Top 5 PBL News Stories

 

Oct. 17-21, 2016

 

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

Here’s what we liked this week:

Can a Math Curriculum Audit Improve Student Achievement in Math?
Education Week
Capital City Public Charter School, in Washington D.C. “strongly emphasizes project-based learning, arts integration and character development” and is a member of the EL Education Network, our respected fellow PBL travelers. However, their test scores in math were not improving, and this blog describes in detail how they analyzed the Common Core math standards and realigned their instruction. Looking forward to hearing about the results!

A Student-Led Pokémon Go Project Transforms a School
Edutopia
This isn’t exactly a PBL-style project, but it’s an interesting idea that could inspire other teachers to design projects based on the popular augmented-reality game. Students at a school in Brazil drew their own “mutants” and placed them around the school campus, learning a lot about collaboration in the process.

Why do we explore? Five reasons for taking time out of the classroom
Huffington Post
A Spanish-language teacher at THINK Global School tells about taking students traveling around the world to do projects on local issues. But his message resonates for teachers in any school: take students out into the real world to motivate them to learn. “It doesn’t even need to be somewhere exotic, as endless opportunities for project-based learning exist right within your community.”

Facilitating Problem Framing in Project-Based Learning
Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning
This research study has some interesting findings about students as designers in project-based instruction in a high school that has worked with BIE: ACE Leadership Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which serves students who have dropped out of other schools. The paper describes a project that began with designing temporary shelters for the homeless from waste materials, but due to student interest it morphed from “charity to social justice” as they explored the issue of homelessness in their community.

Project Based Learning: Facilitating Effective STEM Learning
UK Ed Magazine
This article by a teacher in the United Kingdom explains a STEM project for 4th-5th grade students with the driving question, How can robots change the world?
The teacher was “astounded” by the students’ creativity as they came up with ideas and designs for products such as an electronic walking stick for blind people and a “healthcare robot” to visit houses when doctors are unavailable.
 

 

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