Genius hour goes by many names but most people would recognise – genius hour, 20% time or passion project. These terms are essentially interchangeable. Genius Hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It is an opportunity to see what else your students are capable of. Many schools set up Genius Hour one afternoon a week or one afternoon a fortnight.
The search-engine giant, Google, encourages it’s engineers to spend 20% of their time to work on any passion project that they are interested in. This is because they know how many brilliant ideas are developed in this time. Genius Hour provides students with a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. During genius hour students of all levels are empowered to explore their own passions and develop innovative solutions to identified problems. Post-it notes were developed as part of Genius Hour at 3M
