Project Based Learning

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Project Based Learning

• Linda Ullah, M.A., M.Ed.
• Krause Center for Innovation
• Foothill College, Los Altos Hills CA
• ullahlinda_at_foothill.edu

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Think about these things

• Subject Area(s) you teach
• Grade(s) you teach
• Why do you want to do a project with your
  students?
• Summarize your students
• Learning styles
• Needs
• Motivation to learn
• Interests
• Do you currently use PBL in your classroom?

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Life Is Project Based Learning
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But where is the disconnect between life and
school?
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PBL is NOT New
CARL ROGERS 1902 - 1987
JOHN DEWEY 1859-1952
LEV VYGOTSKY 1896-1934
SOCRATES 470-399 B.C.
BENJAMIN BLOOM 1913-1999
SEYMOUR PAPART
JEAN PIAGET 1896-1980
JEROME BRUNER 1915-CURRENT
Learning an active process in which students
construct new ideas or concepts based on their
current knowledge.
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PBL engages students and provides an environment
for the acquisition of skills needed in higher
education and today's workplace. Projects are a
great way to teach the curricular content we have
been teaching for years while students truly
build skills we have always wished and hoped they
learned along the way.
-Drake High School, San Francisco, CA
http//drake.marin.k12.ca.us/academics/pbl/pblfs.h
tm
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Overview

• Define PBLMM
• See successful examples
• Learn about project planning
• Begin thinking process for planning your own
  projects

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Seven Elements of Project-Based Learning

• Standards Based
• Assessment
• Student Centered
• Collaboration
• Real World Connection
• Extended Time Frame
• Multimedia

Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project http//pblmm.k1
2.ca.us
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Six As of Project Based Learning

• Authenticity
• Academic Rigor
• Applied Learning
• Academic Exploration
• Adult Connection
• Assessment Practices

From Buck Institute Web site http//www.bie.org
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Comparison of 7 Elements and 6 As of PBL

• Standards Based
• Assessment
• Student Centered
• Collaboration
• Real World Connection
• Extended Time Frame
• Multimedia

• Authenticity
• Academic Rigor
• Applied Learning
• Academic Exploration
• Adult Connection
• Assessment Practices

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Comparison of 7 Elements and 6 As of PBL

• Standards Based
• Assessment
• Student Centered
• Collaboration
• Real World Connection
• Extended Time Frame
• Multimedia

• Authenticity
• Academic Rigor
• Applied Learning
• Academic Exploration
• Adult Connection
• Assessment Practices

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Another Way to Look at What is PBL

• Content
• Conditions

• Activities
• Results

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Content

• Compelling ideas
• Problems presented in their full complexity
• Students finding interdisciplinary connections
  between ideas
• Students struggling with ambiguity, complexity,
  and unpredictability
• Real-world questions that students care about

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
http//www.garlic.com/lullah/brazilus/water.html
Example
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Conditions

• Support student autonomy
• Students taking part in a community of inquiry
  and pursuing coursework in a social context
• Students being called upon to exhibit task- and
  time-management behaviors both individually and
  as part of the group
• Students directing their own work and taking
  control over their own learning
• Students simulating the professional work of the
  scholar, researcher, engineer, reporter, planner,
  manager, and other practitioners

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
Example
http//www.lullah.com/gedc.html
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Activities
Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php

• Investigative and engaging
• Students conducting multi-faceted investigations
  extending over long periods of time
• Students encountering obstacles, seeking
  resources, and solving problems in response to an
  overall challenge
• Students making their own connections among ideas
  and acquiring new skills as they work on
  different tasks
• Students using authentic tools (i.e., real-life
  resources and technologies)
• Students getting feedback about the worth of
  their ideas from expert sources and realistic
  tests

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Results
Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php

• Real-world outcomes
• Students generating complex intellectual products
  that demonstrate their learning (e.g., models,
  reports)
• Students participating in their own assessment
• Students held accountable for choosing how they
  will demonstrate their competence
• Students exhibiting growth in frequently
  neglected areas important for real-world
  competence social skills, life skills,
  self-management skills, and dispositions to learn
  on one's own

http//www.stleos.pvt.k12.ca.us/StLeosSite/classes
/Seventh/PROJECT/geoindex.html
Example
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How Do I Begin?

• Planning
• Begin with an Essential Question
• What is important to your students
• What is the deep learning--the enduring
  understanding
• What are the necessary skills
• Standards
• Prerequisite knowledge (prior knowledge)
• Prerequisite skills
• Skills and knowledge to to be embedded into the
  project

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What Do We Mean by Understanding?
Someone who understands...
L.Ullah
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Engage Students
in problem solving in higher order thinking
skills in critical thinking
to solve real problems for a real audience
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Enduring Understanding
Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe Understanding by
Design http//www.acsd.org/readingroom/books/wiggi
ns98book.htmlchap2
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McTighe and Wiggins
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What does this look like
Middle School Discrimination Project
http//pblmm.k12.ca.us/projects/projects.htm
Talking Links Middle School and ESL
Kindergarten Language Arts Project http//linc.ca.
campusgrid.net/home/ProjectPages
Third Grade Young Authors Faire Living
Books Ohlone HyperStudio Project
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Traditional Instruction Emphasizes
Project Based Learning Emphasizes

• Focus of curriculum
• Content coverage
• Knowledge of facts
• Learning "building-block" skills in isolation
• of complex problem-solving skills

• Focus of curriculum
• Depth of understanding
• Comprehension of concepts and principles
• Development

• Scope and sequence
• Follows student interest
• Large units composed of complex problems or
  issues
• Broad, interdisciplinary focus

• Scope and sequence
• Follows fixed curriculum
• Proceeds block by block, unit by unit
• Narrow, discipline-based focus

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Traditional Instruction Emphasizes
Project Based Learning Emphasizes

• Teaching role
• Follows student interest
• Large units composed of complex problems or
  issues
• Broad, interdisciplinary focus

• Teaching role
• Follows fixed curriculum
• Proceeds block by block, unit by unit
• Narrow, discipline-based focus

• Focus of assessment
• Process and products
• Tangible accomplishments
• Criterion performances and gains over time
• Demonstration of understanding

• Focus of assessment
• Products
• Test scores
• Comparisons with others
• Reproduction of information

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Traditional Instruction Emphasizes
Project Based Learning Emphasizes

• Materials of instruction
• Direct or original sources printed materials,
  interviews, documents, and others
• Data and materials developed by students

• Materials of instruction
• Texts, lectures and presentations
• Teacher-developed exercise sheets and activities

• Use of technology
• Central, integral
• Directed by students
• Useful for enhancing student presentations or
  amplifying student capabilities

• Use of technology
• Ancillary, peripheral
• Administered by teachers
• Useful for enhancing teachers' presentations

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Traditional Instruction Emphasizes
Project Based Learning Emphasizes

• Classroom context
• Students working alone
• Students competing with one another
• Students receiving information from an instructor

• Classroom context
• Students working in groups
• Students collaborating with one another
• Students constructing, contributing, and
  synthesizing information

• Student role
• Carry out self- directed learning activities
• Discoverer, integrator, and presenter of ideas
• Students define their own tasks and work
  independently for large blocks of time
• Communicate, show affect, produce, take
  responsibility

• Student role
• Carry out instructions
• Memorizer and repeater of facts
• Students receive and complete brief tasks
• Listen, behave, speak only when spoken to

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Traditional Instruction Emphasizes
Project Based Learning Emphasizes

• Short-term goals
• Understanding and application of complex ideas
  and processes
• Mastery of integrated skills

• Short-term goals
• Knowledge of facts, terms, content
• Mastery of isolated skills

• Long-range goals
• Depth of knowledge
• Graduates who have the dispositions and skills to
  engage in sustained, autonomous, lifelong learning

• Long-range goals
• Breadth of knowledge
• Graduates who have the knowledge to perform
  successfully on standard achievement tests

Buck Institute for Education http//www.bie.org/p
bl/pbloverview/definition.php
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Standards Based Multidisciplinary

• Meets the requirements in more than one area
  across the curriculum

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The Backwards Planning Process
McTighe J, Wiggins G (op cit)
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Assessment
McTighe J, Wiggins G (op cit)
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Goals and Objectives
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Real World Connection

• Why will students want to learn this or do this
  project?
• Who is the intended audience (beyond the
  classroom)?
• Will students have the opportunity to work with
  experts or present their projects to experts or
  people in the field?
• What is the value of this project?

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• Extended Time Frame
• How much time do you plan to spend on this topic?
• How much time will it take to do this project or
  activity?
• How much in class time is necessary?
• What will students do in class?
• How much out of class time is needed?
• What will students do on their own?
• How much computer lab time is needed?
• Is the lab available?

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Extended Time Frame
Pre Production Production Post Production
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Pre Production

• Reflect on the assignment of the project
• Begin preliminary research to determining what is
  is they are interested in doing and learning
• Form project teams (with teacher assistance)
• Determine what products they will create and
  produce
• Do more research
• Pitch their project/product ideas to the who
  group for "approval" suggestions or rethinking
• Continue their research
• Write project plan
• Write story, report, script...
• Storyboard
• Get plan and storyboard approved

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Production

• Implementation of the project conceived during
  pre-production
• Displaying and reporting data discovered during
  research
• Building, constructing, creating
• Multimedia production
• Hands on activities
• Experimenting
• Product creation

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Post Production

• Peer review
• Final editing
• Display
• Presentation
• Reflection
• Application for Awards
• Expert Review

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Can you name these people?
Did you need help? Help is collaboration.
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Collaboration

• Working with others
• Leadership
• Cooperation
• Responsibility
• Business/industry connection

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• Collaboration
• Will students work in collaborative teams?
• Will students individual work contribute to a
  whole class project?
• Will you collaborate with other teachers?
• Will experts be involved in this proejct?
• Who and how will they be involved?

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• Student Decision Making
• What decisions must you, as the teacher, make
• What decisions will you let your students make?

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Addressing Students Multiple Intelligences
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Using Technology as a Tool to Deepen
Understanding -Students are

• Working collaboratively
• Making meaning from their learning
• Engaged in the learning process
• Using higher order critical thinking skills
• Excited about learning
• Creating high quality multimedia products

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Teacher/Student Created Projects

• Earn While You Learn Projects
• http//linc.ca.campusgrid.net/home/ProjectPages
• BioTechnology
• Melinda Kindelspire and Cynthia Grace, Castro
  Valley High School
• http//www.techscape.org/projects/BiotechGenetics.
  html

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• The Art of Japan
• Esther Wojcicki, Palo Alto HS
• http//www.techscape.org/mp/mp2.html
• Robotics and Community Service
• William Dunbar, Gunn HS
• http//www.foothill.fhda.edu/cfi/award.html
• 180 Days Around the World--World Literatures
• Jodi Edwards, Santa Teresa High School
• http//www.nsawards.com/winners/00calwinner3.asp

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• Our Towns Community Service Learning Project
  Discovering Our Past, Shaping Our Future
• Michael A. Goldstein, Tamalpais High School
• http//homepage.mac.com/socialissues/
• Real World Geometry
• Thomas Pulchny, St Leos School, San Jose
• http//www.stleos.pvt.k12.ca.us/StLeosSite/classes
  /Seventh/PROJECT/geoindex.html
• The Amistad Case--A Mock Trial
• Tom Ferenbacher, Hoover High School, San Diego
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/hoover/amistad/te
  acher.index..html

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Other Projects

• The Marble Roll
• Online Science-a-Thon
• http//scithon.terc.edu/MarbleRoll2000/index.cfm
• City Building
• Doreen Nelson, CSU Pomona
• http//www.csupomona.edu/dnelson

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Other Online Resources

• SCORE-Schools of California Online Resources for
  Educators
• http//www.score.k12.ca.us
• EDs Oasis
• http//www.classroom.com/edsoasis/
• Kathy Schrocks Guide
• http//school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
• Bernie Dodges WebQuest Page
• http//edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html
• Earn While You Learn Resources
• http//linc.ca.campusgrid.net/home/EWYLResources
  
• Exemplary Projects Home Page
• http//www.pblnet.org/mp/mp-research.html