Genius Hour + Depth and Complexity: A Deep Dive into Research

My journey with the tools of Depth and Complexity has been ongoing. At first, the elements greatly influenced my PLANNING of lessons and units and even the types of questions I would ask.

When J.Taylor began offering resources and Ian Byrd and Lisa van Gemert began sharing their experiences using the tools, I joined others in explicitly teaching the elements of Depth and Complexity to my students. And once the students became familiar with them, I knew the tools could transform their work during self-driven independent project time (AKA Genius Hour, known by other names as well).

To guide them in developing deeper questions, I created the presentation below -an overview of the elements with examples of subtopics and questions that might evolve from using the tools. If a student had an interest in oceanography or ocean creatures, for example, the tools can be used to zoom in on specific and meaningful questions.

This slide deck turned out to be helpful at the beginning of each year, too. It provided a good review of how the elements enrich all of our studies. You can see sample slides below, view the entire presentation, or make your own copy HERE.

⬇️ SAMPLE SLIDES ⬇️ ~ View the entire presentation HERE.

My students always shared their learning, and their projects and audiences took many forms. I’ve linked below to some related posts and resources if you would like to dive into this deeper!

I hope you find this helpful in reviewing the elements of Depth and Complexity with your students and guiding them in using the tools to enrich their self-selected studies! As always, I invite you to subscribe if you’d like to receive updates (see WELCOME page). I send out emails about twice a month.

RELATED POSTS and RESOURCES:

The Journey of a Question: Open-Ended Creative Research

BIG IDEA: A Student-Created Do-seum

Connect-the-Dot Research: Zooming from One Topic to the Next

All the World’s a Stage ~ Spotlight Your Students’ Learning

A Meaningful Mess (Andi McNair) – THE most-recommended resource for implementation of Genius Hour

John Spencer Genius Hour Archive