The PBL Academy High Tech High - Project Based Learning Seven Successful PBL Projects In March 2005 High Tech High received a $250,000 grant from the California Department of Education to disseminate project-based learning methods to teachers in non-charter public schools. As part of the project, High Tech High teachers have documented successful projects to share with collaborating teachers from local districts and across the HTH network. The current volume presents the fruits of these labors. This New House How does human habitation affect the environment? learn more » Millionaire How can an idea be transformed into a product that could make us millions? learn more » San Diego Field Guide How can we be better environmental stewards of the San Diego Bay? learn more » Urban Art How do math and science influence artistic expression? learn more » Vietnam Project Was the conflict in Vietnam a selfish, colonial move on the part of the United States or was it a general effort to make the world safe from Communism or something in between? learn more » Machines
Project Based Learning Science – Lesson Plans for PBL Putting together a PBL science plan can be enormously time consuming without excellent models. So here are hundreds of free detailed plans for projects for elementary, middle and high school students. The plans are sorted by discipline - astronomy and space, chemistry, engineering and architecture, physics, technology, and earth, life sciences, physical sciences, and... well, "other" for no clear fit. Most of the ones I've listed provide project overviews, guiding questions, procedures and activities, work product descriptions, grading rubrics, and questions for reflection. The first PBL project I planned many years ago was the creation of a butterfly habitat in the school garden by my 3rd graders. I found far more free PBL resources than I ever anticipated, and more than 300 free science-based PBL projects are listed below. To learn more about project based learning, problem based learning, and how to get started, read my article on Project-Based Learning Lesson Plans.
Integrated PBL Projects: A Full-Course Meal! In the project-based learning field, we use the metaphor that projects are the "main course, not the dessert" (as coined in an article from the Buck Institute for Education). Projects are intended to create the need-to-know content and skills, and the opportunity for students to learn them in an authentic context. When teachers first design PBL projects, they are often limited. In fact, I recommend that. Teachers and students must learn to become better PBL practitioners, so limited projects can lead to more ambitious projects. Teachers develop PBL curriculum for the coming year. Photo Credit: Andrew Miller Use a Variety of Planning Strategies I wrote about many of these strategies in a previous blog post. Larger Part of the Meal Not all integrated projects are equal when it comes to the disciplines. Many "Courses" in the Project Until we move out the antiquated, "silo" nature of schooling where disciplines exist on their own, integration can be a challenge.
Wall-to-wall project-based learning: A conversation with biology teacher Kelley Yonce At the mid-point of the 2008-09 academic year, according to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, East Wake School of Integrated Technology biology teacher Kathleen (Kelley) Yonce needed to introduce her class of 20 sophomores to deoxyribonucleic acid, a.k.a. DNA. An avowed project-based learning (PBL) teacher who creates 7-8 learning projects, one after another, each lasting between 1½ and 3½ weeks, throughout the school year, she consulted her usual sources of inspiration — Edutopia, the New Schools Project — but nothing struck her fancy. At home on a snow day watching television, Ms. The key to successful project-based teaching, Ms. For the DNA project, she cast her students in the roles of genetic counselors. Although the academic emphasis placed on the particular elements of a project may change, each project follows the same general outline. The “entry document” This item introduces the project and provides the time-line. Ms. The teams “Teams of 3-4 students are best,” Ms.
Project-Based Learning Through a Maker's Lens The rise of the Maker has been one of the most exciting educational trends of the past few years. A Maker is an individual who communicates, collaborates, tinkers, fixes, breaks, rebuilds, and constructs projects for the world around him or her. A Maker, re-cast into a classroom, has a name that we all love: a learner. A Maker, just like a true learner, values the process of making as much as the product. In the classroom, the act of Making is an avenue for a teacher to unlock the learning potential of her or his students in a way that represents many of the best practices of educational pedagogy. A Makerspace classroom has the potential to create life-long learners through exciting, real-world projects. Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. What Do You Want to Do? The first step in designing a PBL unit for a Maker educator is connecting specific content standards to the project. Essential Questions Making requires partners. Failure Is a Preferable Option
Making Games: The Ultimate Project-Based Learning Gamestar Mechanic Part 6 of MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning. As game-based learning increases in popularity, it’s easy to get pigeon-holed into one particular way of thinking about it or one way of employing it. This is true regardless of how teachers feel about gaming in the classroom, whether they’re for or against it. One common objection to game-based learning is that students will sit in front of screens being taught at. Sure, games are interactive, but on some level, don’t they still just replace the sage on the stage with the sage on the screen? In previous posts in this series, I’ve argued that because games involve systems thinking, they contextualize learning. “Games are just simulators with an internal incentive structure (often dopamine based). However, virtual simulations of hands-on experience are not the same as tangibly engaging with the world. Fortunately, few people are calling for games to replace school as we know it. Related
Professional Goal: Dive Into Project-based Learning - Philip Cummings I love that my school is deeply committed to providing teachers with quality, on-going professional growth and development. Among the many things we do each year at PDS for professional development, teachers create an individual professional development goals directly related to classroom teaching and learning. Each goal should have practical application and impact in the current year and align with broader institutional goals and philosophies. Having spent a significant amount of time reading and researching about project-based learning, I decided to commit to diving into PBL this year. The plan I submitted as my goal for this school year is below. Goal: Incorporate PBL Into 6th Grade Reading My professional development goal for this year will be to research and incorporate more project based learning into my 6th grade reading class. Steps to Achieve Goal: In order to accomplish this goal, I will take the following steps: Final Product: We completed our projects just before spring break.
20 Tips On How To Work With Students Who Have a Hard Time Collaborating Transformation Central - Project-Based Learning These teacher-developed Project-Based Learning Units are intended as an idea-generation resource, as these units may reflect alignment to outdated standards. Please consider alignment and adjust these units to current standards prior to classroom implementation. Check out our PBL Online Workshops! Archived PBL These units have been archived and will no longer be updated. Transformation Central does not guarantee the alignment to the TEKS or state assessment. Physics Algebra I Algebra II Biology Chemistry Geometry
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. Both types of students benefit from the option of choosing their role in project cycles to increase motivation. Fair Assessment of Teamwork To increase buy-in for both types of students, the most important thing a teacher needs to do is help build individual accountability -- and, by extension, trust -- in student teams. 1) Individual Skill Areas 2) Role-Based Assessment
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.
What You Need to Be an Innovative Educator Innovation isn't a matter of will. Like most things worth creating, critical ingredients pre-exist the product. In the case of innovation in education, many of those necessary ingredients are simpler and more accessible than they might seem -- which is, of course, good news to an industry already up to its nostrils in oh my gosh for the kids we must have this for the kids yesterday for the kids admonishments. Whether you're innovating a curriculum, an app, a social media platform for learning, an existing instructional strategy, or something else entirely, innovation in education is a significant catalyst for change in education. If our data is correct, you're probably a teacher. And if you're a teacher, you're probably interested in innovation in the classroom, so let's start there -- with project-based learning, for example. Project-based learning is an example of innovation, but probably not the way you'd expect. PBL promotes innovation in education by making room for it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What Project-Based Learning Is — and What It Isn’t Screenshot/High Tech High The term “project-based learning” gets tossed around a lot in discussions about how to connect students to what they’re learning. Teachers might add projects meant to illustrate what students have learned, but may not realize what they’re doing is actually called “project-oriented learning.” And it’s quite different from project-based learning, according to eighth grade Humanities teacher Azul Terronez. Terronez, who teaches at High Tech Middle, a public charter school in San Diego, Calif says that when an educator teaches a unit of study, then assigns a project, that is not project-based learning because the discovery didn’t arise from the project itself. “If you inspire them to care about it and draw parallels with their world, then they care and remember.” For Terronez, the goal is to always connect classroom learning to its applications in the outside world. When Terronez assigns a writing project, it’s rarely just for a grade. Related