New Class, New Thoughts to Ponder. Project Based Learning

As with most classes, there have been a number of interesting articles to read to start off my newest class. All three of the schools that I read about had some similar circumstances.  They presented the students with real life problems. The projects were based around solving these problems of the real world and they integrated skills and knowledge across curriculum lines. Writing, math, and science or social studies were all used in learning and problem solving. It was also done in a meaningful way that was not just reading the section of the text book and moving on. The students were able to dig deeper and feel like they had found answers to their personal questions.

For each of these projects to work, the teachers needed to map out the learning. In the end, the students presented to people that they cared about outside of the classroom. The geometry students Armstrong (2002) discussed presented their detailed school concepts to real architects. Curtis (2002) wrote about students who studied butterflies and were writing letters to other students in other schools. In the elementary school in New Port News, Curtis (2001) tells that the students regularly had project nights to present to parents, community members and even students from other schools. One of the high school students talked about his confidence at the end of the project. It was clear to me that the second graders that were studying Cystic Fibrosis have the same confidence in themselves as this high school student did. They knew what they were talking about and had been given the opportunity to tell someone who was truly interested.

The teacher’s role in all three was to make sure that the learning did not just have interesting components for students, but all hit state standards. Principal Peter Bender says "It's harder to teach this way -- but one hundred times more rewarding."  Curtis (2001) This seems to be reflected in the comments by teachers from the other school as well. It is not an easy way to teach, but since the students get more out of it, it is well worth it. This learning is not just to follow the whims of students, but to take their curiosity and have it work for them to learn how standards reflect how the real world does fit together in complex ways. In the real world, adults do not have separate time for reading a math; they need to use those skills together in meaningful ways. That means that real life problems can address many different standards. It is the teacher’s job to know those standards and put it into the learning in a clear way that they students can understand and relate to.

The students’ role in all three was to think more like an adult problem solver, rather than an information memorizer. Curtis (2001) showed the young children of Newsome who were comfortable talking about a disease. That is a hard reality for some adults to deal with. Similarly Armstrong (2002) showed high school students who were working on teams to design a school with very specific parameters. There are adults who do not have those team working skills, but schools are not built by one individual. There would be many people involved. They would need to make compromises and back of their mathematical thoughts with a well worded reason in the real world.

These experiences increased student engagement by giving them something that they cared about the outcome. The students were able to acquire more skills because they were intertwined, rather than being separate skills that they needed to separate out mentally to keep them straight. This increased their knowledge because it will not remain a short term learning activity, but rather a learning experience that they will remember for years to come. Along with this they will retain some of the skills and standards that were related to the project. This means they will be able to transfer this knowledge at a later date.

If you would like to read more about this interesting schools and classrooms that used project based learning, I here they are.

"Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning" - Sara Armstrong, Edutopiahttp://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

"More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!" - Diane Curtis, Edutopia

http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms 

"March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration"  - Diane Curtis, Edutopiahttp://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs 

Starting Out

Pi Day Project to increase math excitement.
The students were excited, and they worked too. 

The more that I work with my wonderful co-workers and we have ideas that work well for us, the more we have talked about sharing with others. Working on a team that supports each other is a wonderful experience. We care about what the students are learning and how they are growing personally, as well as teaching each other new skills. 

Putting into words what we have been able to do is not as easy as doing it. I will try to find ways to describe what works for us in a way that may be helpful to others.  One of the under lying themes of our work is having the students work on hands on projects and giving them choices in those projects. 

Pi Day was one of those days. Students were able to work before hand on items that they choose to participate in. This day was a reward day, but it still mathematically challenging. The above was Pi based art. This student designed the poster and filled the words with the correct digits of Pi. Others recited Pi from memory, wrote Pi Poems and then they all preformed math problems using Pi. And then we ate various pie shaped foods, including pizza pie.