capture" could create more of the vision we are seeking for what has become one of our signature events (Ferris 221). "Think Big" stands on its own, because we want students to challenge themselves to do something beyond what they may have done before. Thinking big is about giving themselves confidence iin their capabilities--and maybe even swagger.
"Do Something Awesome" was not a self evident statement. Doing something awesome could mean play a video game that is awesome, watch a video that is awesome or hang out with friends, which may be awesome as well. The revised phrase should be "Learn Something Important" In the past, we have begun the semester saying those words, but lately haven't directly defined what we mean by each sentence. The whole goal behind Genius Hour is to pursue a topic that has always been intriguing but has never been a priority, or maybe it has been and they want to delve deeper. It may be a problem that exists in the world that the student wants to solve, or something else. Once a topic is identified, the first charge is to learn as much about it as possible. That will involve reading, experiencing it first hand and interacting with experts among other things. They should be able to explain why it is important and to whom it is important. That will lead to the third part, which recently has been the stickiest.
Where they become most confused is with "Change the World." "Change the World" does not mean raise money. It means take what you have learned out into the world and do something that matters. That is where they can "create more value than (they) capture." Taking their learning and giving it to the world in a way where it will benefit others at a magnitude greater than 1 is the goal. If, after doing the learning, a person is twice as good at something, the good they do for others or the learning they give to others should be greater than twice as much. That may mean it beneifts one other person. It may mean benefiting many more. It does not mean benefiting 7 billion people, but it may. Making others' lives better is not directly correlated with a dollar amount.
"Do Something Awesome" was not a self evident statement. Doing something awesome could mean play a video game that is awesome, watch a video that is awesome or hang out with friends, which may be awesome as well. The revised phrase should be "Learn Something Important" In the past, we have begun the semester saying those words, but lately haven't directly defined what we mean by each sentence. The whole goal behind Genius Hour is to pursue a topic that has always been intriguing but has never been a priority, or maybe it has been and they want to delve deeper. It may be a problem that exists in the world that the student wants to solve, or something else. Once a topic is identified, the first charge is to learn as much about it as possible. That will involve reading, experiencing it first hand and interacting with experts among other things. They should be able to explain why it is important and to whom it is important. That will lead to the third part, which recently has been the stickiest.
Where they become most confused is with "Change the World." "Change the World" does not mean raise money. It means take what you have learned out into the world and do something that matters. That is where they can "create more value than (they) capture." Taking their learning and giving it to the world in a way where it will benefit others at a magnitude greater than 1 is the goal. If, after doing the learning, a person is twice as good at something, the good they do for others or the learning they give to others should be greater than twice as much. That may mean it beneifts one other person. It may mean benefiting many more. It does not mean benefiting 7 billion people, but it may. Making others' lives better is not directly correlated with a dollar amount.
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