Blog Post #9

   In this weeks blog post we were asked the question, "What can teachers and students teach us about project based learning?" Project Based Learning is a great way to get students involved and interacted in their own learning process. Before starting this class, I had no idea what PBL was or had even heard of it. I now have a deeper understanding of what it is and how much it can really change how a child learns. 

   In the Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning article, there were some very important things that I did not really know that went into PBL. The seven essentials are: Need to know. This is your "entry event", what you need to gather before you start your project. "What do I need to know to meet the challenge I have accepted?"A driving question. An essential question based around your individual project. Question needs to be a question that: solves a problem, is complex, is a real world problem, is open ended, concrete and abstract. Student voice and choice. Students need to have free reigns for their projects. Yes there needs to be guidelines, but they need to be able to use their imagination and creativeness. Students can choose their own topic that interest them. 21st century skills. Using rubrics, collaboration, role playing and team building. Inquiry and Innovation.  Their project work is more meaningful if they could conduct real inquiry and with real inquiry comes innovation. Feedback and Revision. Students should critique others work using rubrics. "First attempts don't result in high quality. Revision is frequent." A publicly presented product.  Schoolwork is more meaningful when it is not just done for the teacher or to just be applied to take a test. Students should be allowed to show off their finished product to a large audience.


   The video, Project Based Learning for Teachers, is a very informative video about the standards of PBL. Project Based Learning has students working longer hours and more efficiently instead of just giving them a chapter out of a book and telling them to read and answer questions on it. In PBL students take charge in their learning and their learning process and they get to voice their own opinions and share what they found during research.

• Common core is the WHAT.  

• Project Based Learning is the HOW. 

  
   I loved the invention of the, No Watery Ketchup Cap, that Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson created. Yes. At first I said to myself, "Are these guys serious do they really care that much about ketchup?" but after watching their video and reading the project guidelines, I totally get it. The prompt that was given was, something that was relevant to them and to help come up with a topic their teacher said to think of the phrase, "...it really bugs me when?" This product seems like it took a lot of time a patients, but I think it's really neat that they got to use a 3D printer to print their final product.


   As I was watching the given videos, I found a video that was not on our list that really stood out to me. Building Blocks of Project Based Learning, there is a statement given by one of the men in this video that I feel like is essential in PBL. "Just because its always been done a certain way doesn't mean it always has to be done a certain way" Just because lessons have always been taught on white boards or chalk boards with books and pens/paper doesn't mean that that is the only way to teach a lesson to students. One teacher says that this is not "her" show that its "their" show so she lets them take control of the class and she is just their to assist where needed. PBL is definitely teaching students how to survive in the 21st century work world.

   What Motivates Students? In this video, they have asked a couple of students what motivates them to do good in school. The answers that these students give are obvious. "I won't be able to play sports" or "I want to have a good job when I am older so I need to do well in school". These are all very true. Instead of parents being the ones that motivate students to learn by threatening to take something away or telling them they can't do something, teachers should play a part in this as well. By introducing PBL in schools and letting students use technology to create projects that adapt to a certain concept it will give students more motivation to do their work and learn the required material. Also using PBL will help students actually learn things rather than just memorize them.