Blog Post 9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning
In this article, John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller discuss the seven essentials for Project Based Learning. This article contains a lot of great information about using Project Based Learning instead of boring "busy work" projects. This article does a great job of correlating each point to the example story of Ms. McIntyre's science class and their project. The first point is "A Need to Know." This is where the project is introduced in an engaging way that provides an "entry event" to get the students excited with questions. The second point is "A Driving Question." This question is the main focus of the project, and it allows for students to be engaged with an open-ended question and challenge them to explore and learn what you want them to learn from the project. The third point is "Student Voice and Choice." As discussed in the article, this element of student voice and choice is probably the most important. Students need to have the opportunity to make their own decisions about their project, and this gives them the ability for their thoughts and ideas to be limitless and have meaning to them. The fourth point is "21st Century Skills." This entails the students using skills such as, collaboration, communication, technology, and more that enhances their ability to learn and work with their peers. I think it is very important to use the sources we have in this technology based world to better the learning of the students. The fifth point is "Inquiry and Innovation." This point is a great aspect to Project Based Learning because students actually learn from themselves by discovering answers to their generated questions. Students will learn further by their own inquiry and innovation, rather than reading curriculum from a textbook. The sixth point from the article is "Feedback and Revision." This is key in generating feedback from peers and the teacher. When students critique each others work, it makes it the process more meaningful. The last point is "A Publicly Presented Project". This is a great way to expand the audience outside of the classroom. By getting the school or parents involved, it makes students proud of their work since they are working towards a larger audience.

This article is full of great points and it relates back to any Project Based Learning project. I think that the process of a PBL project is a learning process for both teachers and students. In this project atmosphere, ideas can bounce from teacher to student and keep us far away from "busy work" projects.

Photo by: 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Project Based Learning for Teachers
This video, by Tony Vincent, discusses why Project Based Learning is important for our students and their way of learning. This video explains that the Common Core State Standards are the WHAT and the Project Based Learning is the HOW. This video says that in PBL we are questioning, investigating, sharing, and reflecting. When the video flashes the names of the many resources of technology it goes to show how many available sources there are. Even though these are just SOME of the MANY out there. Technology is something that helps "students take charge of their learning" because they can use these tools on their own or collaboratively. Tony Vincent provides the key factors to PBL in this video. These factors are having a purpose, addressing an audience, crafting a driving question, identifying learning standards, creating a runic, grouping students, brainstorming branching questions, meeting deadlines, focusing on the process, and refining the end product. These main points are the KEY to Project Based Learning.

Project Based Learning in PE
Before reading this blog post, the title of the is source caught my attention. I don't know why I wouldn't think about PBL in Physical Education, so I was interested to learn more. In the scenario in this post, high school students are creating different physical fitness plans for middle school students. This is a great way for the high school students to collaborate and also benefit middle school students in the process. In PE, most everything the students do is obviously physical activity which is hands-on. But also, using PBL in PE pushes the students further than just performing the physical activities. Therefore, now I see how to incorporate PBL so students use their collaborative skills to create projects involving physical fitness. The projects also meet the content standards for Physical Education. The project the high school students create really gives them the creativity to "Voice and Choice" their opinion of what skill to create a physical fitness program around. After reading this blog post, I learned more about implementing PBL in Physical Education even if I didn't realize it at first. I'm glad that I was able to recognized how much PBL in involved in the further collaboration on PE, other than just the physical fitness aspect.

PBL: What Motivates Students Today
This video is a great source to see the students perspective. The first student says that he is motivated when his teacher compliments him and praising him on his work in class. When the teacher recognizes the students hard work, it makes the students want to accomplish more. The next student in the video says she is motivated by what is to come in the future. She wants a family, house, dog, etc and wants to have a successful job. Therefore, she wants to do well in school so she can have all of those things. The next several students all talk about being motivated by the future and wanting to be in a certain career that they dreamed of. Next, the video talks about rewards that work. Some of the rewards that the students explain are clip boards/charts for their behaviors, candy, going to the garden at school, prizes from the teacher like pencils or stickers, and brownie points. Most of the students talk about how their teacher has a certain reward they have for each day. I think that rewards definitely motivate students and it is a fun way to applaud students for their good work and behavior.

Two Students Solve the Case of the Watery Ketchup by Designing a New Cap
I thought this video was great! I am a ketchup lover and I personally hate when that watery substance goes everywhere when you squirt the ketchup out. Two high school seniors, Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson, came up with this project idea when they were asked "it really bugs me when..." I think that this project was a great learning experience for them to put their hard work into a real-world problem that they wanted to solve. They really cared about this project because they were able to pick it and decide everything that went into the research. I was really impressed that they spent so much time and energy into this project. They also had the tools to 3D print "the mushroom" that was the key to keeping away the watery substance in the ketchup bottle when it's poured. As teachers, we really want all students to be this engaged in a project. When we give the students the opportunity to collaborate with one another and innovate new ideas it is more fun for them and expands their learning on another level.