This resource is for teachers to aid students through the expeditionary and inquiry-based learning process of Genius Hour. Genius Hour is a passion project students can participate in using 20% of class time every week (about 1 hour). They will learn how to ask good questions around a topic they're interested in, conduct research, and ultimately produce and present evidence from their findings.Time frame: 1 hour per week every term (About 10 hours)Format: asynchronous, virtual, or in class with groups

 These lessons are intended as an introduction to Genius Hour for younger students in the elementary grades.  It focuses on students' interests and/or hobbies they wish to explore, developing research questions appropriate for their topic, and an introduction to teaching research using digital databases and other resources.

This is a Wakelet collection of Google tools for personalized learning and creativity.

This Graphic Design 1 curriculum is a comprehensive semester long course in digital media that uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I started updating this curriculum in the Spring of 2018 and so, if you access the UPDATED GD 1 Curriculum, you will see the most recent additions to my course and have access to all my teaching materials including presentations, lesson plans, video tutorials, student examples, self evaluations and rubrics. Anything highlighted in yellow is in development. Check back often for updates and don't hesitate to message me if you are looking for something specific. Thanks for checking this out!

Materials:

Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop and Illustrator)

This is an intro into Photoshop lesson for students. I use this as the second project of the semester for both my Commerical Art and Photography students to get them to have a better understanding of Adobe Photoshop. The main skills focused on are: the lasso tool, blending, hue and saturation, transforming an image and copy right images. This lesson is for middle or high school and takes about 2 hours hitting both CTE and Art state standards. (The image on the front of lesson plan has one eye and the nose altered.) 

This informational research lesson utilizes an interactive timeline as a tool for students to organize their research in an appealing way.  Students will research bookmaking technology milestones from the Egyptian, Hittite, Chinese, and European cultures. Students will also learn about and practice citing and attributing websites and images, and create a bibliography. 

"Nature furnished the materials for architectural motifs." This quote from Frank Lloyd Wright illustrates his desire to connect humans to the natural landscape through architecture. One successful example of this concept was his design of art glass windows that connected with the trees and leaves outside. Examine the beautiful window patterns Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Martin House and then design your own Wright-style window inspired by nature.

More than a biography of America’s greatest architect, Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo is a story of family, friendship and the meaning of home in American life. The program explores how a friendship spanning decades affected the structural aesthetic of a major American city and made a significant impact on architectural history. Buffalo, New York has the unique privilege of having more Frank Lloyd Wright structures than any other city in America outside of Chicago. This collection of architecture is due to one man: Buffalo businessman Darwin D. Martin. The centerpiece of Wright’s work in Buffalo is one of Wright's earliest designs, the Darwin Martin House. Built in 1904, it precedes such masterpieces as the Robie House and Fallingwater and is considered by many as the finest example of his prairie house design. Learn more about the WNED PBS original production here.

This video segment from New York Voices features Chinese American architect Maya Lin.

This is a fun activity for kids or adults to do a paint or color by number of some of Utah's wildflowers.

This lesson plan uses filmmaking to teach and reinforce the concept of rhythm, which is one of the Principles of Design.  You could easily substitute one of the other Principles or Elements of Design instead of concentrating on rhythm. Although this lesson was created for an Interior Design class, it could also be used in an art or clothing class, or adapted for other content areas.Thumnail image - "A Principle of Design: Rhythm," created by Tamara Hardy

How can we explore meter and duration by composing measures of rhythm with our bodies? Students perform and create rhythmic patterns using their bodies.

RANGE: Undergraduate Research Journal’s primary goal is to make more visible the rich and diverse scholarship conducted by University of Utah undergraduates. The journal is a publication of the University of Utah’s Undergraduate Studies Office of Undergraduate Research. The mission of the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is to facilitate and promote undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and creative works in all disciplines throughout the University of Utah campus through equitable programming, diverse representation, and social justice. https://our.utah.edu/

I teach in the Navajo Nation, majority of my students are Navajo.  I wanted to create claymations using stop-motion retelling the Coyote stories.   

This lesson, activity, and provided template will guide students to interact with the Rule of Thirds in existing images and encourge them to consider this design concept when capturing images.

This lesson, activity, and provided template will guide students to interact with the Rule of Thirds in existing images and encourge them to consider this design concept when capturing images.

This lesson is created and intended for a photography or digital media course at the 7-9 grade level. This lesson teaches students about composition techniques to help improve their photographic compositions. This lesson is interactive, using Nearpod Presentations to teach the main concept.

This is a video where I briefly explain what shutter speed is and show students how to calculate shutter speed on a timeline.

Look closely and take in the East and West Pediments, the Fraser statues flanking the front steps, the Bronze Doors, flagpoles, lampposts, and perimeter medallions.