Project Based Learning By: Mrs. Abby Difani

What is Project Based Learning? Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge. In Gold Standard PBL, Essential Project Design Elements include: Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skills - The project is focused on student learning goals, including standards-based content and skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, and self-management. Challenging Problem or Question - The project is framed by a meaningful problem to solve or a question to answer, at the appropriate level of challenge.

What is Project Based Learning Cont. Sustained Inquiry - Students engage in a rigorous, extended process of asking questions, finding resources, and applying information. Reflection - Students and teachers reflect on learning, the effectiveness of their inquiry and project activities, the quality of student work, obstacles and how to overcome them. Authenticity - The project features real- world context, tasks and tools, quality standards, or impact – or speaks to students’ personal concerns, interests, and issues in their lives. Critique & Revision - Students give, receive, and use feedback to improve their process and products. Public Product - Students make their project work public by explaining, displaying and/or presenting it to people beyond the classroom. Student Voice & Choice - Students make some decisions about the project, including how they work and what they create.

Why Project Based Learning? Project Based Learning’s time has come. The experience of thousands of teachers across all grade levels and subject areas, backed by research, confirms that PBL is an effective and enjoyable way to learn - and develop deeper learning competencies required for success in college, career, and civic life. Why are so many educators across the United States and around the world interested in this teaching method? The answer is a combination of timeless reasons and recent developments. PBL makes school more engaging for students. Today’s students, more than ever, often find school to be boring and meaningless. In PBL, students are active, not passive; a project engages their hearts and minds, and provides real-world relevance for learning. PBL improves learning. After completing a project, students understand content more deeply, remember what they learn and retain it longer than is often the case with traditional instruction. Because of this, students who gain content knowledge with PBL are better able to apply what they know and can do to new situations.

Why Project Based Learning Cont. PBL helps address standards. The Common Core and other present-day standards emphasize real- world application of knowledge and skills, and the development of success skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking and presentation skills. PBL is an effective way to meet these goals. PBL provides opportunities for students to use technology. Students are familiar with and enjoy using a variety of tech tools that are a perfect fit with PBL. With technology, teachers and students can not only find resources and information and create products, but also collaborate more effectively, and connect with experts, partners, and audiences around the world. PBL makes teaching more enjoyable and rewarding. Projects allow teachers to work more closely with active, engaged students doing high-quality, meaningful work, and in many cases to rediscover the joy of learning alongside their students.

History of Project Based Learning Projects make the world go 'round. For almost any endeavor -- whether it's launching a space shuttle, designing a marketing campaign, conducting a trial, or staging an art exhibit -- you can find an interdisciplinary team working together to make it happen. When the project approach takes hold in the classroom, students gain opportunities to engage in real-world problem solving too. Instead of learning about nutrition in the abstract, students act as consultants to develop a healthier school cafeteria menu. Rather than learning about the past from a textbook, students become historians as they make a documentary about an event that changed their community. Especially when it's infused with technology, project-based learning may look and feel like a 21st-century idea, but it's built on a venerable foundation.

Experts on Project Based Learning Vicki Davis Vicki Davis, a high school teacher from Georgia Why should collaboration be built into a project? "If one is teaching math, you can talk all day about it and look at problems on the board; however, students begin to understand math when they work on problems. Problems are a necessary part of math, and we shouldn't shy away from using that word." Sylvia Chard Sylvia Chard is a Professor Emeritus of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta Why is project learning important? "One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life. In real life, we don't spend several hours at a time listening to authorities who know more than we do and who tell us exactly what to do and how to do it. We need to be able to ask questions of a person we're learning from. We need to be able to link what the person is telling us with what we already know. And we need to be able to bring what we already know and experiences we've had that are relevant to the topic to the front of our minds and say something about them."

Research on Project Based Learning 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.

Essentials for Project Based Learning 1. A Need to Know Imagine that on the first day of the infectious disease unit, Ms. McIntyre showed a video depicting a beautiful beach, which ended with a shot of a sign reading, "Beach Closed: Contaminated Water." Suppose watching this video led to a lively discussion in which students shared their experiences with suspicious water quality, discussed times when beaches had been closed and why, and talked about how much pollution bothered them. The teacher could then introduce the project by telling students that they would be learning more about ocean pollution and proposing actions to combat it. * * * 2. A Driving Question A good driving question captures the heart of the project in clear, compelling language, which gives students a sense of purpose and challenge. The question should be provocative, open-ended, complex, and linked to the core of what you want students to learn. It could be abstract (When is war justified?); concrete (Is our water safe to drink?); or focused on solving a problem (How can we improve this website so that more young people will use it?).

Essentials for Project Based Learning Cont. 3. Student Voice and Choice This element of project-based learning is key. In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better. However, teachers should design projects with the extent of student choice that fits their own style and students. * * * 4. 21st Century Skills A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. This exposure to authentic skills meets the second criterion for meaningful work—an important purpose. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for students to assess themselves.

Essentials for Project Based Learning Cont. 5. Inquiry and Innovation Students find project work more meaningful if they conduct real inquiry, which does not mean finding information in books or websites and pasting it onto a poster. In real inquiry, students follow a trail that begins with their own questions, leads to a search for resources and the discovery of answers, and often ultimately leads to generating new questions, testing ideas, and drawing their own conclusions. With real inquiry comes innovation—a new answer to a driving question, a new product, or an individually generated solution to a problem. The teacher does not ask students to simply reproduce teacher- or textbook-provided information in a pretty format.

Essentials for Project Based Learning Cont. 6. Feedback and Revision 7. A Publicly Presented Product In addition to providing direct feedback, the teacher should coach students in using rubrics or other sets of criteria to critique one another's work. Teachers can arrange for experts or adult mentors to provide feedback, which is especially meaningful to students because of the source. In Ms. McIntyre's class, teams presented their analyses of water contamination issues and proposals for addressing the problem at an exhibition night. The invited audience included parents, peers, and representatives of community, business, and government organizations. Students answered questions and reflected on how they completed the project, next steps they might take, and what they gained in terms of knowledge and skills—and pride.

Keys to Project Based Learning Success Researchers have identified several components that are critical to successful PBL (Barron & Darling- Hammond, 2008; Ertmer & Simons, 2005; Mergendoller & Thomas, 2005; Hung, 2008). While project-based learning has been criticized in the past for not being rigorous enough, the following features will greatly improve the chances of a project's success: A realistic problem or project aligns with students' skills and interests requires learning clearly defined content and skills (e.g. using rubrics, or exemplars from local professionals and students) Structured group work groups of three to four students, with diverse skill levels and interdependent roles team rewards individual accountability, based on student growth

Keys to Project Based Learning Success Cont. Multi-faceted assessment Participation in a professional learning network multiple opportunities for students to receive feedback and revise their work (e.g., benchmarks, reflective activities) collaborating and reflecting upon PBL experiences in the classroom with colleagues multiple learning outcomes (e.g., problem-solving, content, collaboration) courses in inquiry-based teaching methods presentations that encourage participation and signal social value (e.g. exhibitions, portfolios, performances, reports)

Reference Page http://bie.org/about/what_pbl http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept10/vol68/num0 1/Seven_Essentials_for_Project-Based_Learning.aspx