Question 1: How does PBL differ from the way you are currently teaching and assigning long-term projects?
Question 2: Choose one of the projects and respond to these questions: What elements of this project could you incorporate into your classroom? What elements of this project would be difficult to implement in your classroom? Why?
Question 3: After reviewing the units, choose one and consider these questions. Did the project reflect the key characteristics of PBL? Did the project address standards? Could student learning be measured?
I think that Project Based Learning is integrated into the methods of teaching that I already use. Since I teach forensics, my students have hands-on opportunities to use the knowledge and skills that they have learned in class without me telling the “answer.” Most of the time, throughout the crime scene units especially, it drives the students crazy because I tell them that there is no correct answer….the answer is what the evidence tells you and that they can only know about what parts are given.
I do think that I need some help making all of my units mesh together in a more projects that fit together. I have a lot of labs that work but I would rather make them more “real-world” by fitting them into case files, crimes, etc. I just haven’t had time to do that yet!!
The three projects that I found that could relate to my class are as follows: Resources related to careers in Forensics, The Innocence Project, and CourtTV Classroom Forensic Curriculums. I think that I could easily complete a webquest with the first topic, having students describe a “day in the life of…” scenario. The CourtTV curriculums are good in that it presents the student with background and a crime scene, has the students collect evidence and run certain tests on the evidence based on scientific principles learned in the classroom. These would be easy to implement on a small scale but some of the scenarios involve lots of space that isn’t used by another class (like a cafeteria…yeah, let’s try that at AHS) and some rather detailed scientific tests. Problem with these is that I am the first to admit that I am not great at mixing solutions of chemicals…maybe you can help Lisa?
Also, I’m not sure what to do with The Innocence Project (pro-bono lawyers that try to get criminals out of prison if they are innocent by methods of forensic science). Any suggestions?
I think that the units follow the strategies of PBL. I think that problems in science often do this by default…however, some work needs to be done so kids can relate science to the “real world.” Forensics units usually do a good job with this…criminal v. victim, good v. evil, etc.
The projects on the CourtTV website did address national science standards and I could also reflect ALCOS standards to these units. I like the fact that they leveled them into middle-school (with the more elementary story-line…a dognapping?) through easy, medium, and hard.
Student learning could be measured by the accuracy of their lab findings and the students’ ability to solve the case. Students could then be tested on concepts that were learned (not only practiced) during the unit.
PBL would allow the curriculum to be much more hands-on and curiosity-focused. For government, PBL may allow me to better piece together the idea that all of government in connected. In response to long-term projects, PBL would allow me to integrate curriculum in between student research.
I viewed the following videos: Stand Up for Alaska; Students as Architects; and Begin with the End. I really enjoyed Stand Up for Alaska as it involved the researching of a problem facing society then was followed up by political action. The students were able to identify and then act upon a problem. With transportation difficulties, it would be hard for my classes to actually go to Washington as this class did.
After looking through the Water Pollution project, I felt like this was the type of lesson/project that I would be interested in designing. The description was a little vague so i may be guessing on some of these questions. Overall, the PBL characteristics were met in my view. The project had a real feel to it and addressed a real-life issue. The teacher included rubrics for various phases of the project making learning assessable. For the time amount, it did not seem that this project incorporated as many standards as it should have.
i already create activities with the pbl model as the foundation. to be honest, all of us in this grouping probably do, which is why we joined in the first place. but the comment that stuck out to me was busbin’s (for the time amount it didn’t seem to incorporate as many standards as it should have. I agree that if we’re putting in the time to design a lesson to this degree of complexity and academic challenge, we need to ensure that it not only motivates and inspires, but also “covers” enough material to be worth the in-class time devoted to it. does that make sense?
Question 1: Well, I think PBL will be something I will look to do in the future. For now, I really don’t assign long-term projects. For my students in particular, it is so important that I piece everything together for them in order for them to pass the graduation exam. I am so pressed for time that I find it hard to have these hands-on experiences in my classes. I love these ideas that are given, and I would love to do this in my classroom. I try to relate certain objectives to hands-on experiences, but again, I am so pressed for time to cover those objectives before the test that I struggle with finding the time for projects. However, I do use our Smartboard, and this gives the students a chance to be involved more in their own learning. I have found that with grad. exam prep. students, repitition is the key. I have also found that actually teaching these students how to retain information (basic study skills or test-taking skills) really helps as well.
Question 2:
I looked at a project called, Crash Course: Learning to go from school to career. An academy based somewhere in Texas focuses on preparing students to enter the working world right after high school. Students may choose from accounting, art, engineering, law, or health services. During their day, these students are using hands-on learning. For this particular video, they focused on an EMT who volunteers his time to work with students. The students have the hands-on learning experience of an actual EMT. They practice taking vitals, etc.
It reminded me of the health science classes we have here at AHS. The major difference is these students spend the majority of their day just focusing on the skills they will need for their future career (much like colleges except the learning is hands-on).
It would be awesome to do this at AHS, but we would pretty much have to revamp the whole state of Alabama’s educational system. I am for this hands-on learning, but I really could not use any of this in my classroom. However, if I were teaching a regular education class, I would definitely use more hands-on learning. I am for it, but I think my job is to get these students to pass the graduation exam so they can move on with their lives. I have to mirror the testing atmosphere they will have on the actual test date. We do some hands-on, but unfortunately, I still have to have the tradtional “black-and-white” time on paper or on the computer.
It was an outstanding idea, and I just wish we had more opportunity for this in our setting. I know a lot of states have these types of academies in place.
Question 3:
First project: The Black Plague Project
This project definitely covers the key characteristics of PBL. The students were assigned to be an actual person during the Black Plague. They had to place their findings on powerpoint, and they had in-depth questions that really guided their learning. The student was allowed to role-play as if they lived during the Black Plague.
The project did address standards for the state of California. In fact, they placed them on this website to show which standards they had met. They not only met history standards, but they were also able to meet some reading standards as well as language standards.
Student learning could definitely be measured. The students were required to place all they had learned on powerpoint, and the teacher had actual rubrics he/she used for this project.
PBL would allow for students to take more ownership in regards to their own education, especially in History. With having to construct a project that encompasses multiple perspectives, documents, elements, etc. students will be able to invest in their own schooling, instead of simply observing from the outside. This is definitely a priority in my planning of US 10, but I do not have longer-term projects that incorporate this. PBL could provide those type projects.
I viewed the “Carving Cultural Connections” video regarding students examining the local Native American cultures through experiential exercise. The ability to actually see and touch history is invaluable, and more times than not, that kind of experience does not happen in the classroom. With the Native American history in our region, allowing students to see and touch history would be something that could be incorporated into the classroom here in Auburn. However, it would be difficult to find time outside the classroom, especially on the weekends, etc. to be able to make this happen on a consistent basis. That would be hard to incorporate into my classroom, perhaps it would have to be a one-time experience.
I reviewd “The Amistad Case” which is a very unique and significant event in American history, which reflected American attitudes toward slavery. I believe this unit encompasses the key elements of PBL. It has a highly-structured scaffold system which provides the content that is so vital to the success of the culminating activity in PBL. The project most definitely addressed standards, allowing teachers to access the exact standards it applies to in California (where it was created). However, there is not a huge difference to Alabama, so one could simply adapt the standards to those of Alabama. I think the most important element of PBL is student assessment and scoring, and this project has a detailed list of rubrics for multiple stages within the project, not simply for the culminating activity. Students are evaluated at multiple stages throughout the project, which is very crucial.
Based on reviewing several of the suggested websites, I noted the following about Project-Based Learning:
1. A guiding question is an absolute requirement. Students use this question to direct their learning.
2. The question must possess real-world applications that also relate to what the students are already learning in class.
3. The students must complete a final project of some sort, reporting what was learned through the activity. Projects will vary in form (oral presentations, films, blogs, etc.).
I think I already use this format of teaching when I assign projects in class, but I think I need to work harder to ensure that I have a clear, defining question that directs students in their tasks. I also have a difficult time relating some of the literature we study to the real world. Some texts are easier than others, especially if they are historically accurate. I need help in making fictional texts more applicable to the real world and to students’ future careers.
Answering Question 2
One of the projects I chose to view was about students who used several content areas to help them in developing a project for Microsoft. Two boys used physics, math, engineering, and English (creative writing) to write a screenplay and create a digital video for Microsoft. I found this to be an interesting experiment, and I liked that the boys used so many skills from multiple content areas to accomplish their real world goal.
I could definitely help students with writing projects for most any purpose, so I could easily implement this portion of the activity in my own classroom. Depending on the types of media needed to complete this particular project, I doubt that I could help students create a polished presentation for a company like Microsoft. I think that I would definitely need to work from a smaller-based scale.
If possible, I would love to implement ideas like this with other teachers cross-curriculum, but I know how difficult it is for all of us to coordinate lessons and meet our objectives for the state and AHSGE at the same time. These are the major difficulties I anticipate in attempting to implement such a project.
Answering Question 3:
I also studied “The Black Plague Project,” since I already teach this topic in English 12 when we study Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.” I agree with Amanda that this project makes use of the key elements of PBL.
Students were required to choose a role, write about experiences from that perspective, anticipate difficulties they would have faced, and draw conclusions about the chosen role. All of these tasks were drawn from the guiding questions provided by the teacher.
The class then met standards by reading stories written about this time period and applying their newly-gained knowledge of the Black Plague. Finally, students were required to create a multimedia project to demonstrate what they learned about the Black Plague in English and science classes.
Several steps of the project could be graded easily using the rubrics that the teacher placed on the website, so student learning is indeed easily measured.
I think this is a great project for younger students (7th-8th graders). I don’t think I could use it “as-is” for my English 12 class, but some components could be modified for higher-level thinking in the upper grade levels.
Question 1: To be honest, I actually don’t assign any long-term projects or assgnments. Most of my assessment tools are pretty traditional. When I do make use of assignments, it’s pretty different than what we’re learning here about PBL. Most of the work is usally done outside of class, which means I have no way to gauge the interest or engagement of the students. It also means that, in many cases, I think it’s the PARENTS that are getting the benefit of the assignment! I also don’t think I’ve ever assigned a long-term project that examines a real-life problem. Finally, all of my projects are done by students individually; I VERY rarely assign a group to do a project, mainly because there are all kinds of fairness issues once they get out the door. It seems to me that one person usually gets stuck with doing most/all of the work.
Question 2: I found it hard to choose just one of the projects to discuss here because all three were truly excellent. The ones I watched were the one from the Auburn Early Ed Center, “Learning How to Rebuild a Town,” and the Native Peoples one. What I found interesting as well is that there aren’t many PBL examples from English or language arts classes. This isn’t surprising to some, I guess; in the Sun Belt Writing Project, we found their were virtually no examples of English lessons in PROBLEM-based learning, which is a different type of PBL, but the ideas seem the same to me.
What I like about all of these projects is that they incorporate students engaged in activities, and while the students are engaged, they’re working in groups. This is where all our training in Cooperative Learning will form a good foundation. I think I could incorporate this pretty well at this point. I found it interesting, though, that even in these exemplar lessons, there were still some examples of things not going completely smoothly. For example, in the town building video, there was a kid who basically blamed the other group members for things not being done perfectly (there was some bickering, followed by “that wasn’t my job.”) However, I really like this, because the real world operates this way, and these kids need to learn that working with others is a give and take. This “human” problem also highlights the very underlying principle of PBL units: there’s a messy problem, a real-life problem, a problem with either no correct answers or many possible answers. With enough work, I think I could create lessons with real-world problems.
The biggest concern or difficulty is that PBL takes a lot of time. I normally don’t gripe about not having time to cover all the required objectives, but I’m starting to get that way now that we’re being forced by NCLB to really ace the test scores. For example, this year I’m spending an extra two weeks doing reading objectives that I normally don’t do. Therefore, time is tight. However, like the teacher from the AEEC pointed out, with clever planning, it’s possible to cover TONS of objectives through the course of a PBL unit or project.
Some of these projects require a lot of technology or supplies (in one case, these were provided free to teachers by a foundation), but I’m not sure that’s really a concern here at AHS. It seems that we can probably get our hands on whatever we need. Oh, I learned that the Choctaw Band of Native Americans from Mississippi have the most tech-savvy reservation in the country, so if things get tight, perhaps we can open a tribal gaming center [this blog doesn't allow the "cas**o" word] here in Auburn. Hey, what a great way to fund the laptop initiative! Who has an “in” with the Creek Nation??
Question 3:
I’m going to focus on “Designing a Never-Before-Seen City.”
Yes, this project contains key characteristics of PBL. The students work in small groups to achieve designated tasks. This is an extended activity, in this case lasting a month. There is no correct answer; instead, students move closer toward understanding the big idea that cities are complex systems.
Yes, I can certainly see how standards are being addressed. This isn’t an English lesson, but I can see various objectives that are being addressed in this project from the English 10 Course of Study:
–Apply both literal and inferential comprehension strategies…
–Recognize fallacious or illogical thought in…informational texts.
–Write in the persuasive mode…
–Apply principles of Standard English…
–Use the research process to document and organize information…
–Critique oral and visual presentations for fallacies in logic.
Yes, student learning can be measured. If I were doing this project with my high-school students, I would make it a little more in-depth (it was created for elementary students), but even with the project as it is, there are specific ways that we can come up with grades. (That’s the point of deciding whether the learning can be measured, right? I mean, really…)
The presentation to the outside audience appears to be the culminating activity. Students could be graded on their presentation skills, their presentation format, their ability to achieve the tasks of the assignment, and their ability to make a compelling argument. There’s also an excellent criterion list that the students are asked to reflect upon.
The “Uncommercial Project” also has some excellent rubrics for student evaluation. I think rubrics could be developed for any project like this to measure student learning.
I am using PBL some times in my Physics and Earth Science classes. For example, I assign an Earth History project that is PBL. Also, a roller coaster webquest and project fit the criteria for PBL. These are just two examples. I don’t have a PBL assignment for every unit, though.
Question 2:
I looked at the project Layers of the Grand Canyon. The students study the layers of the Grand Canyon and learn about the geologic time periods during which they were deposited. The first two objectives would be easy to implement. For these objectives they read about the Grand Canyon and answer questions about the layers. I have found that students are very interested in the Grand Canyon. Whenever I show pictures of it in my powerpoint presentations, they have a lot of questions about how it formed. I have been to the Grand Canyon several times, once on a geologic field trip. They like to hear my stories (you know how students love personal stories). So, I think it would be easy to get them to read about the Grand Canyon and answer questions.
The third objective would be tougher to implement. For this objective the students pretend to be scientists and write about a layer in the Grand Canyon. They describe the layer and write about the particular geologic time during which the layer was deposited. Most of my Earth Science students are not very good writers and I think they would not enjoy this aspect of the project. It would be a valuable endeavor, though.
Question 3:
I chose the project “Homesteading Mars”. It addresses a real world problem for another world, Mars. Currently, the U.S. is conducting research about how humans can live on Mars. (My students might really connect this to “real world” when I tell them that one of my physics students is working on a NASA funded project at AU. This project addresses the problem of how to build structures using local resources on Mars.)
In the project, students work in teams to develop a proposal for building a settlement on Mars to house 100 people. The aspects that fit the PBL model are (1) group work with assigned tasks (2) real world problem (3) use of multimedia to present results and (3) clearly defined assessments.
There are many science standards addressed by this project. For example, students would have to demonstrate their understanding of energy and energy transformations, chemistry of the atmosphere, chemical reactions, and matter and energy in living systems.
The students will also develop an understanding of the inter-relationship between people, resources, and the environment.
The project provides many rubrics for evaluating end products and self-assessment.There are also worksheets and group progress reports.