Fed Ex: Innovation Day

Welcome to Innovation Day Instructions -

We are excited to witness what you will explore and create.

Survey: 7th Grade FedEx Day Group Form

Rarely do you get the opportunity to decide what you are going to learn about in school. Even more rarely do you get to decide how you will learn about a topic or how you will demonstrate what you have learned.

Instead of giving you a set goal or specific guidelines for this next project, we would like to encourage you to learn about a topic, concept, or project that interests you. How you learn about this topic will be up to you. How you demonstrate your learning will be up to you.

We are trying to put this project in your control as much as possible. Our suggestion is to identify a topic that you find interesting or a topic that you think will be useful to you in your future plans. Some of you will struggle with what to do for this project since we are not giving you exact expectations. The following are some general guidelines and suggestions:

Your Job

• One of your group members must complete a Google Doc form by Thursday June 4th at 2:40pm: with your group members and topic.
• Groups may have no more than four students total. You may choose to work alone.
  • Identify a complex, challenging topic or group of topics to learn about.
  • Learn about the topic.
  • Demonstrate your learning about the topic.
  • Each group must check-in with your assigned adult on Monday June 8th at
  • 11:00 am
  • 2:00 pm
  • Devise a way to share your learning with the world by Wednesday June 10th

Staff Job

• Resource for information, questions, and ideas.
• Technology help.
• Help you stay focused.
• Push you to go beyond what you think you are capable of!

Possible Learning Tools to Help with Research

• Twitter – follow people who are experts or interested in your topic.
• Google Reader – Subscribe to blogs of experts in the field.
• Podcasts – Audio recordings available online (try iTunes if you have it at home)
• Google Search
• Social bookmarking sites such as Feedly, digg, redit, del.ic.ious, and stumbleupon.
• Lazyfeed – searches for a topic and delivers related articles to you in real time.
• Google Squared—Provides quick reference sheet with basic information.

Possible Ways to Demonstrate/Share Learning

• Youtube – create & upload your own video
• Blog – create a series of blog posts
• Create a Facebook page
• Concept map - Bubbl.us
• Prezi
• Create your own Podcast
• Create your own Website
• Posterous – cross between blog, twitter, and diigo
• Make a book - Bookemon.com
• Any combination of the above

This project will be a learning experience for all of us. You will be learning how to access and organize information, learning more about an area that interests you, making connections with people beyond this school, and sharing your learning with others.

Step #1 Choose the item you wish to ship

• Your topic must be broad and complex enough to challenge you and require considerable research and discovery.
• Your topic cannot be connected to any of your content area classes.
• Consider choosing a topic/problem that is brand new and still developing.
• You can work with up to three people in a group or even by yourself.

Step #2 Package your item for shipment

• Find out as much about your topic/problem as you can.
• Identify the major issues.
• Identify prominent experts or organizations which address your topic/problem.
• Identify the tools, materials, and resources that you will need.

Step #3 Choose Your Delivery Method

• This project is all about delivering real, authentic learning.
• How will you communicate what you have learned to your classmates?

Step #4 Deliver your package!

• Finalize your delivery method
• Prepare your presentation
• Deliver!

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Has my idea been done in whole or in part by anyone else before? If so, how can I add to or extend what has already been done instead of simply replicating it?
2. What’s the best way for me to share my project with the world?
3. What resources are available to help me?
4. Is the scope of my project big enough?
5. Is the scope of my project too big?
6. Can I complete my project in the allotted amount of time?
7. Is my project a worthwhile way to spend my time?
8. How will the knowledge that I gain from this assignment help me in the future?