The Passion Project

Teacher Resources

• The Definition of Passion
• Ten Principles of Passion Learning
• Curriculum Overview
• Getting Started 1: Passion Videos & Conversations
• Getting Started 2: Interests–>Passions Profiles
• Teacher Resources and Links

The Definition of Passion

Education is not the filling of a bucket,

But the lighting of a fire.

  – W.B. Yeats

Develop a passion for learning.

If you do, you will never cease to grow.

  – Anthony J. D'Angelo

For future experts, playful interaction

with whatever has caught their interest is their first step

 toward what will eventually become their passion.

- Anders Ericsson

This work’s generous sponsor, the Australian Learning Lecture (ALL), defines Passion as:

The spark which ignites the tinder of curiosity,

taking a learner from initial interest to deeper and deeper levels of engagement and passion for learning – from a passive, conforming student to an active, self-motivated, purposeful, creative,

and passionate learner.

Ten Principles of Passion Learning

Learner Interests & Passions

1. Learners learn best when they have a strong internal desire to learn – usually about something they really care a lot about.

2. Strong personal interests – another way of saying “what learners care a lot about” – can be some of the best keys to unlocking their doors to highly motivated, creative, and engaged learning.

3. Caring for and supporting learners’ personal Interests may be one of the most powerful antidotes to the anxiety, turmoil, and mental health distress they often experience in our times.

4. Some learners need time and help to identify, select, and investigate their strong interests, choose the ones they care about the most, and commit to learning more about them; other learners know their Passions well and are actively pursuing them.

5. All learners need the freedom to shift their Interests, explore new Passions, and even

manage the pursuit of a diverse set of Passions all at the same time.

6. With the right support and encouragement, learners’ powerful motivations to pursue their Passions can “spill over” to the rest of their learning experiences and can even develop into a deep commitment to life-long and life-wide learning.

Passion-led Capabilities

7. For learners to successfully pursue their motivated Passions, they need to develop sets of essential Skills, Character qualities, and Meta-learning capabilities that power their passion-led learning, such as: Skills – Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration; Character – Curiosity, Courage, Resilience, and Leadership; Meta-learning – Metacognition and a Growth Mindset.

8. Learners also need to learn how to successfully manage their own learning plans and projects through a well-researched yet simple Project Learning Cycle that includes the project phases Define, Plan, Do, and Review.

9. Being recognized by peers and adults as an “expert” in their Passion pursuit has enormous benefits to learners’ self-confidence, pride, motivation, personal agency, positive mental health and well-being, and their prospects for future success.

10. One of the best ways for learners to gain expert knowledge and capabilities is to have supportive relationships with expert mentors or coaches who help guide their learning using purposeful and mentored practice, and to actively participate in the supportive communities and networks of people that share their passions.

Curriculum Overview

The Passion Project

Cultivating curious, engaged, creative, and passionate Learners

• Through a 4-part progression of growing Learners’ Interests into deeper Passions
• Using an online Portal collection of 340+ exemplary Learning Experiences, from
  brief Investigations to deeper Explorations to action project Adventures and Quests
• Aligned with the UN’s Strategic Development Goals (SDG), in turn aligned with the Millennium Project Global Challenges for Humanity, the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges, and the World Economic Forum Deep Shift Technologies, per this Table.

INTRO: Why Focus on Learners’ Interests and Passions?

• Benefits

• More Learner Engagement – harnesses Learners’ own desires to learn
• More Capability Achievements – ensures required capability & skills outcomes
• More Resilient Learners – enhances personal agency & positive mental health 
• More Future-skilled Learners – builds project, problem-solving & social skills 
• More Future-ready Workers & Citizens – increases career & citizenship skills
• More Confident Learners – helps create self-propelled lifelong Learners 

• Challenges

• Freeing up time and space in your busy curriculum
• More focus on growing individual Learner’s interests, capabilities & knowledge
• Developing your own Passion-led learning & teaching skills

• CCR’s Assistance

• Offers a large, well-curated online collection of exemplary Learning Experiences (Investigation and Exploration activities, and Adventure and Quest projects) 
• Provides professional learning resources for teachers based on CCR’s deeply researched and practice-tested Passion Learning instructional model

The 4-Part Interests—>Passions Learning Progression (see diagrams above)

INTERESTS: Helping Learners Develop their personal Interests

• Develop their awareness, curiosity, and wonder around their Interests
• Explore and research their areas of personal Interests
• Identify their own strengths and others’ with similar Interests
• Research skills of others with similar Interests through:

1. Investigations: short activities that engage learners’ curiosity and help them to identify and focus on their areas of Interests
2. Explorations: longer activities that help learners build essential skills and capabilities that best prepare them to successfully pursue their Passions

PASSIONS: Helping Learners Pursue their personal Passions

• Develop their evolving Interests & Passions Profiles
• Identify Passion “S/Heroes” and what they know and can do
• Grow their Project Learning skills (Define, Plan, Do, Review) 
• Widen their knowledge of Passion-related subject areas
• Deepen caring & commitment by doing Passion-related:

3. Adventures: collaborative action projects that apply learners’ skills and capabilities to their Passion-focused topics, issues, and communities
4. Quests: extended personal Passion projects, often guided by an expert mentor or coach, that go deep and wide into a learner’s Passion pursuits

Getting Started 1: Passion Videos and Conversations

• Passion Learning Videos: What does Passion Learning really look like for learners?

Passion Projects in Australia

Caine’s Arcade

• Interests–>Passions Conversations: Starting & Ongoing Conversations with learners

[You can download the Interests–>Passions Conversation Questions HERE]

* * * * * * * * * * *

• When you have some free time – like after school, weekends, or on vacation – what do you find yourself spending a lot of time doing (or wishing you could do more of) and feeling really good about it?

• Can you tell me about a time you really loved learning about something important to you, and how it felt?

• When you think of all the challenges out there, which ones do you really feel strongly about and want to do something to make it better?

• Do you have a dream project you'd love to do, but haven't been able to do it yet?

• What would your Mum or Dad or siblings say if they were asked what you're most passionate about?

• When you think back on a really "perfect day" you've had in the past, what were you doing, and why did you love it so much?

[Copy and add your own Interests–>Passions Starter Conversation Questions below]

• How do you think your Passion Pursuits are going?

• What is an example of it going well, and an example of it not going quite so well?
• Were there any times recently when you just couldn't stop learning about something – you were so into it you didn't want it to ever stop?

What do you think made those moments happen?

• What do you think are the biggest obstacles to getting better at your interest or passion?

• What do you think are the biggest motivators in getting better at your interest or passion?

• Where do you see yourself being two years from now in developing your interest or passion?

[Copy and add your own Interests–>Passions Ongoing Conversation Questions below]

Getting Started 2: Interests–>Passions Profiles

Have each of your students fill out the following Interests–>Passions Profile with your help and guidance. Alternatively, you can use the link below to print out and jot down the answers your student gives to the Profile questions.

Please assure your students that this is just a snapshot of their thinking about their current interests and passions, and they will have lots of opportunities to revisit and revise their Profiles later.

It's also important to let your learners know that the process of growing their Interests into Passions, and eventually having them become an important part of their own personal identity, can be a very fluid (and often bumpy), growth process.

It's perfectly OK for Learners to shift their interests and passions around as they experience more of what their particular interest or passion is really like, what others who have the same interest or passion as they are like, and what kinds of things they do to pursue that interest or passion.

When appropriate, you may even encourage them to try on different Interest and Passion "Hats" to "wear" and see which one might fit even better.

It's also perfectly OK to pursue a reasonable variety of interests and passions

at the same time, as long as they have the time and energy to pursue them well.

A Word version of the Profile form is attached below, so you and your Learners can fill it in and save it in your file collection (Google Drive or other school file system), which can then be updated as things change, and still have access to all the previous Profile versions, enabling you and your Learners to see how their Interests–>Passion Profiles have evolved over time.

Here is the link to the Interest–>Passions Profile form.

Below is a copy of the Interests–>Passions Profile form.

My Interests–>Passions Profile

Teacher Resources and Links

1. The Australian Learning Lecture Passion Toolkit

The Passion Toolkit offers a simple but powerful set of tools for schools to ensure that all children are known, and their interests and passions employed, in driving high-quality education for each and every learner. 

The toolkit is an important asset for preventing student disengagement. A survey of Australian schools, commissioned by the Australian Learning Lecture showed that many schools did not know the individual interests of their students.

Further research showed that passion can drive and develop deep learning and help to change the paradigm from one of success-or-failure to one where growth-and-motivation are celebrated.

The Passion Toolkit is a step-by-step approach to assist students to identify and investigate their strong interests, choose and know their passions, and for teachers to better know their students’ motivations and strengths and help them develop the joy of learning.

The Toolkit has been extensively piloted firstly with 19 inspirational teachers, and then with six schools in Victoria:  Western Port Secondary College, Mount Alexander College, Bentleigh Secondary College, Eltham High School, Kingswood College, and Portland Secondary College.

The Australian Council for Educational Research undertook the evaluation of the Passion Toolkit trial. This important trial and evaluation of the Toolkit was generously supported by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation.

The Passion Toolkit can be accessed HERE.  

2. Passion Learning Pathways

Once students have completed their initial Interests–>Passions Profile it’s time to for each student to embark on their personalized interests-and-passions pathway. This Learning Pathways section is divided into two parts:

1. The Learning Pathways Student Guidance section offers four case studies of how teachers and students can work together to choose the learning experiences most appropriate for each of their interests and level of engagement. You will meet four sample students (Amari, Kai, Caelon, and Lani) and the pathways they have taken.
2. The Learning Pathways Summary Table displays all the Learning Pathway activities and projects selected for the four sample students, in one summary overview table.

The exemplary activities and projects included in the full online Passion Projects Portal collection provide a broad range of learning experience choices relevant to a wide range of student interests and passions, as well as where a student happens to be along the four increasing levels of engagement in their personal interests and passions – from:

• A range of Initial Interests, to
• A particular Interest turning into a Passion, to
• Widening their personal Passion experiences, to
• Deepening their Passion Expertise and Identity

These four progressive levels of Interests and Passions are also associated with the four types of Learning Experiences included in the Portal collection:

1. Investigation activities: 1 hour or less
2. Exploration activities: 1-8 hours
3. Adventure projects: 8-50 hours
4. Quest projects: 50-100+ hours

Each of the learning activities and projects chosen for the four sample students in the Student Guidance section are represented as underlined links, and these links are also repeated in the Summary Table at the end of this section.

All you need to do to access any of the activities or projects listed is to click on the underlined link, and you’ll be taken to the source document from the online Passion Projects Portal (you can also click on this Passion Projects Portal link to go to the entire online collection of learning resources available to you).

2. Learning Pathways Student Guidance for Four Sample Students: Amari, Kai, Caelon & Lani – see Summary Table.

1. Student: Amari – an energetic student who has a variety of interests, is not entirely clear which of these interests are the most fun, or which ones would be worth spending a lot more time on – they all seem so interesting!

• Like many classmates, Amari hasn’t really thought too deeply about the role personal interests and passions might play in one’s life, or how to decide which interests could really turn into a passion – music (guitar), dance (hip-hop), poetry (rap), chemistry (concern about harmful chemicals in the water supply), and plants (gardening).

• Amari’s teacher decided that since there are so many students like Amari that haven’t thought a great deal about their personal interests and passions, a series of short (1 hour or less) introductory, whole classroom Investigation activities would be best to kick off the Passion Project unit.

• Amari’s teacher chose the following Investigations that leverage students’ existing interests in poetry, music, role playing, and the need to start them thinking more deeply about their developing interests and identities:

• Bio-Poems – personal poems that explore the question “Who am I?”
• Musical Circles  exploring personal feelings through music and dance
• Role Play – acting out a character to explore different roles one can play
• Identity Charts – graphically sketching the many parts of one’s identity

• To capture this new thinking about their interests and passions, Amari’s teacher helped each student fill-out an Interests–>Passions Profile and then discussed each student’s Profile in private conversations.

• In thinking about how best to prepare students for further explorations into their interests and passions, Amari’s teacher decided that three general skills and capabilities were needed, no matter which interest or passion they wanted to pursue – research skills, identifying a strong personal purpose, and having a growth mindset.

• Three Explorations (1-3+ hour activities) found in the online Passion Projects Portal matched these needs perfectly:

• Productive Researching – a handy four-part process for doing research
• Personal Purpose – imagining a future self and the steps to get there
• Growth Mindset – using phrases that support learning mindsets

[Note: These Exploration activities are also micro-credentials that sometimes have a cost associated with evaluating your work in order to be awarded a micro-credential; if you do not desire the micro-credential award, you can do these activities with your students without any charge.]

Since Amari is still in the process of deciding which interest to focus on as a potential passion pursuit, Amari’s teacher shows Amari a sample of interest-related projects to consider from the online Passion Projects Portal, to see which project might appeal the most to Amari – after much debate, Amari chose the Endangered Species Poetry and Portraits project.

2. Student: Kai – a student who has always been fascinated by things that move (especially fast!), and loves bicycling, cars, trains, etc., with dreams of being able to fly in all kinds of aircraft, including spaceships someday

• Kai also had two friends who shared similar interests, so Kai’s teacher decided to do a series of short 3-student-group Investigation activities to help focus them toward more specific areas of their “moving” interests, and to better prepare them to do collaborative hands-on projects related to transportation. These included:

• Concept Maps – visual graphics showing idea and concept relationships
• Guided Practice – methods of seeking guidance where needed in a task
• Reflecting Experience – sharing after-event experiences with others
• Life Road Maps – mapping life experiences of “S/Heroes” to learn from

• Kai’s teacher also wanted the group of three students to hone their skills and capabilities related to their interests by providing a series of deeper Exploration activities:

• Design Thinking & Doing – a five-part process for designing solutions
• Understanding Systems – method for learning about complex systems
• Managing Project Cycles – four-phase process to manage projects
• Practicing Reflection – reflecting before, during, and after learning

[Note: These Exploration activities are also micro-credentials that sometimes have a cost associated with evaluating your work in order to be awarded a micro-credential; if you do not desire the micro-credential award, you can do these activities with your students without any charge.]

• Kai’s teacher wanted the group to do a collaborative project where each student could focus on a specific form of transport, and they would work together assisting and learning from each other. The Adventure project they all agreed on was:

• Designing Energy Efficient Vehicles – designing vehicles that meet both energy and efficiency goals for future transport

• Kai eventually went on to do a year-long Quest project modeled after this Quest from the online Passion Projects Portal:

• Personal Electric Transport – (please advance to time 2:05 in the video to see the overview of one student’s “moving” Quest project)

3. Student: Caelon – a quietly thoughtful and caring student whose passion for health and medicine was influenced by helping take care of a younger disabled sibling, and whose passion for computing and digital technologies arose from receiving helpful support through social media connections and through online gameplay  

• Caelon clearly exhibited an early passion for all things both medical- and computer-related and was always curious and deeply involved in learning more about the science and practice of both subjects. Caelon’s teacher’s challenge was to help provide additional enrichment learning opportunities in these subject areas – these learning activities included a start-up series of introductory science- and communications-oriented Investigations:

• Science Talks – student science presentations with audience feedback
• Evidence Logs – collecting and presenting evidence for a point of view
• Poster Session – creating a graphic poster of the results of research
• Consultancy – process for a presenter to get group help on a dilemma

• Caelon’s teacher also wanted Caelon to build a number of important essential skills and capabilities that would be most helpful in deepening the knowledge, skills, and character qualities for both Passions – these Exploration activities were chosen through a series of discussions with Caelon about the strengths needed to “get better” in both Passion areas:

• Systems Thinking – using simulations to learn about complex systems
• Active Listening – a series of six exercises to improve listening skills
• Creative Problem Solving – using six “hats” to improve one’s creativity
• Simulations for Empathy – roleplays & reflections to improve empathy
• Managing Project Cycles – four-phase process to manage projects

[Note: These Exploration activities are also micro-credentials that sometimes have a cost associated with evaluating your work in order to be awarded a micro-credential; if you do not desire the micro-credential award, you can do these activities with your students without any charge.]

• Next, Caelon’s teacher offered a list of team Adventure projects Caelon could do with some classmates:

• Operation Kidfit – a research and writing project on infectious diseases
• Good Health & Well-being – policies for improving world health
• Blood Bank Project – creating an exhibit to increase blood donations
• Stop the Spread – creating social media tools to prevent virus infections

• Caelon and a couple of classmates chose Operation Kidfit as the first project and Slow the Spread as the second project. These projects both deepened and widened Caelon’s knowledge and capabilities in health science and in using computers to improve health services.

• As Caelon witnessed the increasing health risks of polluted groundwater in the community Caelon lives in, Caelon decided to do a year-long personal Quest project modeled after the Crowdsource Monitoring of Freshwater science Quest project in the Passion Project Portal, which won Caelon a first prize in a regional Science Fair competition!

4. Student:  Lani – a student with a deep moral sense of fairness and justice especially when it comes to farming the land and environmental issues – Lani grew up on farms and Lani’s parents faced many challenges including health issues from pesticide use and difficult financial challenges as well; Lani developed a deep and activist commitment to environmental justice, and a surprising depth of knowledge in environmental science and agricultural issues

• Lani’s teacher recognized Lani’s deep expertise and commitment to righting environmental wrongs, especially those related to agricultural practices that were believed to be causing health problems in the local community. Lani’s teacher reached out to a number of local environmental groups to find an appropriate mentor to help guide Lani’s growth and learning, and after a few interviews with potential mentor candidates, Lani, Lani’s teacher, and the mentor agreed to work together to support Lani’s passion pursuits.

• Lani’s teacher and mentor decided on a series of introductory Investigation activities that Lani could do either with Lani’s teacher and classmates, or with the Mentor. These activities included:

• K-W-L Charts – what a student Knows, Wants to know, & Learns
• Create a Headline – write a captivating summary headline for a report
• Fears and Hopes – sharing and discussing fears and hopes with others
• Science Talks – student science presentations with audience
• Four Corners – vote by standing in Agree/Disagree corners and discuss
• World Café – students discuss an issue in small groups then share results

• Lani’s mentor agreed to help Lani learn the knowledge, skills, character qualities, and capabilities that are essential to being both a good environmental scientist and an effective environmental activist. These Exploration activities included:

• Understanding Systems – method for learning about complex systems
• Mapping Facts – graphic of facts and their relationships on a topic
• Analyzing/Communicating w. Data – effective explanations of data
• Knowledge–>Action Projects – using knowledge for appropriate actions
• Managing Project Cycles – four-phase process to manage projects
• Grit & Resilience – strategies to build resilience and long-term results

• Both Lani’s teacher and mentor agreed that to be an effective science-based activist, a wide experience in doing team projects with a wide assortment of teammates was essential to increasing Lani’s expertise and leadership skills. Over the course of an entire school year Lani completed three extensive environmental Adventure projects:

• Kids Talk Climate Change – students create podcasts on climate issues
• Here Comes the Sun – students design and build a solar panel array
• Clean Water & Sanitation – analyze and solve a water pollution problem

• Lani still wanted to help solve the kinds of environmental issues that affect so many people working on farms (as Lani’s parents experienced), so with the mentor’s help, Lani designed and carried out a year-long personal Quest project based on a Quest project in the Passion Projects Portal –
  Heavy Metals in the Soil.
  The project was so successful that Lani worked summers for the mentor’s environmental organization and was instrumental in helping to write and lobby for a new ordinance that was passed in Lani’s community banning the use of a number of pesticides used in farming that persist in the soil and in the groundwater.

3. Passion Learning:  Selected Bibliography and Resources

Interests, Passions, and Motivations for Engaged Learning

• How to Unlock Students’ Internal Drive for Learning; Mathewson; Hechinger Report, March 27, 2019

Passion-based Learning Practices

• Passion-based Learning for the 21st Century: an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum; Powerful Learning Practice Blog, Apr 22, 2011.

Essential Capability/Competency Learning Goals

• Four-Dimensional Education: the competencies learners need to succeed; Fadel, Bialik & Trilling;
  Center for Curriculum Redesign, 2015.

Regenerative Design Learning Practices

• The Sustainable Self: A Personal Approach to Sustainability Education; Murray; Earthscan, Routledge, 2011
• Childhood and Nature: design principles for educators; Sobel; Stenhouse Publishers, 2008.

Personalized Learning Practices

• LEAP Learning Framework for Personalized Learning; LEAP Innovations, 2020.
• Vision and Action: reinventing schools through personalized competency-based education; Reigluth & Karnopp; Marzano Resources, 2020.

Project Based Learning Practices

• Project Management for Education: the bridge to 21st century learning; Trilling & Ginevri; Project Management Institute Educational Foundation, 2017.
• Project Based Teaching: how to create rigorous and engaging learning experiences; Boss & Larmer; ASCD & BIE, 2018.
• Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning: a proven approach to rigorous classroom instruction; Larmer, Mergandollar & Boss; ASCD & BIE, 2015.

Developing Resilience

• Grit: the power of passion and resilience; Duckworth; Scribner, 2016.

Educator Professional Learning and Micro-credentials

• Educator Micro-credentials: deeper learning; Digital Promise

Developing Expertise – Purposeful and Mentored Practice

• Peak: secrets from the new science of expertise; Ericsson & Pool; Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
• E-Mentoring Supplement to the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring; MENTOR, 2019

Deepening Expertise – Learning from Expert Communities, Becoming an Expert Learner

• How People Learn II; learners, contexts, and cultures; Committee on How People Learn: The Science and Practice of Learning, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine; National Academy Press, 2018.