UNITY - Hannah Kendrick, teacher at St. Peter’s School in Unity, started an intriguing undertaking entitled the Genius Hour Project.
In an allotted hour each week, students are encouraged to work on a project of their choosing. Students would create a project proposal and get it approved following by the finished projects being shared in some manner, so the rest of the class, and community, could learn from the project presented.
The project allows students to learn time management, gain research and presentation skills, to learn to work effectively in groups, develop perseverance skills and more about the subject they are interested in or passionate about.
Slime was the satisfying project presented by students Natalie Bertoia and Logan Gerein. The duo sold it to the school community with proceeds being directed to the Unity Food Bank.
"The project ended up being much more successful than they had imagined which resulted in $400 being raised for donation," Kendrick says. “The poor girls gave up most of their evenings and weekend free to time to create the slime over the month of December to fulfill orders that were available in small and large containers.
“These girls decided on this project mostly because they enjoyed making slime and they knew that it was something that kids liked and would want to buy. They decided to donate to the food bank because they wanted the money to go to a worthwhile cause in the community."
A number of other creative projects from the class have included: coding a video game, inventing a device to keep locker doors closed, learning how to sew small stuffed animals, constructing and programming small robots, designing and operating an escape room for staff and students and writing an illustrated book.
