Blog Post #9 :What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

Seven Essentials For Project Based Learning- By John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller

This article lists the main points or essentials for a student or teacher to be successful in a project based learning assignment. They are listed below

1. A Need to Know- Have an assignment that will make the students feel like that they need to lean this material.

2. A Driving Question- What is the projects thesis statement? What is the main point of this project?

3. Student Voice and Choice- Make the topic of the project broad that way the students can choose what they want to do their project on from that topic. This helps the students feel that what they are doing is meaningful

4. 21st Century Skills- These include Critical Thinking, Communication, and The Use of Technology.

5. Inquiry and Innovation- This refers to a question that leads a trail of ideas, and an answer that is generated from those ideas. 

6. Feedback and Revision- The teacher should review the students work, but so should experts or others that can provide an outside opinion.

7. Publicly Presented Production- Have the students present their project to an audience in order to make their work more meaningful.

These steps can help make a students work feel more important than just doing a simple worksheet or studying for a test. These steps can help make a students work feel meaningful and allow their drive to learn more increase.


Project-Based Learning for Teachers By Tony Vincent

This video explains what project based learning is and how it differs from the Common Core Standards. In this video Tony says that the Common Core Standards are the WHAT. This includes: Rigorous Content, Aligned with College and Work Expectations, Clear and Understandable, and Evidenced Based. Then he goes on to say that Project Based Learning is the HOW. This includes: Inquiry Based, Open Ended, Problem Solving, and Personalized. This provides us as future educators to allow our future students to develop their own ideas while intriguing their interest in the class materials.

Project Based Learning in PE By Pflug's Blogs

I found this article to be quite fascinating. It talks about how high school students were challenged to come up with ideas for middle school physical education class and had to come up with a new challenge each day. These ideas were no only for school, but help improve the daily lives outside of school. The high schoolers used the six principles of current education to help them succeed in this project. It was interesting to read about other students taking over for coaches.



Project Based Learning and Physical Education By Andrew Miller

In this article by Andrew Miller he talks about how to mix PE and Project Based Learning. He talks about how in Project Based Learning one must learn to work and problem solve as a team and as an individual. He then goes on to give a PE project through the seven essentials for Project Based Learning (listed above).


Two students solve the case of the watery ketchup by designing a new cap By Lindsey Foat

In this video by Lindsey Foat she shows us how two students can solve a problem by using the methods of Project Based Learning. In this video two high school students, Richard and Thompson, use the mathods of Project Based Learning to solve how to stop the ketchup from being watery and also leaking. They eventually solve the problem and their teacher is pleased with the results. This video show us that we can use the methods of Project Based Learning for other task besides school.