See How Easily You Can Create a Project Based Learning Activity
Posted by David Wetzel
Project Based Learning in Science and Math
Project Based Learning is an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the science or math classroom.
6 Steps to Creating a Project Based Learning Activity
The following steps are designed as a guide for creating a project based learning activity.
The order is flexible and designed to be rigid in nature to allow for individual methods and processes when develop a project.
Decide on the project’s focus or idea.
Two examples are:
- Create a design that proposes a solution for proposing a bike path in a community area and submit the proposal to a local planning agency. The proposal should include design, environmental impact, and estimated cost.
- Create a calendar to be sold to raise money for the 8th grade dance. Students determine on the cost of producing the calendar and how much the calendars should be sold for to make a profit. The profit will be used for the end of the year 8thgrade dance. Students must also create an advertising campaign to sell the calendars.
Develop a central driving question.
Two examples are:
- What is the shortest path for two students to take to meet each other when they are on opposite sides of the school?
- How much growth in population can the community’s water support?
Determine appropriate standards.
Aligned with appropriate national and district learning standards.
Determine how students will be assessed.
Project based learning assessments should include performance assessments or rubrics that measure each skill to be learned in the project. For example a rubric that assesses a student’s:
- Level of science or math content knowledge involved in the project
- How well specific math or science skills are required for the project are mastered
- How a student applied their knowledge gained from research and investigation
- Level of contribution to group effort, when specific tasks and jobs are assigned
Determine what products the students will create.
The following are some examples:
- Proposal – provided to the teacher describing the project’s investigation process
- Physical model – used to display the final result of solving the problem
- Poster – used to present the project’s processes or findings
- Sideshow - used to present the project’s processes or findings
- Video – used to present the project’s processes or findings
- Panel Discussion – hosted by a group or between groups to debate the pros and cons of a projects impact
- Multimedia Presentation – used to present the project’s processes or findings
- Journal – a record of the group’s or individual’s progress throughout the project
Decide what technology tools and web 2.0 tools will be used.
Some examples include:
- Slide Share – presentation of project’s processes and outcomes
- Glogster – interactive poster
- Wiki – used for display of final project and support group collaboration
- Flickr – used to collect photos for multimedia presentation or interactive poster
- Animoto – used to create a video of the project’s components for multimedia presentation or interactive poster
Following these six steps will make it much easier to create a project based learning activity for students, regardless of the students’ grade level or content being studied.
Sample Project Based Learning Ideas
