FR goes on P.R.I.M.E. Time

If I only had more time.
How often is that phrase uttered?
If I only had more time, I would finish that project.
If I only had more time, I would follow up on that great idea.
If I only had more time, I would make the world a better place.
Fort Recovery Middle School is granting a group of sixth graders what so many wish they had — time — through a new class being offered this year.
Projects Requiring Independent Mind-Engaging Time (P.R.I.M.E. Time), which was originally billed as “Genius Hour”, is giving students the opportunity to work on projects of their own creation.
“One of the things we wanted to push was more creativity with kids, but we wanted to give them the opportunity to come up with that creativity,” said FRMS principal Matt Triplett, noting that the school was looking for more electives for sixth graders. “We wanted to give the kids an opportunity to get involved in something they’re interested about and then turn them loose as much as we can.”
The idea for the class grew out of a policy at Google that allows the company’s employees to spend 20 percent of their time on the job working on their own projects. Other schools have followed that lead over the last few years, and Fort Recovery administrators and teacher Marcia Weigel decided to give it a try.
Weigel teaches the class, which began this year with the students thinking about their areas of interest and projects. They were allowed to work alone or in pairs.
Each day the students begin in Weigel’s classroom before making their way to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) lab to work on their ideas.
Those projects are wide-ranging, from working on an app to eliminate arguing from baseball to helping preschoolers manipulate Legos to aid fine motor skills to creating a program to take animals to area nursing homes to help lift resident morale.
“The great part about it has been that whatever they wanted to do for their project, they had to set it all up,” said Weigel. “So they’ve had to make email contacts, they’ve had to make phone contacts … They’ve had to go out and get the information.”
One such step for Ben Keller included a trip to J&R Manufacturing to get advice about how to construct his tree stand.
Keller’s idea is for a tree stand for deer hunting that encircles the tree. A platform will stand on poles, but he was still deciding whether to design it with a moveable seat or a bench going all the way around.
His goal is to give hunters mobility, and thus the ability to get a better shot than a traditional tree stand would allow.
“I just figured I like hunting and I wanted to make it better,” said Keller.
Megan Bergman and Kendra Metzger are working together on the goal of taking a therapy animal to nursing homes.
The girls started their project with a trip to Briarwood Village in Coldwater. They visited residents there with a nurse’s dog, and then decided they’d like to have a cat of their own for the same purpose.
“I like to have people being happy,” said Metzger. “They’re sort of stuck in there for the rest of their lives … so I would like to make them happier.”
Logan Hartnagel and Gavin Thobe took on the challenge of eliminating arguing from their favorite sport because they “play baseball just about 24/7 in the summer.” And the arguing between coaches and umpires leaves them frustrated.
They’re working on creating a cell phone application that would build off of ideas such as the QuesTec system that Major League Baseball currently uses to evaluate umpires’ accuracy when calling balls and strikes.
Umpires would be able to access the app on their phones and show any disgruntled player the location of a pitch, thus eliminating the need to argue.
“It makes the game drag on,” said Thobe of the problem. “And then if they keep doing it, it just gets longer and longer and they can’t get on with the game.”
Elena Evers put her focus on awareness for childhood cancer.
She’s raised money to buy toys for cancer patients through running a lemonade stand. And she’s sharing what she’s learned by telling the story of Zach Sobiech, a singer-songwriter from the band A Firm Handshake, who died of osteosarcoma May 20, 2013, at the age of 18.
Other projects include dirt bike safety, holding a soccer ball drive for Africa, studying the effects of violent video games, preventing Tommy John surgery, learning to jump higher and raising awareness for concussions, homelessness, natural disasters and animal cruelty.
Regardless of the project, each student had to contact at least one outside source rather than relying on their teachers, books or the Internet. For Hartnagel and Thobe, that involved making phone calls to a Big Ten umpire and officials from sporting goods giant Rawlings, the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball.
“It goes beyond learning about something in a book, learning about something on the Internet,” said Triplett. “Those are wonderful resources, but we have kids going out to businesses … We try to get them out into real experiences.”
Through the course of the year, Weigel has tracked student progress through a project log that is checked regularly. The students also must blog about their project every few weeks. And the bulk of their grade will come from a final presentation, which must include an electronic or technology component, research and photos.
Weigel spends the class period answering questions from students. She’s had help nearly every day from aide Chad Miller, who took Keller and other students to J&R Manufacturing this week for assistance with their projects.
Cindy Moorman, who is in charge of technology at the school, and others have also been available to advice students.
“Anybody who has areas of expertise we pull in and have them try to help us out,” Weigel said.
Naming the class was a collaborative effort from the students.
Though it was originally called “Genius Hour”, the administrators from the beginning were looking for a new moniker because the class is, in fact, not an hour long and also is not targeted toward just “gifted” students. After brainstorming ideas in the class, a group of boys latched onto the “Prime Time” idea and then the class created an appropriate acronym.
Weigel said most students have been excited about the class from the start, but there was one who was apprehensive because of the requirement to share efforts with an outside audience. However, when the student learned that aspect could be done through a web site, his attitude changed.
“I think it’s cool in that way that someone who is not comfortable in front of people to get that spark,” Weigel said.
She and Triplett both noted that some changes will be made for the class during the second semester. There will be an effort to allow them more access to the school when needed and to continue to encourage the service aspect while making sure students don’t feel obligated to raise money.
But overall, they are happy with the results thus far.
“They’ve surprised me,” said Triplett. “I’ll be the first to admit, I really thought there wouldn’t be as many high-quality ideas.
“Some of the things they’re working on are really very impressive.”
And the students are grateful for the opportunity to develop their own ideas, in their own ways.
“I think it’s fun because you get to work on what intrigues you,” said Nikki Ontrop, who is working to raise awareness of animal cruelty. “You get to do what your interest is, and not just what you have to do. It’s what you want to do.”
For Evers, the reason P.R.I.M.E. Time is important is simple:
“I love it because I wouldn’t do what I’m doing now if I didn’t have this class.”