Legacy Projects - Ideas that Keep on Giving

Should you do a Legacy Project with your students?

The end of the year is approaching fast, you’ve already taught the entire curriculum, and you’re looking for something fun to fill those last few days.

Have your students do a legacy project!

I concocted the term “legacy project” several years ago when I prioritized station work and hands-on-activities in my classroom. My first legacy project was a math game. I allowed each student to choose a math standard and create a board game that could be used to practice the standard. The students placed all their game components and needed materials, such as dice, cards, etc. in a box and labeled it. On the last day of school, we spent the day rotating through all the games and imagined next year’s students having fun with the games too.

My favorite type of projects are legacy projects. I typically rotate between a math project and a science project, and they vary from technology-based to no-technology-needed. The year we adopted Google Classroom, the students made digital games. They’ve made Kahoots, board games, Doodle notes, and more!

Do a Legacy Project with your class! You will not regret it! Not only is it fun, but the students get to work collaboratively and be creative. An authentic audience is built into the activity, which builds student ownership. And the best part is that the activities are saved for the students that will be in your class for years to come!

Science Legacy Project

My favorite of all the Legacy Projects was the Scientist project! The students were charged with finding an experiment that they wanted to share with the class. They would create a lab sheet that could be shared with the students and would conduct the experiment for the class to observe.

This was an amazing project because the last couple of days we just took turns conducting the experiments. Engagement was through the roof!

And the best part was that I was able to save the lab sheets to use with upcoming classes!