Edutopia PBL Home Page. Finding the Sweet Spot: Creativity, Candy, and Commerce. During the 2013-2014 school year, Elizabeth Forward Middle School created a DREAM Factory by combining art, technology education, and computer science. With this space, we removed the silos of the traditional subject classes -- instead, we've implemented a project-based curriculum, and students rotate between teachers according to their needs to complete a DREAM Factory project. The art, computer science, and technology education teachers have common planning time to work on projects where students can see the cross-curricular connections between these three subjects. We wanted to do a project that would a) engage the kids, while b) giving them 21st-century skills. Then it hit us: We have the Sarris Candy Company in our own back yard. The Candy Bar Project With this project, students in the DREAM Factory learn to be entrepreneurs for two weeks and create a chocolate bar company.
Product Design Photo credit: Todd Keruskin Creating a Mold and Adding Chocolate Packaging Marketing. 6 Strategies to Truly Personalize PBL. In the past, I wrote about how, along with other teachers, I've ventured into truly personalized project-based learning. I discussed the challenges we face as well as what it looks like in the classroom. Many of us may be personalizing PBL without even knowing it. Teachers have always had students pursue their own research projects on their own questions. Students around the globe are engaged in genius hour activities about their passions and are given voice and choice in how they show their learning.
These are just some aspects of personalized PBL, and we can improve the model further still when we adopt more tenets of personalization into the already-existing PBL framework. In addition, many teachers are claiming that they're personalizing learning for students when in fact they are not. However, PBL and personalized learning make an excellent match that creates engagement for students through authentic, personal work on content and skills that they want and need. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Project-Based Learning and Gamification: Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together. Times of flux should signal the A-OK for some experimentation in schools. My own school, for instance, is encouraging more PBL. In my room, we've got my advocacy unit on superheroes. Meanwhile, a fundraiser is launching in a sixth-grade room, a seventh-grade science class is doing a national parks tie-in to the upcoming Rose Bowl Parade theme, and a living museum is underway in some history teachers' rooms.
The other big PBL experiment is one that will hopefully create a universal academic experience for many students. Based on curriculum I developed for my new STEM-focused PBL book, I'm guiding students toward an Invention Convention, and I invited any interested teacher to participate. As a result, I now have approximately 500 students from every subject area ready to begin moving through this unit.
But with such an enthusiastic response to the offer comes a happy problem to solve. Individualized Pacing through a PBL Unit How do I individualize each student's learning process and pacing? PBL Research Review (Edutopia) Editor's Note: This article was originally written by Vanessa Vega, with subsequent updates made by the Edutopia staff. Studies have proven that when implemented well, project-based learning (PBL) can increase retention of content and improve students' attitudes towards learning, among other benefits.
Edutopia's PBL research review explores the vast body of research on the topic and helps make sense of the results. In this series of five articles, learn how researchers define project-based learning, review some of the possible learning outcomes, get our recommendations of evidence-based components for successful PBL, learn about best practices across disciplines, find tips for avoiding pitfalls when implementing PBL programs, and dig in to a comprehensive annotated bibliography with links to all the studies and reports cited in these pages. What is Project-Based Learning? Learning Outcomes Keys to Project-Based Learning Success. How School Leaders Set the Stage for PBL Success. What does the effective implementation of project-based learning (PBL) look like within a school or across an entire system?
There's no one right answer, according to superintendents and school leaders who have started down this path. Some leaders want to see wall-to-wall PBL, with students learning mainly through projects in every subject. Others set a more realistic goal, hoping to see students taking part in projects at least a few times during the school year. For strategic reasons, leaders may choose to concentrate PBL rollouts in certain subject areas, such as STEM, or launch PBL initiatives at specific grade levels or pilot sites. Whether the goal is for projects to happen occasionally or every day, in one building or across an entire school system, lasting results require thoughtful leadership. "Why PBL? " Leaders can expand this conversation by asking: What would a successful implementation of PBL accomplish for students, teachers, and the broader community? Be Strategic Stay Patient. PBL Pilot: Formative Assessment and PBL.
Editor's note: Matt Weyers and co-author Jen Dole, teachers at Byron Middle School in Byron, Minnesota, present the ninth installment in a year-long series documenting their experience of launching a PBL pilot program. Formative assessment is a crucial element of project-based learning and the education profession as a whole. Understanding how to swiftly and adeptly modify the scope of your lesson based on the needs of your students will play an enormous role in their learning. When we embarked this year on our journey of PBL, we found that there were several formative assessment strategies unique to PBL.
In this post, we'd like to focus on two strategies that we found most helpful. 1. What is a driving question? A driving question is the roadmap to an entire project. Using the driving question as a formative assessment Using the driving question as a formative assessment is a relatively simple process. 2. What is a need to know list? A need to know list is an essential element of PBL. PBL and Standardized Tests? It Can Work! It's never too late to address this subject. Yes, many of us are gearing down from (or gearing up for) the epic standardized testing season, enjoying the freedom, released from the many pressures that come with the tests. However, these tests will keep happening. Whether a yearly course assessment, a six-week benchmark exam or a state-level competency test, teachers and students are inundated with testing.
Because of the way that testing permeates education culture, I often hear some "pushback" from teachers about their implementation of PBL. Here are some tips and responses to pushback related to PBL and standardized tests. PARCC and Smarter Balanced Although some states have opted out of the PARCC or Smarter Balanced Assessments, many of our students will be taking them -- or something similar to them. Don't Wait Until After Testing Season "I'll wait til after the testing season," is one I hear often.
Power Standards and Learning Targets Embed Test Stems and Questions in the PBL Project. Resources for Assessment in Project-Based Learning. Project-based learning (PBL) demands excellent assessment practices to ensure that all learners are supported in the learning process. With good assessment practices, PBL can create a culture of excellence for all students and ensure deeper learning for all. We’ve compiled some of the best resources from Edutopia and the web to support your use of assessment in PBL, including information about strategies, advice on how to address the demands of standardized tests, and summaries of the research. PBL Assessment Foundations 10 Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning (Edutopia, 2011) This comprehensive guide from Edutopia goes over many best practices for assessment, including authentic products, good feedback, formative assessment, and digital tools.
Back to Top PBL and Formative Assessment Practices PBL Pilot: Formative Assessment in PBL (Edutopia, 2015) In another blog post from Matt Weyers, find great tips on using formative assessment within the PBL process to drive student learning. Edutopia 10 tips assessing project based learning. Authentic Assessment: What You Can Do in 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 months, 5 years . . . The School of the Future (SOF) is a unique place. Its dedication to teaching through real-world tasks, checking on student progress often, and adjusting lessons based on a wide variety of assessments is delivering big dividends with increased student engagement and performance.
And although these accomplishments did not occur overnight, we believe that other schools can see similar progress, even if they start small and build slowly. Below are some creative tips for teachers, administrators, and other educators to help your school begin this journey. After you read the tips, we encourage you to use the comment field below to offer suggestions and to start a dialogue with educators from SOF about this topic and their work. In 5 minutes, you can determine what students are thinking and achieve any one, perhaps two, of the following: Make sure that the teaching objective for the day is assessable. In 5 days, you can determine what students know and prove it: Studies in Success: A Survey of Assessment Research | Edutopia. Researchers found that authentic work, such as the architectural project completed by students in Eeva Reeder's geometry class, yielded higher test scores for students. Academic research points to the benefits -- and identifies ongoing challenges -- of implementing performance assessments in K-12 classrooms.
Studies also identify the impact technology can have and is having on both classroom and large-scale assessments. Following are synopses of a sampling of studies on K-12 assessment. Authentic Work Yields Higher Test Scores A three-year study of teaching and learning in more than 400 third-, sixth-, and eighth-grade classrooms in Chicago found that when students were given writing and mathematics assignments calling for more authentic work, they performed better on tests used to judge basic skills. According to the report, "Authentic Intellectual Work and Standardized Tests: Conflict or Coexistence? Adapting Tests to Students' Abilities The Medium Matters. Practical PBL: The Ongoing Challenges of Assessment. In recent years, most students in my project-based AP Government classes have indicated, in both class discussions and anonymously on surveys, that they prefer project-based learning to a more traditional classroom experience.
They find PBL more fun and believe that it leads to deeper learning. However, two types of students often resist this model. Students of the first type generally do not enjoy school at all, and are looking for the path of least resistance. Because a PBL classroom is student-centered and calls on students to produce, less-motivated students will find it more difficult to "hide" and be left alone. The second type of student has already been very successful in traditional classrooms and is deterred by the challenges of this new model.
Both types of students benefit from the option of choosing their role in project cycles to increase motivation. Fair Assessment of Teamwork 1) Individual Skill Areas 2) Role-Based Assessment 3) "Weighted" Scoring. Critical Thinking: A Path to College and Career. World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others. Bringing Their A-Game: Humanities teacher Spencer Pforsich, digital arts/sound production teacher Margaret Noble, humanities teacher Leily Abbassi, and math/science teacher Marc Shulman make lessons come alive on the High Tech campuses in San Diego. Earlier this year, as I was listening to a presentation by an eleven-year-old community volunteer and blogger named Laura Stockman about the service projects she carries out in her hometown outside Buffalo, New York, an audience member asked where she got her ideas for her good work. Her response blew me away. "I ask my readers," she said. She has a network of connections, people from almost every continent and country, who share their own stories of service or volunteer to assist Stockman in her work.
Welcome to the Collaboration Age, where even the youngest among us are on the Web, tapping into what are without question some of the most transformative connecting technologies the world has ever seen. Connection Meets Content Opportunity Cost. The Power of Collaborative Learning. Emphasize Real Problems to Boost STEM Learning. Problem solving is at the heart of engineering. No wonder, then, that engineering teacher Alexander Pancic leverages his own problem-solving skills to improve his students' learning experiences at Brighton High School in Boston, Massachusetts. "I've been trying to get my students to make the step, when they encounter a problem, of asking, 'What do I need to know to try to solve it? '" Students who are accustomed to doing worksheets, Pancic says, "get used to having everything they need to know included in the problems. Life isn't like that. You encounter real-life problems and have to figure out, what do I need to know?
Teachers interested in creating more student-driven learning experiences, especially in the STEM fields, are likely to benefit from Pancic's strategies and the resources he finds useful. Learning from Authentic Challenges Pancic's teaching approach has evolved since he discovered a resource called PBL Projects. Finding the Right Fit Doubling Up on Learning. Classroom Guide: Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning (now available in Spanish!) Facebook Edutopia on Facebook Twitter Edutopia on Twitter Google+ Pinterest Edutopia on Pinterest WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation What's Inside the PDF? Keep It Real with Authentic Products Don’t Overlook Soft Skills Learn from Big Thinkers Use Formative Strategies to Keep Projects on Track Gather Feedback -- Fast Focus on Teamwork Track Progress with Digital Tools Grow Your Audience Do-It-Yourself Professional Development Assess Better Together BONUS TIP: How to Assemble Your PBL Tool Kit.
PBL Teachers Need Time to Reflect, Too. Student reflection is a key ingredient in project-based learning, and for good reason. As John Dewey reminded us nearly a century ago, "We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience. " Reflection not only makes learning stick at the end of a project but also helps students think about what's working well and what's not during PBL. When students take time to reflect on their progress, they can make revisions or course corrections so that they can achieve better results. (For a look at student reflection strategies, read High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick.) The same holds true for teachers. Admittedly, making time for teacher reflection during PBL can be a challenge. If you've spent the fall term immersed in projects with your students, you may be up to your elbows in project assessments right now. Here are some strategies to help you make the most of PBL reflection. Invite Student Feedback Don't rely on your own impressions.
Integrated PBL Projects: A Full-Course Meal! How a TEDx Mission Makes Learning Relevant To Students’ Lives. Sparking Civic Engagement by Building in Public Spaces. Learning Beyond Classroom Walls | Edutopia.