Week 1 - "Coming Soon" to a Classroom Near You!

Project Based Learning (or PBL) has been a growing trend in education for many years. It comes in and out of favour, and has changed its form and function many times. There are challenges and benefits to using this style of teaching and learning; it is important to recognize how to navigate the challenges and build upon the benefits in ways that are best for students and teachers alike. 

Let's start by defining what "Project Based Learning" will mean in the context of my Passion Project (which is, itself, a type of PBL - as you will see!) According to the Buck Institute for Education :

What this means is, "Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience. As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills in the context of doing an authentic, meaningful project." 

I don't think it is a leap to go from that definition, to saying that Passion Projects definitely qualify as Project Based Learning (and not just because the word "project" is in the title!) 

My Passion Project for 2019 will be developing some Project Based Learning resources and ideas for Healthy Living 8. PBL can be integrated into any course, but I have chosen to focus primarily on Healthy Living 8 as I think it lends itself really well to the type of complex questions that are the foundation of Project Based Learning. I am certain that, through this work, I will also discover ways of bringing other disciplines together.

Over the next ten weeks, I will extend my research on PBL and begin to develop some ideas for integrating this technique in Healthy Living. This will involve looking at the Healthy Living 8 curriculum, and determining which outcomes could be combined in an advantageous manner.

I plan to start off with deepening my research into this topic. A few of the resources I plan to access are :

1. Two books by A.J. Juliani & John Spencer

 


2. The Buck Institute for Education website "PBL Works"

3. Twitter(#pbl)

4. AJ Juliani's blog

• Linking PBL with curriculum outcomes
• How to turn any unit into PBL - video
• How to turn any unit into PBL - article

5. Resources like the PBL Guidebook from the Human Restoration Project

6. Tools such as :

• Project Pals
• Classcraft Quests

7. Podcasts : 

• The PBL Playbook Podcast