Blog Post #9

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

I think both teachers and students teach us a lot project based learning. I think project based learning is a great tool for getting students to work out of the box. Below will summarize the resources I used and have my opinions as well.

The first required source was an article called Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning. This source gives an example of each section of a class to explain each part of project-based learning. The project overviewed in this source is about ocean pollution and coming up with ideas to help fix it. I really liked this idea and it sounds like it would be a lot of fun to do. I wish I had done a project like this one in high school. This project would definitely be one that I would remember in a good way. It gets students very involved in a project that is collaborative, involves technology, gets them involved with the community, and asking more in depth questions to dive deeper into the driving question. I would like to do something very similar this with my students. I would somewhat edit it so as to do it on subject matter that is more prevalent. I would like to see how far the students would go with it.

The last required source was a video called Project-Based Learning for Teachers. This video defines what project-based learning provides in the classroom and what ways it helps students. This video does a great job in showing ways to use it and just how useful it is. If anyone has any questions about the general concept of project based learning, this is definitely the video I would show them. This video describes it in a way that is very basic and easy to understand. They are also a great way to teach 21st century skills. These kinds of projects will definitely be integrated into my classroom when I begin to teach.

This finishes up the required sources that I needed to incorporate into this blog post. I needed to include 3 more. I was given the option to use some from given sources, or I could find my own. I used one video from the list and I found 2 other videos that I enjoyed.

The one video that I am using from the list that Dr. Strange gave us was the Wing Project: Crafting a Driving Question. This video is a recording of a conversation about crafting a driving question. This project revolved around making a functional wing. This project incorporated math, physics, and engineering. This project gave a real world example that these students would probably be using later on in their careers. The driving question is probably the most important aspect of a project-based learning assignment. If the question isn't very clear to too narrow, then it can mess up the whole project.

One of the two videos I used in supplement for one from the list of sources was Project-Based Learning in an Elementary Science Classroom. I really liked this project idea. This project incorporated communication between other students in other countries. This project revolved around monarch butterflies and was an online project. They tracked monarch butterflies through their migration and grew milkweed plants, which the monarchs use to lay their eggs. I think I would like to do this project in my classroom in the future.

The other video I used was School District Uses Project Based Learning Over Testing. The Danville school district in Kentucky integrated project-based learning into the whole school and the result was really cool. The students were really into the projects and very interested in the information. It gives students a change of pace and gives value to the projects so it isn't just busy work. This way, I feel like students understand the information and processes more. The students can discuss it with their classmates and bounce ideas off of each other. It also creates an opportunity to get involved with their community, their country, or the world. With the projects the students need to be able to communicate, use their creativity, and cooperate in their team. This kind of learning demonstrates a deeper learning than the learning that is used for simple test taking. This kind of learning also helps increase test scores. The students are actually learning it, not just regurgitating it.

I think project-based learning is a great idea and I can't wait to learn how to integrate it.