The Big List of Project Learning

Nearly 300 public schools in twenty states teach with farms or gardens.

Urban students on the verge of quitting scale new heights -- and remain in school -- through an ambitious program.

Cooperative learning and inquiry-based teaching yield big dividends in the classroom. And now we have the research to prove it.

It's not all a zero-sum game.

The economic crisis signals that schools need to get in the business of teaching money matters.

An economics educator teaches his students to be smart money managers and businesspeople.

Students at the Y-PLAN project create bonds through grassroots city planning.

Entrepreneur lessons lead to financial know-how.

Questions abound about the inquiry-based teaching approach. Here are answers, from how to meet standards to how to keep control of the classroom.

Student-run credit union branches teach career skills and financial independence.

The Internet offers teaching tools on economics for any grade level.

Plan your first lesson with these online resources.

Theater projects make students invest in their writing.

Learn how to turn a cardboard box, disposable cameras, and kids' natural curiosity into an academically rich project-learning program.

These unusual substitute teachers offer a day of curriculum-expanding fun to schools -- free.

Algebra students use their math skills to control the arc of launched objects.

Middle school students follow a climber's journey up Mount Everest via satellite Internet while they engage in related activities in the classroom.

Legal challenges may shutter a popular literacy-project Web site.

This event on do-it-yourself projects offers ample fodder for classroom STEM activities.

Follow along for a multidimensional literary adventure.

The Animal Planet host talks the talk of ecology and environmental preservation.

A traveling marine biologist in a snappy sharkmobile fosters stewardship for the ocean's fragile ecosystem.

High tech auto safety starts when kids can barely reach the brakes.

An inspiration in New York City creates life-enhancing change in a New Orleans prison school.

Find surprising teaching opportunities for hands-on learning in underresourced areas.

The Freedom Project uses the hard-fought history of racial equality to inspire power and perseverance.

This Bronx school turns the courtroom into a classroom.

A New York City middle school teacher gives students a close-up look at the art and science of television weather reporting.

Teachers have begun to accept comic books as a tool for teaching literacy through group projects.

A biology-class project teaches high school students about the real-life application of DNA testing in wrongful-conviction cases.

A California charter school is teaching essential skills -- and self-reliance.

One high school's new project-learning program is piquing students' interest in higher education and building their critical-thinking skills.

Beef up the real-world consequences of student projects in every grade.

A tiny offshore Maine school's self-sufficiency makes it an inspirational island apart.

To improve learning as well as the planet, K-12 schools have become front-runners in greening a new generation of school buildings.

A high school opens a tax office, and students run the show.

Students become conduits between history and a person's life.

Project learning helps students apply what they learn to real-life experiences and provides an all-around enriching education.

Discussing books creates a full learning process for students.

Students balance enjoyment with preservation in this adaptable lesson from the Yosemite Institute.

A classroom store teaches young students about money while reinforcing math skills.

Teach children a global lesson by donating books and other needed supplies to schools around the world.

Teenagers enroll in an art course that puts them to work in a professional craft shop that builds beasts. More to this story.

Project-based learning has replaced grim Communist Party pronouncements at the core of the Russian schoolroom.

A classroom doubles as a special effects tech studio, and students go pro.

When a high school art class becomes a professional special effects studio, students learn creative problem solving while developing personally and professionally.

A Colorado school's slogan finds its rhythm in the laboratory and stokes student passion to learn.

Whether you and your students pay a real visit or a remote one, America's natural treasures offer a wealth of learning resources.

Teachers use a practitioner model to move away from memorizing and encourage depth of learning.

A Hawaiian school mixes indigenous dance and academics to create a local success.

Milton Chen discusses with a former school superintendent the radical changes in education that must occur to meet the twenty-first-century needs of our society.

The day after an environmental disaster in San Francisco Bay, students visiting the Crissy Field Center learn how feathers respond to oil.

An innovative teacher-prep program starts in high school.

Creatures in the classroom teach science and respect.

Tap into the Web and learn how to preserve our planet -- and help others learn how, too.

Tips to engage students.

Open your classroom to a menagerie of living science projects.

A classroom dedicated to energy conservation runs on ethics, hard work, dreams, and a kid-powered bicycle.

A teacher's passion for the environment inspires not only her students but also their parents and the entire school.

Try these great lesson ideas for environmentally conscious teachers (and their lucky students).

Student researchers become the eyes and ears of environmental scientists.

Follow these tips for making your school more environmentally friendly.

At Clackamas High School, green ideals infuse the curricula, the building, and, most importantly, the students.

A Philadelphia career academy fosters a drive to learn.

School-to-career education prepares students for collars of all colors.

An arcane science turns into a traveling circus that’s fizzy, frantic, and fun.

A social studies teacher uses photo journals to make learning more personal and immediate for her students.

A Chicago Public Schools program makes enrichment programs for teens meaningful.

Seven accomplished people share their personal stories.

In directing the electric-car team at West Philadelphia High School’s Academy of Applied Automotive and Mechanical Science, teacher and program administrator Simon Hauger puts classroom concepts into action off campus and off the clock. It is an approach that can be more informal and interactive than what happens in school, but it offers its own challenges for teacher preparation.

The music of language provided the rhythm for an opera career.

Reading the lives of the greats provided inspiration and foundation.

One woman's passion leads to a creative haven for these students.

The restaurateur's education was served at the table, not at a desk.

Photography is a revelation, and a learning tool, for visually impaired students.

Modern technology cracks the code of "the world's first computer."

From her sister's mistake in choosing a path, the journalist found hers.

The seed for Lemony Snicket was planted at a young age.

An Indianapolis school district builds a new model for education.

This physics classroom is all about the loud, the mysterious, and the thrilling.

Expeditionary learning puts the focus on student investigations -- and a Kansas City district embraces it.

Student-driven projects, enhanced by technology, launch kindergartners on their way to lifelong learning.

Who says successful documentarians can't also be teenagers?

Edutopia readers weigh in on their favorites.

Edutopia readers weigh in on their favorites.

Foster-care kids explore their environment and themselves through art.

A Baltimore school strives to "produce students that change the world."

Farming -- and dessert -- at California's Pie Ranch.

Understanding the concept and benefits of "place" in education.

Counselors debate the need to declare a major in high school.

The Build San Francisco Institute is devoted to the architecture of building adults.

Successful educational projects that focus on the community share key characteristics.

An in-depth look at the impressive work of aviation students.

A project-based-learning teacher and coach writes about "the most effective tool for organizing content and motivating students to think hard."

The IB movement sets the focus on younger classrooms.

The unique International Baccalaureate program sparks both admiration and controversy.

An educational package to add to the curriculum.

These articles feature accounts of students engaging in environmental education, conservation efforts, and other initiatives to protect our ecosystems.

Murray Fisher, founder of the New York Harbor School, offers advice on keeping an extraordinary school going, despite philosophical and financial challenges.

At the New York Harbor School, great things are expected of the students. And the students deliver.