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What is Project Based Learning?

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Learn more about Project Based Learning from School Leader Nick Wasmer and Assistant School Leader Kelsea Combs

Show Transcript

hello and welcome to our presentation on project-based learning and the future of school I am Nick Wiseman the principal of flex Tech High School brighten and I'm Kelsey Combs the vice principal at Lexington High School and we are a small Charter School in Brighton Michigan that emphasizes relationships and all that we do through RV reprogram where students work one-on-one with a educator within the building for a third time at Pacific and the restorative practices that we use to build classroom culture as well as in how we respond to cultural Cal is that we Face we have small class sizes which allows us to provide a lot of individual instruction and attention to our student we use project-based learning what you learn more about in this presentation and competency-based what's your name is knowing how they've mastered the content that they are learning on the next slide you are going to see a glimpse into what it looks like to be a student at Flex Tech High School and you'll see examples of project learning at work so as you are watching pay attention to how this learning experience might be similar and different to the learning experiences that you've had in the past what's the capital of the 21st century School with campuses in Brighton Farmington Hills and Shepherd Michigan enrollment the score of the project-based learning school until everything feeds off creativity or draw things they're making things in the real world works the real world is about applying things that you've learned do something bigger arts program to create a business and then shark tank-style antler panel judges students building their own businesses are learning it just feels like home hey welcome to today's presentation what we plan to cover today is an overview of project-based learning I we want to talk about project-based learning in action we're going to cover what makes project-based learning flexible and YP y'all are project-based learning is really deeper learning so at this time we want you to get involved in this so grab a sticky note or a piece of paper and something to write with and open minds covid-19 and a pandemic has posed a lot of unique challenges on schools and have caused was to think differently and how they will best respond two students in order to continue to meet their needs and move them forward some of those challenges has been how do we provide flexibility for students is an ever-changing environment weather virtual or in person or some combination in between another challenges how can we keep students interested in what they are learning and all of the other ways in which their attention is being drawn to different things are going on in their personal lives and in the world around them how can we keep them interested in the content that were trying to teach them in school and also a challenge of how can we continue to cover content authentically engage students in that work in a year and which things may be interrupted on a regular basis and an answer to many of these challenges I would argue all of these challenges is project-based learning allow students in schools that allow schools to be responsive to what is going on in the world around them and a adapt and adjust really easily and we will get more into that as we continue throughout this presentation this time we like you all to think about what project-based learning means to you so when you think of project-based learning TBL what are some thoughts that come to mind what does that look like in your in a class or in your students class what is pbl to you can hold that thought in your head you could write it down on a piece of paper as well and with that we're going to play another video for you that kind of captures the essence of project-based learning for us you remember what it was like in school it was boring getting class memorized as much as you could and tried to pass a test at the end but is that good enough these days school can be more interesting and effective by focusing students on work that matters this is project-based learning explained most adults live in a world of projects whether it's a job assignment Home Improvement or planning a wedding we need to actively solve problems but unfortunately school work looks more like this than this let's take a look at this project-based world me Claire She was recently presented with a challenge her company Super Suds makes soap and it was up to to find the most earth-friendly way to produce it in the future her boss gave her a budget and a few requirements and it was up to her to come up with a solution she organized and managed a team research the options and created materials summarizing the issues Claire's team asked for feedback and presented their findings to the boss Claire came out of the project looking like a rockstar and she learned a lot about green products if you look closely Clair success involve critical thinking collaboration and communication things that aren't often taught in traditional classrooms the world needs more Claire's so how do we get them the answer is project-based learning or p.m. by focusing students on a project teachers put them on a path that deepens their knowledge and Bill skills they'll need in the future here's what I mean mr. Simmons has always been a good science teacher and his students do well on fire unfortunately what they learned was gone by Saturday morning that wasn't good enough for him soon he learned about project-based learning and decided to give it a shot mr. Simmons got the idea for his first project are microorganisms when nearly half of his students were suddenly absent with the flu he asked his students why they thought so many other classmates got sick at the same time that Lively discussion produced a lot of good questions and Liz things the kids wanted to know mr. Simmons then announced their project was to help elementary school kids understand how can we not get sick after dividing the class into teams he got them started on the project it was up to the students to ask questions research collaborate give each other feedback and figure out the best ways to make their point clear to children what team chose to make an educational video on the connection between hand washing and avoiding a another chose to create posters to show how viruses spread the project team showed off their final work to an enthusiastic audience of parents and their children at a nearby Elementary School sitting in the front row was Argo friend and local Rockstar Claire who saw a bit of herself in the students it was clear that the project was a success for the students the audience and mr. Simmons his students practice critical thinking collaboration communication the product wasn't about memorization but learning in-depth about viruses and how to prevent spreading disease a lesson they will never forget at the end of the presentation Claire introduce yourself to this Vince and told them that they were rockstars and that the world needs more people who can think like them to learn more about project-based learning Go to b i e. alright so she like me maybe you had an awesome teacher or an experience like that maybe once or twice in high school that's like steckley really focus on making sure that tdlr project-based learning is fused into every class but that takes a lot of work and our teachers spend a lot of time developing and implementing those projects not to do that they have to think about make sure my numbers are used to be eight seven different Design Elements here and release focus on what is it that students need to know what level of understanding do they need to have and what are the skills they have to be successful it's important as we just found examples that projects are authentic or real world and also something I'd like to lift up in those examples is also the public product by having students present a public audience or create something that's seen or observed consumed by the public really give students inauthentic application opportunity to connect with the real world and as you can see it all but I'll start with a challenging problem or question so when we think about putting project-based learning into action there's a couple of different things that this rpbl process enters in when is student interest so what are students themselves interested in how can we make sure that what they are doing has purpose in meeting again if we can connect it to an authentic application or the real world that's going to prove value for our students and lastly we need to ground it in the content so just like any school in Michigan we use the Michigan Merit curriculum and this is these are standards that are required to be a student and to earn a diploma in Michigan so we have to ground it in our content so what does that look like and how do we make sure that we are incorporating all of these different elements in do a project when we to think about that I still think about these three circles and trying to figure out where they intersect and building a project around those three things so what does that look like I'm going to give you an opportunity now to explore that for yourself so let's say you are in an entrepreneurship or a business class insole that is the course that you are working on in the content that you are exploring why you to take a second on your piece of paper or sticking out and think through what are some strengths and skills you have doesn't need to be related to the content maybe you're really good public speaking maybe you're really good at working in a group those are things that you could write as strengths and skills and then in the next Circle you're going to think about what are some interest in passion that you have what are some things that you're interested in learning more about or what are some things that when you have free time that's what you're focusing on maybe you love photography or Ura plenary expert and you love to cook and the kitchen and a kitchen take a second to write a few ideas for strengths and skills that you have and your interest in fashion now that you've thought through some of those ideas real projector the most authentic project is to find a space in which the intent as well as your interests and passions and strengths and skills all intersect and if you can design a project that incorporates all of those three elements then naturally you'll be more engaged in excited to participate in that work so looking at the things that you brainstormed is there a project that you could design that talks about entrepreneurship and business and incorporate skills that you have and the interest that you have an example for this is actually seen in this photo on this light this student was in an entrepreneurship class and she worked with a group of team members to design can a Smoothie business that she ran at at the school and she sold samples of her smoothie to students so she it was passionate about healthy food options and enjoy cooking in the kitchen and creating those smoothies and created this business in order to do that and the next signs were going to look at some other examples of projects that incorporate passions skill as well as content here's an example of a project that was entirely student-driven this means that the student was able to design the project from the ground-up in they're in her advisory class she was tasked with creating something doing something for the community that she felt gave her life purpose and meaning she was an incredibly artistic student and experience in the past with media design and advertising she actually participated in an internship in our community that inspired this project she decided that she wanted to create a space where others do in the school could showcase their artwork and she was passionate about celebrating other student work and designing and community space for students to do that and so she organized and a small art show that was held at our school and she showcased student work and she focused on her advertising and presenting skills as she shared the art the artist work that contributed to her Jack'd is next example is of a project where a student was focusing on measurement and chemical reactions in their culinary class so those things were cited for the student but where the student had the opportunity to choose their pathway for learning or have voice and choice in their learning was in what they were going to create to show that they understood these important types of measurement and chemical reaction you can see in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen over here the student decided to create this cake and they had a lot of opportunity to make choices app the shape of the cake that they created the color the design and use this cake as a example as a culminating experience show what she learned about baking and cooking and how you have to be so focused on measurement when you are baking a cake in this last example hear this student engaged in learning about the Cold War in Latin this is the content that they were covering and their world history class and students in this class were given the option to choose how they would show what they learned about the Cold War in Latin America the student was incredibly artistic enjoyed graphic design graphic novels and drawing and so what they decided to do was create a comic book that was an illustration of how the Cold War impacted and played out in Latin America he designed his comic book and printed copies that he gave out and distributed to parents and students at our a community event that we held called project showcase so we've talked a little bit about the different challenges that schools have stays in the pandemic and I think one thing that project-based learning can do is provide both teachers and students with the flexibility of choice so TBL really allows for individual and Collaborative Learning experiences that about students in person and online so you know we saw this year's our students as you can see in this photo here is actually collaborating with another student doing a Spanish project where she is live and in-person in the classroom but another student is dialing in remotely and doing projects really allows for that cloth cross collaborate and it really is emulates the real world where we see individuals working from all parts of the globe and a virtual space on both in person and online it's also you know really adaptable When You're Building idexx where students can work on them both at school and at home you know when we are able to create spaces and provide opportunities for students to work with the materials at the school but they're also able to dig deeper in at home too and the other thing that makes TV also flexible or why why the flexibility of pbl is so important is that it can change and adapt with every project we start with a big idea or problem question but it can evolve with current events on what students interest might be in even teacher passions so as you may know as a student right you probably got more excited when your teacher was excited about something so then who's teaching the content on and what they're passionate about they can bring the energy and passion into the project as well so all of that flexibility really allows for more opportunity project-based learning results of deeper learning what we mean by that has since really have an opportunity to dig deep and this is the kind of learning that last was students for a long time just memorizing a bunch of facts and then spitting it up back out on a test doesn't what students we know that what does last is when students are trying to really understand something all the problem use critical thinking skills and present on that and so the pbl model are assessed through their ability to demonstrate you know their understanding rather than just reciting a bunch of information and we also give credit based on whether they've mastered the content and not buy the hours they spend in the seat or whether or not they participated in a class on a given day it's really about what students understand how they demonstrate that understanding and then lastly it really offers a lot of opportunities to collaborate cross-continental areas so easy math and science collaborating or even English Math Science History all working together and it has Kelsey pointed out right art can intersect any one of these projects and so students will have an opportunity to be creative but that's also how the real world works again when we do our jobs in everyday life we don't you know make a conscious effort to switch from math to English to history you it's all integrated in our thinking and problem solving this is summarize what we talked about today we have talked about project-based learning as a solution to many of the challenges at schools are facing in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and an opportunity for schools to be creative and flexible and how they respond to the needs of our students during this time we also went through what project-based learning looks like in action in some examples of what those projects can look like in the classroom unless they're discovered the flexibility of pvl how it allows for the individuality and really it makes the learning real for students and allow students to dive deeper and to really focus on depth over brats and making sure that they really understand a concept and they're able to practice real-world skills like critical thinking clabber ation and communication and with that my name is Nick wasmer I am the principal of flextech high school in Brighton Mayim is right here if you have any questions for me and I'm Kelsey Combs I'm the vice principal at 5 Seconds right in and my email is here as well we thank you so much for listening to our presentation we hope that this Illuminating and helpful and how you understand project-based learning and the possibilities that this has for the future of Education thank you

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What is Project Based Learning?

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