I really enjoyed watching real examples of Project Based Learning throughout the week. I have always had an idea of what successful PBL looks like in the classroom, but truth be told, thought it would work best it upper grades, such as high school. When viewing the More Fun Than a Barrel of...Worms?! and March of the Monarchs videos, I felt inspired to truly delve into this structure of learning with my elementary students.
In all three examples of PBL (including Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning) students of all ages were engaged in authentic learning activities based around solving a problem. Students were given questions based on a real-world problem, while targeting learning standards, and those questions were the basis of structured collaboration and student driven ways in which to solve a problem that would have an impact on their community (Edutopia, 2014). I viewed each video two times. Once to get the overall gist of the project, and a second time to understand how well the educators did (or did not) meet the Gold Standard for Project Based Learning (Larmer & Mergendoller, 2015). In this model, successful PBL includes a "challenging problem or question, sustained inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, reflection, critique and revision, public product...all centered around key knowledge, understanding and success skills" (2015). I've used these criteria to determine each project's effectiveness using PBL. More Fun Than a Barrel of...Worms?! (Curtis, 2001) (note: I did find it challenging to find evidence of each criteria for each project featured in this article since there were many, so I'm focusing on the project dealing with animals and worms)
In all three examples of PBL, the students were highly engaged, had control over their learning, we collaborating and problem solving effectively with their peers, and working towards common goals. The teachers were not the center of the classroom, rather the facilitators who asked purposeful questions, helped students find appropriate materials, guided students towards success but never revealed the correct answer. Teachers created environments in which students felt safe to make mistakes, share successes, debate ideas and come to a common understanding. Through the hands on experiments and authentic audiences, students felt impelled to stay engaged, absorb as much as they could, and show their knowledge through a variety of presentation tools in order to impress their audience. At the time these videos were produced, the technology used was quite impressive. Students used computers to access the internet, make PowerPoint Presentations, thinking maps, print out pictures, and more. Knowing what I know about the endless amount of tools available to students in 2017, so much more can be done in terms of technology. There are countless presentation, creativity, inventive apps out there that would aid in a much more effective presentation. There are also many more ways to share findings and presentations through social media, shared portfolios, YouTube, and more. When students know that their work will be shared outside of the classroom, their work tends to be more thought out and have more attention to detail. I am very eager to explore more examples and create a PBL project for my own students. I know my students would be have extreme enthusiasm to participate in a learning project like one described above. Resources Armstrong, S. (2002, February 11). Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/mountlake- terrace-geometry-design Curtis, D. (2002, June 6). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs Curtis, D. (2001, October 1). More Fun Than a Barrel of...Worms?! Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms Edutopia. (2014, June 26). Five Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzCGNnU_WM Journey North. (1997 - 2016). Journey North. Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ Larmer, J & Mergendoller, J. R. (2015, April 21). Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements. Retrieved from http://www.bie.org /blog/gold_standard_pbl_essential_project_design_elements
1 Comment
Bill Dolton
5/11/2017 12:46:58 pm
Excellent review and analysis of the three exemplar projects! You did a very thorough comparison of each project against the Gold Standard. The video clips give a good general overview of each project, but some of the details, as you note, are not evident in the video clips. Also, these exemplars were designed and implemented years before the Gold Standard was developed. Today they would likely check all the boxes as well as take advantage of some more advanced technology resources.
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