Getting Started with Project-Based Learning

This week I began a course on technology-supported project-based learning.  This course falls at a very fortuitous point in my career.  My district is currently investing significant resources in curriculum revisions to integrate engineering into our 9th grade science sequence.  Many schools teach engineering as a stand-alone process, but we are exploring options to connect science concepts to the engineering process, and project-based learning provides a promising avenue to achieve our goal.

The readings and discussion this week included some factors we had not previously considered, but will need to incorporate for truly meaningful PBL.  For example, one of the essential elements of PBL is a public audience, so when developing new materials we should seek out opportunities for students to share the results of at least some projects beyond the walls of the classroom.  We have also already discussed incorporating revision, as this is typical of the engineering design process, but PBL often provides opportunities for students to critique each other's work, a process which could prove valuable to our students.

The other aspect of PBL that caught my attention this week is the benefits it can have for at-risk students.  In 9th grade science, we have been working hard to reduce our failure rate and to close our achievement gap.  While we've made significant gains in these areas, we are seeking out strategies and instructional methods to increase student engagement.  While PBL is not a silver bullet, there is research showing some students may have low academic achievement because their strengths and abilities are nearly unused in traditional classrooms.  These students may be able to shine in a PBL setting better suited to their abilities.

An important theme throughout the articles was also that a good project should connect to students' interests and experiences, providing a real-world connection to the academic content.  Anecdotally, many of the students with the lowest grades in my class tell me they don't see the point in learning science.  The real-world aspects of PBL could improve the motivation of these students, thereby raising achievement.  As the semester goes on, I intend to seek out research on how PBL impacts student motivation and engagement, but it certainly sounds promising.

I'm looking forward to gaining a much more in-depth understanding of PBL and gaining some experience with designing a unit utilizing PBL.  The introduction makes it look like an extremely promising fit for integrating engineering with science content and for meeting my own instructional goals.