Program at South Middle School puts students in charge / LJWorld.com

This semester, seventh-grade students at South worked on projects of their own invention as part of the Genius Project. “We made a whole website and it had decent videos on it.”

Isaac said he didn’t have much experience with video before working on the website, and doing the project helped him realize that video editing is something he likes.

Zelvy and five other teachers at South Kelly Hart, Beth Weishaar, Stephanie Coleman, Whitney Farrell and Cathy Hilliard initiated the projects, which students worked on over the course of nine weeks during their guided studies period. Zelvy said that regardless of the topic, the projects required students to come up with alternatives when their ideas didn’t work as planned. This is harder than we thought, so who can we bring in to help us?”

The Genius Project will continue at South next school year, and students will have additional resources to work with. The project was recently awarded a $2,000 grant from the Lawrence Schools Foundation to purchase additional supplies for projects. ” Things that just aren’t in a middle school curriculum.”

Teachers can reapply for Lawrence Schools Foundation grants each year, and Zelvy said they hope to continue the project in years to come. April 22, 2016 42 comments April 22, 2016 17 comments