Here are some articles, blog posts, research studies, and other resources I’ve recently run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

9 Ways to Make Student Work Authentic
Getting Smart
Blogger and BIE National Faculty member Michael Niehoff offers excellent additions to our thinking about what authenticity means in PBL. Another recent post from Getting Smart worth mentioning: Project Based Learning is a Spectrum, about making a gradual shift to student autonomy.

Common 4Cs Performance Assessment Project
EdLeader21
An invitation to join the Fall 2018 Cohort of school districts to learn how to assess critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity using rubrics and common performance tasks.

Why Does Memorization Reign Supreme in Traditional Learning?
Education Reimagined
Dr. Joshi Hansen makes a powerful argument for deeper learning. Also included: a great video of students explaining how they learn better via PBL and portfolio defenses at a City Arts and Tech, an Envision School in San Francisco.

Practice Briefs
STEM Teaching Tools.org
A wide-ranging, very helpful collection of 54 short discussions of issues that come up for STEM teachers, including many that connect to PBL. Each has an “Attending to Equity” feature.

Teach Students to Plan in Reverse, Study Suggests
Education Week
We’ve always said “begin with the end in mind” when planning PBL units, and here’s some research to back up the idea. Very useful findings that could connect to how students approach a project.

PBL Secret Sauce #4: Tips for Collaboration
Tween Teacher.com
Teacher, author and BIE National Faculty member Heather Wolpert-Gawron has created a nifty 10-minute video with 9 collaboration tips for projects. Bonus item: Here’s a nice video about Heather’s book Just Ask Us, about what really engages students.

Jo Boaler Wants Everyone to Love Math
Stanford Magazine
Great article about Stanford professor Jo Boaler, whose research almost 20 years ago on the effectiveness of a PBL-style approach to math is still cited. Caution: may shake up your thinking about how math should be taught!

15 Ideas to Ensure That Project Based Learning is Grounded in Content and Standards
21st Century Educational Technology and Learning
Consultant, blogger, and BIE National Faculty member Michael Gorman makes the important point that PBL must also teach content knowledge.

How Students Benefit from Project-Based Assessments (With Examples)
Schoology.com
Drawing from BIE’s work, this post outlines five benefits of project-based assessment strategies: authenticity, motivation, metacognition, collaboration, and creativity. Includes five categories of example projects to help teachers get started.

Project Spotlight – Man Up
New Tech Network
Here’s a wonderful (and timely) project, a Best-in-Network 2018 Finalist, in which students at Parramatta Marist High School (where BIE once held a PBL World event) in Australia “challenge the stereotypical beliefs of what it means to be a man and understand the dangers of internalizing your emotions” and created a radio segment about the issue.

TEDx-style presentations culminate projects
Daily News
An article from that hotbed of PBL, North Dakota, featuring lots of examples of semester-long projects carried out by students in high school health classes. Topics included warning signs of suicide, Native American pride, care kits for the homeless, collecting children’s clothing for families in need, and “Bringing Joy Through Music” for community elders.

Note: If you follow @biepbl on Twitter, please join our “Gallery Walk” of project ideas from teachers to offer feedback.