Mar. 13-17, 2017

Each Friday we post a list of articles, blog posts, research studies, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

The Unmet Need for Interdisciplinary Education
Education Week
A persuasive argument for PBL: “…the problems that confront us as adults tend to demand skills, knowledge, perspectives, and solutions that cross over artificial academic departmental borders… The best way to learn skills in different contexts is to use them while wrestling with a meaningful real-world challenge or pursuing a deep, genuine interest or question.”

15 Resources on Sparking Student Creativity
ASCD InService
Lots of great articles, blogs, and webinars, including one from BIE National Faculty member Suzie Boss called “Engage Your Students with Real-World Projects.” (I would add a #16, the Creativity/Innovation chapter in the BIE PBL Toolkit Series book authored by Suzie Boss, PBL for 21st Century Success).

Why Your Project Needs a Verb
Edutopia
Blogger, author, instructional coach (and member of the BIE National Faculty) Andrew Miller explains how using the right verb can transform a project. Love his example; for a project about world religions, a teacher considered “share” and “build awareness” for a driving question, before deciding on a more powerful verb: “How can we debunk stereotypes that the general public has about world religions?”

5 Qualities of Prepared Leaders in a Project-Based World
Getting Smart
A very insightful post by Dr. Lisa Abel Palmieri (one of the Deeper Learning Equity Fellows), on how school leaders need to be learners, connectors, navigators, designers, and equitable.

I made my classroom look like the real world…and test scores soared
TedEd Blog
North Carolina elementary school teacher Anthony Johnson tells how he uses PBL with his science and social studies classes in a “simulation of adulthood where students work, create, and learn about personal finance and entrepreneurial skills. They experience real-world situations and gain insights into global affairs.”

PBL Learning Walks - An Awesome PD Experience!
HKES Principal Blog
Here’s a post from a principal of an elementary school in Hawai’i describing a “PBL Learning Walk” where school leaders visit each other’s schools to observe the emerging schoolwide practice of PBL. She is part of a BIE-led project, the Hawai’i Innovative Leader Network.

Can video games, early start and finish times be the secrets to a better education?
SBS, Australia
This story from the Special Broadcasting Service describes a project done by a year 5 class at Merrylands East Public School in Sydney. Students used Minecraft to create movies of Aboriginal dreamtime stories, in response to the driving question, 'How can new technologies be used to tell traditional stories?'

Student-Centered Design Focused Learning at a Student-Led School
Getting Smart
The story of the cutting-edge One Stone High School in Boise, Idaho, where students in a PBL environment “use design thinking to providing marketing services to local companies and serve the community.”

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