Project Based Learning Made Simple: 100 Classroom-Ready Activities that Inspire Curiosity, Problem Solving and Self-Guided Discovery

INTRODUCTION

If you’re reading this book, you’ve either done project-based learning (PBL) before and are looking for new project ideas, or the concept is totally new to you. Either way, I’m ecstatic that you want to bring quality project-based lessons to your classroom.

I discovered project-based learning a few years into my teaching career. I had recently moved to a Title I school, and it was very apparent that regular teaching methods were not going to cut it with my students. The traditional teaching structure I had been using at the time was teach, practice, assess, repeat. There was no real-life application of the standards.

As I was trying to figure out what to do with my class, I thought back to when I was in school. I wasn’t the ideal student. I was easily bored, and I preferred to do my own thing. If a lesson didn’t hold meaning for me personally, I disengaged. But I had one teacher in particular that had no trouble engaging me in her lessons. Almost everything she taught was rooted in real-life application, and there was always a hands-on component. All of this was on my mind when our instructional coach introduced us to something the district wanted to start seeing in our classrooms quarterly: project-based learning. I jumped in feet-first.

I’d love to tell you that it was an instant transformation, but it wasn’t. It was very messy at first. I had to learn how to effectively plan the lessons, incorporate the standards, and manage my classroom during the activities. But now, it’s an integral part of my classroom.

It’s my sincere hope that this book helps make project-based learning easy for you and your students. The activities are organized by focus subject because this is the organizational structure that most teachers feel most comfortable with. However, you will find that skills from other subject areas will naturally connect with every topic. Remember that project-based learning is best when it incorporates multiple subject areas and is customized to your individual classroom. I’ll teach you how to customize these projects in Chapter 2, where I offer suggestions for making connections in every project idea.

CHAPTER 1

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING BASICS

Project-based learning is a teaching method where students gain and apply skills by working on a long-term project that involves an in-depth inquiry into a topic or question. It can be used to teach students completely new skills and practice skills they already have a basic understanding of.

Knowing the basic elements of project-based learning is an important part of using PBL in your classroom. Teachers that struggle to find success with PBL are often missing one of these key elements. If you find yourself having difficulty, return to these elements, or check Common Issues on page 156.

ELEMENTS OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Significant content. The project should be focused on curriculum-based knowledge and skills that relate to grade-level standards. This is why choosing a topic is so important.

21st-century competencies. Project-based learning includes skills that are valuable for today’s world, such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Most students do not naturally know how to collaborate and communicate effectively, so these skills often need to be explicitly taught within the structure of a project.

In-depth inquiry. The biggest piece of your project will be inquiry into a topic. The process of in-depth inquiry includes asking questions, researching, and discussion.

Driving question (DQ). This guiding question focuses the entire project. It should be open-ended and pique student interest.

Need to know. In order to show students why they need to learn about certain concepts and skills, you need to frame your project within a realistic scenario. I have my students keep a record of what they need to learn using a Need to Know List during each of my projects.

Voice and choice. The key to engagement in project-based learning is allowing students to make their own choices. This doesn’t mean that students should do whatever they want, but with teacher guidance and scaffolding, they should choose their end products and decide how they work.

Critique and revision. Critique is meant to help students get feedback in order to improve upon their products. Always build several critique opportunities into your PBL, and have your students get into the habit of writing down specific questions they want answered about their work. After they receive feedback, they will need to make revisions based on the feedback.

Public audience. In most cases, a public audience should be people outside the classroom or school that students can present their end products to. When you choose an audience for your PBL, remember that the best audience is always one that’s meaningful and appropriate for the project. Sometimes this is an outside audience, and other times it’s an audience inside your building. Each project idea included in this book suggests an audience that fits with that topic.

This might seem like a lot to plan for just one lesson, but it’s important to remember that a project-based learning activity can last for several weeks and hit many skills and standards that span multiple subject areas. Compared to other types of teaching, I’ve found that I do far less tedious planning when implementing PBL.

CHAPTER 2

CUSTOMIZATION AND PLANNING

When I train teachers and administrators on the project-based learning planning process, I provide them with two simple forms: a brainstorming page with the elements of PBL, and a pacing calendar that includes a general plan of daily goals. I’ve found that the daily lesson plan really varies from teacher to teacher, so I don’t include a form for that. My advice to you is to do your daily lesson planning in whatever format works best for you. The brainstorming page and pacing calendar will make it easy to write your daily lesson plans.

CUSTOMIZING PROJECT IDEAS

It’s impossible to write one lesson plan that works for every single classroom. Additionally, standards vary greatly from state to state, and country to country. This is why I’ve left the project ideas in this book pretty general, overall. I want you to mold the project-based learning activities within to fit your students and your own personal style.

The project ideas in this book can be easily modified to cover different topics or standards. Let’s look at an example of how you can customize one of the projects to make it more relevant for your classroom.

ORIGINAL PROJECT IDEA

ANIMAL HABITATS

Spotlight on: Habitats

Driving question: How can we plan a suitable habitat for the zoo’s newest animal addition?

Audience: Zookeeper or biologist

PROCESS:

1. Begin this project by visiting your local zoo, or taking a virtual field trip to one. During the field trip, have students take notes on the different habitats they see.

2. After the field trip, lead a discussion on some of the elements of the habitats for a few key animals. Compare and contrast what they observed about these different animal habitats.

3. Discuss why it’s so important to have a habitat suitable for each of the specific animals. This would be a great time to have your students read more about the habitat of one of the animals they saw during their field trip. You can check out books from the library about a variety of animals and their habitats for the class to share, as well as assign students to research individually.

4. Bring in guest speakers that are experts on this topic, like a biologist or zookeeper. Contact your local zoo or conservation area ahead of time. If you can’t find someone locally, try to connect your class with an expert via video chat.

5. When your students have a good grasp on what a habitat is and why it’s important, introduce your driving question. Have students work in small groups to choose an animal they would like to see the zoo add to their animal exhibits.

6. Have students conduct in-depth inquiry into what will be necessary in order to build a suitable habitat for their chosen animals.

7. Student end products should include a written plan, habitat design, and any other media that will convince the zoo to choose their idea. Their end products should show that they have a good understanding of the climate, food, and sensory needs of the animal.

Other Connections: Include STEM concepts by having students build working models of their animal habitat.

Let’s say that your community does not have a zoo, but your school is located just a few minutes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You still want to teach your students about animal habitats, but you know that talking about the zoo won’t have the same relevance as working with the local aquarium where you and your students can visit and interact with habitats up close.

MODIFIED PROJECT IDEA

AQUARIUM HABITATS

Spotlight on: Habitats

Driving question: How can we plan a suitable habitat for the aquarium’s newest addition?

Audience: Marine biologists and other aquarium employees

PROCESS:

1. Start off this project by visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

2. After the field trip, lead a discussion on some of the different habitats that the students observed. Which marine organisms shared a habitat? Do they think this was done on purpose?

3. Discuss the planning process behind each aquarium habitat. Bring in a presenter from the aquarium to explain why it’s so important to have a habitat suitable for a specific organism. This would be a great time to have your students read more about the different animals they observed on their field trip.

4. When your students have a good grasp on the different habitats inside of the specific tanks and exhibits in the aquarium, introduce your driving question. Have students work in small groups to choose an animal they would like to see the aquarium add to its animal exhibits.

5. Have students conduct in-depth inquiry into what will be necessary to build a suitable habitat for their chosen animals. Have students research the other marine organisms that can share the habitat with this animal.

6. Student end products should include a written plan, habitat design, and any other media that will convince the aquarium to choose their idea. Their end products should show that they have a good understanding of the needs of all of the organisms that will be occupying that habitat.

Other Connections: Include STEM concepts by having students build a working model of the animal habitat.

Smaller modifications can be made, as well. It’s expected that you will sometimes need to tweak the driving question and audience to better suit your classroom.

For example, you can update the driving question How can we keep our community safe from severe weather hazards? to reflect the specific grouping in your classroom.

A small change can make the structure more specific: How can my group help keep our community safe from severe weather hazards?

DIFFERENTIATION

When I first heard about project-based learning, I was hesitant to try it because I had many students labeled special education or ELL (English-language learner). I thought that PBL was just for the higher level kids, and that it would be a nightmare to differentiate for each student. I’m glad that I didn’t let this misconception stop me from trying project-based learning.

You already know that one of the essential elements of project-based learning is student choice and voice. Not only do students have a choice in how to show what they’ve learned in the product they create, but they also have several choices throughout each project. For example, in the aquarium habitats project, students are able to choose the animal and all pieces of their habitat. They’re also able to choose additional media to use in their presentations. These choices allow students to determine not only where they want to go with their project, but also how to get there. Everyone works to answer the same driving question, but the answer can be found with whichever strategies and tools work for the individual student. PBL gives students a chance to learn through technology, text, art, multimedia, and much more. It accommodates every learning style and ability level.

What I’ve learned through doing project-based learning with a variety of students is that PBL has a lot of natural differentiation built in. I don’t need to plan differentiation in the way I used to, but I do still keep a few things in mind when planning my projects.

Individualized education program (IEP). I review all IEPs before beginning a project to make sure that I make any necessary modifications to meet the individual needs of these students. If I think there are additional tools that will help them, such as calculators or reading selections from a different reading level, I make sure to have those available.

Grouping. I try to mix students that have different skills so that each student is an active learner in their group. For example, if I have six students that have shown they are gifted artists, I split them into separate groups so that each of them is the artistic expert in their group. I do the same with my problem solvers, leaders, bookworms, and creative thinkers. This way, students learn the content through the medium they are strong in. My artists learn about habitats by designing the elements of one, while my bookworms learn through reading every book they can on the topic.

Rubrics. Rubrics are a fair way to grade students on their individual contributions to the project. Just one rubric allows you to grade every student at their individual level, based on their individual contributions. Student-friendly rubrics also tell students your expectations for the project and help you justify the grades you’ve given them. See more about rubrics on page 153.

Enrichment. Sometimes we forget to differentiate for our advanced learners. Keep a list of tasks or questions for these students that push them past the level other students are learning at. It’s always a good idea to look at the related standards in the next few grade levels to get ideas to use with advanced students. Encourage these students to think outside the box and come up with innovative ideas for the project.

TECHNOLOGY

The good news is, there isn’t a specific amount of technology you need in order to run a successful project-based learning activity. I’ve successfully done PBL with varying levels of technology.

STUDENT 1:1 DEVICES

Incorporating laptops, tablets, and other devices should be explicitly planned into the project-based learning activity. Decide how these devices will be used every step of the way. Are there certain apps that would augment the experience? If they will be using the internet to search for information, which sites will they use, and how will this research be done?

Decide which digital tools your students will use to take notes throughout the project. You will need to have an organizational strategy so that every student is consistent with the organization of materials. Brainstorm ways that you can help students be efficient with managing their time on these devices. One way I like to help my students stay on track is to prepare a folder of related images before we start the project. This way, students don’t get bogged down scrolling through thousands of pictures in search.

If you are having students search the internet during their research, I recommend using Sweet Search (www.sweetsearch.com), or another student-friendly search engine.

SOME STUDENT DEVICES

Some are better than none, right? When we did project-based learning and only had a few student devices available, I had to be very strategic with how we used them, because we couldn’t do activities that required everyone to use a device at the same time. I used the devices mainly as support stations for students to look up tough questions or find something special for their end products.

For researching, we use a variety of kid-friendly magazines and books. I cleared our public and school libraries out of every book on the PBL topic. I played videos and did virtual field trips with the whole group. I printed piles of pictures that we kept organized in small tubs. I also tried to get as many guest speakers as possible to come speak to our class.

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