The idea behind the 20% project is to give students 20% of their class time to work on a project of their choosing.  The project needs to solve a problem or help someone in some way.  The goal is that students will choose something that they are so passionate about that the results will be exceptional.

After being inspired at a Google conference, a few of us teachers decided to take this idea into the classroom and challenge our students to create a project that they would learn from and be proud of in the end.  This same concept is used by Google and brought us Google Mail. Our projects ranged in ideas and results but the common theme was that students learned a great deal about their topic and themselves. They turned out wonderfully and we decided to share some of them with the community.  The students have voted on their favorites for everyone to enjoy.