Pareto Projects

"Genius Hour" in the Humanities

The Projects

These projects cover student interests as diverse as using metacognition to develop a new baseball pitch and developing a following as a Fortnite streamer. Follow the links to the right to see the most recent projects. Stay on this page to see work from previous years, plus analysis and feedback from those same students.

Previous Showcases:

The original guide to the project is below, alongside testimonials and feedback from students.

Sisyphean High - Showcase: December, 2018

Click the above link to load the hub for the projects completed in December of 2018. It will be updated regularly through the end of that month.

The Pareto Project

These are "Genius Hour" or "20 Time" projects that have been adapted for a Humanities curriculum. The instructional post lays the groundwork and organizes student progress throughout the year.

The Project's Origins

Why do Genius Hour projects in a Humanities course? First, exactly because of the insight on the front of this site and near the top of the main instructional site. The Humanities is about how we interact with and make sense of our world, with reading and writing as our most meaningful actions. Our education is not about content; it is about how we learn, especially how self-awareness and empathy define our place in the world.

Second, because education should follow Ken Robinson's advice and focus students on aesthetic experiences, or experiences that awaken the senses. Test prep is unavoidable; the grind of, for example, grammar and mechanics is unavoidable; so the personal aesthetic experience should be emphasized, even if that is only possible 20% of the time.

We call these "Pareto Projects" to emphasize the way 20% of our time can impact 80% of who we are.

Student Feedback

Below are selected quotations from student reflections. For some students, this was a chance to work on a passion without the product being assessed traditionally. The product was the process, as these students know.

Students mistake -- in a good way! -- the freedom to choose with a lack of expectations. This student notes that what you put into the process is what you get out of it.

I think the whole idea of the Pareto Project was pretty cool. Each student was able to choose something that they truly enjoy learning about and/or doing. This project is something that every English classroom should take into consideration- and especially since there is no due date, and no pressures to get anything handed in to the teacher, it allows for a laid-back but creative work process to take place. It may actually be the key to get students interested in learning again. Although some students could take advantage of the fact that there are no deadlines, many students will work on their project and actually be engaged in what they are doing.

This student's project may not seem like a project at all, but it fits the goals of the makerspace perfectly: a metacognitive, self-directed, iterative consideration of what writing tells us about ourselves.

For the pareto project, I chose to write. No specific guidelines other than to get myself back into writing. Writing for fun. So, I wrote. I wrote about thoughts I was having, primarily. I wrote to put my thinking out in front of me and elaborate, figure out what it was that I was thinking. I enjoyed this project and choosing to write for this project because it was an excuse for me to do something I enjoyed more than I had been. I was able to write down a thought, write about that thought, and look back later on my thinking. I believe what I got most out of this project was to see how much I’ve grown in only a number of months. I’m able to look back at these thoughts I had chosen to express during the past school year. I was able to see where my head was at during points of the year, see the patterns of if I was having a hard time explaining what I was trying to say or an easy. See if something influenced me to have the thought I was writing about. I was able to learn about myself and express myself through this project during the past year. I think in turn, this helped me better connect with my mind and be more comfortable with myself.

Another reflection from a student, Nick, who focused on metacognitively tracking the development of a new pitch -- and also learned to appreciate his peers in a different way.

Overall I thought that this project was very fun and cool to do over the entire school year. Having a goal and setting it up and working on it consistently especially when it’s something that you enjoy is always fun and interesting. By having this project it pushed me to achieve my goal and want to do it. My goal was to learn a new pitch and be able to throw it in a game. I was able to learn the change and have enough movement to throw it in a game. I wish I was able to use it in a game but I couldn’t because of my injury, but for the future now I have the pitch and don’t have to learn it later and it will benefit me down the road. Seeing other people projects is also very intriguing because I am able to see what they are passionate about and learn new things about them that I didn’t already know. For example, I didn’t know that [a peer] took very artsy pictures and enjoyed doing it. I also believe that this project for some people including me is the motivation to try and better themselves in the subject that they are passionate about. If I didn’t have this project I most likely would not have worked or even tried to learn the new pitch at all. This pushed me to try and learn it and now I want to learn more pitched and try to extend my baseball career in college and maybe even further.

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