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Project-Based Learning: Students
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Project-based learning is a teaching and learning strategy that engages students in complex activities. It usually requires several steps and some duration-more than a couple of class days and up to a semester-and cooperative group learning. Projects may focus on the development of a product or performance, and they generally call upon students to organize their activities, conduct research, solve problems, and synthesize information. Projects are often interdisciplinary. For example, a project in which students draft plans for and build a structure, investigate its environmental impact, document the building process, and develop spreadsheets for the associated accounting would involve the use of skills and concepts drawn from courses in English, mathematics, building trades, drafting and/or design, and biology. Although projects as a methodology are not a new concept; it is an approach that supports the many tasks facing teachers today such as meeting state standards, incorporating authentic assessment, infusing higher-order thinking skills, guiding students in life choices, and providing experiences that tap individual student interests and abilities.
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Project-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning all three closely relate to the information processing approach. They all fit well with technology-rich learning environments where the focus is not on the hardware and software, but on the learning experience. In each case, technology is used to facilitate learning. It may be a tool to organize ideas (such as Inspiration), search for current information (such as an online news source), or present ideas (such as PowerPoint presentations). However the focus of learning environment is the student's excitement about solving a problem or addressing an issue they find meaningful.
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Students engaged in project-based learning (PBL) activities "work in groups to solve challenging problems that are authentic, curriculum-based, and often interdisciplinary" (McGrath, 2003). Project-based learning is a component of an inquiry-based approach to learning. In this approach, students create knowledge and understanding through learning activities built around intellectual inquiry and a high degree of engagement with meaningful tasks. Within the context of this inquiry-based approach, projects take the role traditionally afforded to assessments such as tests and quizzes. Projects are designed to allow students with a variety of different learning styles to demonstrate their acquired knowledge. Therefore, a well designed project-based learning activity is one which addresses different student learning styles and which does not assume that all students can demonstrate their knowledge in a single, standard, way.
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Project-based learning provides students with the opportunity to tackle real world situations that by their nature have no easy solution, or have no solution at the present time. Project-based learning helps students to understand that sometimes one needs to be satisfied with asking the right questions rather that focusing on the "right" answers. Students learn to manage their time, interpret data sets, resolve value conflicts between group members and prepare and communicate the results of their investigation. In other words, they will use their experiences to learn to manage real life situations. The Yellowstone Fires problem-based learning module Yellowstone Fires engages students in defining a situation, gathering information on what is known and not known about the situation, developing an Earth Systems analysis and reporting on their recommendations. Because the tasks involved in Project-based learning are so varied there are several methods that may be used together to assess student learning.
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Project-based learning involves multifaceted learning activities. For example, when a student drafts a plan and builds a structure, they use the Internet to investigate its potential environmental impact, use a word processing application to document the building process, and develop spreadsheets for the associated accounting. This involves the use of skills and concepts drawn from courses in language arts, mathematics, building trades, drafting and/or design, and biology. Although project-based learning is not a new concept, it is an approach that supports the many tasks facing teachers today, such as meeting state standards, incorporating authentic assessment, infusing higher-order thinking skills, guiding students in life choices, and providing experiences that tap individual student interests and abilities. Student performances and products created during project-based learning activities provide opportunities for teachers to include authentic assessment in their instruction.
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Project-based learning can fill a critical need by making learning relevant to the real world. It provides an opportunity for students to interact directly with their environment, and prepare them to make better-informed decisions about environmental practices. Students need to understand how living things are dependent upon one another and their physical environment so that they may develop a respect for nature and make informed decisions about sustainable resource use. In pilot studies of OPIHI at the Educational Laboratory School, when students who had participated in the project were asked the question, "What do you know now that you didn’t know before?" 31 percent commented on the interconnectedness of ecological systems like the intertidal, demonstrating that participation in a biodiversity monitoring project linked to instruction in ecology can help bridge the growing gap between humans and the environment.
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