This is a two-part question, but some background info first…
As a long-term school assignment, my 8th grader needs to choose a “passion project” where he would work on a specific project of his choosing from Oct – May. The class offer lots of flexibility so the project can pretty much take any form and be on any topic. My son has always been interested in building things. He doesn’t do it much anymore but he used to love Legos – both building on his own and with kits – which he did a ton through elementary schools. I think he would enjoy a STEM-related project. He has always enjoying building things more with his hands instead of creating stuff on the computer. He is strong in math and is ahead by two grade levels (taking Geometry right now). I looked online for ideas but they were either too short (like a quick 30-min engineering project) or way too complicated for him to tackle on his own. My husband and I don’t have a STEM background so we won’t be able to help him very much.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a possible passion project for school?
This is more of a general question…I’d love for him to eventually get to a point where he can do cool science/STEM projects/research on his own. I looked through past ISEF winner projects and other award winning science fair projects for some ideas. To be honest, I don’t really understand most of the projects. How does a student go from zero (where my son is right now) to being able to do amazing research like these kids? Again, since my husband and I aren’t able to guide him, does anyone have any ideas on how to help him? Are there any resources or is anyone else in a similar situation?
But if your kid is actually looking for some help getting started on the process, I think you could ask questions like, "What sorts of things do you think are cool? What are some reasons why you could not make something like that with the materials, tools, knowledge, and skills you currently have? How could you address some of those limits? Is there a version of this thing you could realistically make? And so on.
The short answer is we all learn from other people in one way or another. As kids are starting to transition to projects where they are less reliant on their parents, they are often still getting some sort of guidance from more experienced peers, other adults in their life, and so on. And then of course social media has expanded our circles. At this point I am not sure there is anything you can set out to do that does not have multiple Youtube videos, subreddits, and so on.
I do think some kids get OVER reliant on social media, and forget you can actually do research the old fashioned way, including Web 1.0 stuff. But generally I think it is helpful on net to have so many different ways of talking over ideas and projects and such with more experienced people.
Seeing how to build something for less money (if it typically takes $X to make item A, how can it be done cheaper?) - This sounds interesting but I have no idea how one gets started on this.
Starting an online business (flipping items for a profit) - his teacher may not approve this one
He has taken Project Lead the Way classes at school. His favorite projects were: building a cardboard boat and seeing how long it floats in the pool, building a Vex car.
I came across Arduino/Rasperry Pi and Paul McWhorter from toptechboy who seem to have lots of great videos for beginners. It sound like Arduino is suited more for beginners? I bet my son would love coming up with his own inventions/ideas once he masters a bunch of the skills but I’m a little concerned that he might not be gritty enough to get through enough videos to gain the necessary basic skills to start building stuff using Arduino/Raspberry Pi on his own.
Thanks for your suggestions. I think the hard part is figuring out what project to tackle, but once he decides on something, there should be lots of resources online like you said!
Indeed, which is part of why assignments like this can be surprisingly challenging even for high achieving kids who are used to doing very well when they are given a clear rubric to follow.
But that’s good, obviously eventually a competent professional adult does that all the time (defines their own projects without anyone giving them a specific rubric). Nonetheless it is a process to get there, which will unfold over many years, and that is fine. But this is an opportunity to get started on that process in a meaningful way.
The only other thing I would suggest, in the most general terms, is for the kid to really find whatever they are doing to be something cool. Again if they are used to getting positive feedback for successfully following a well-defined rubric, there may be a strong temptation to try to treat this the same way, to look for someone online or so on to give them a rubric to follow. But that’s fighting the real point of assignments like this.
But if you are instead doing something that you truly find cool to do, that’s going to largely avoid that problem.
So some kids really like movies. Making a movie is a great idea for such a kid. Some kids really like boats. Making a boat is a great idea for such a kid. I had a close friend who became a successful engineer, and he also liked music so we once tried to make an upright bass. I would not say it was a complete success, but we sure learned a lot in that process.
Really when you think about it, virtually anything a kid loves can be the inspiration for a great project. So I do think it makes sense to start there, whatever that means for your kid.
All of these projects sound great and authentic. Part of a good project is coming up with an idea and refining it. This is eighth grade. HE needs to own it and if he doesn’t do some of the things perfectly it is part of the learning process. This is about “passion” so if you meddle too much it will just become a “project”.
Eighth grade is the perfect him for him to make mistakes in a low risk environment. No one is going to look at his 8th grade passion project grade and hold it against him. Failure now can be a gift so that he can learn from it before the stakes become higher.
I say this as a mom who actually worked closely with S23s teachers to “let him fail”. I was the best thing we ever did for him. I’m not saying your son will be anything close to that, but to let you know that the point of a passion project is to take risks, make mistakes and then bring it all together in the end. I also say it as a teacher that has just moved up to middle school. I’m learning that middle school teachers are a special breed that actually want and expect kids to “struggle to stretch”. I’m sure the teacher is more concerned about the process than the product with this project.