Blogs on Project-Based Learning

Project-Based Learning

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Get tips and advice for teaching core subject matter with meaningful activities that examine complex, real-world issues.

Suzie BossJune 20, 2012

Editor's note: Today is the third in a series of posts from PBL World, a global gathering of educators interested in project-based learning. Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #pblworld.

Sam Seidel, author of Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education, suggested a new "essential element" for high-quality project-based learning in his keynote to the PBL World audience on Tuesday. His advice for high-quality projects? "Keep it real."

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Suzie BossJune 19, 2012

Editor's note: Today is the second in a series of posts from PBL World, a global gathering of educators interested in project-based learning. Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #pblworld.

When Claudia Urrea was growing up in Colombia, her family made a point of doing projects together. Whether they were focused on fun -- "building the coolest kite" -- or more practical household matters, projects taught her the value of learning by doing.

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Suzie BossJune 18, 2012

More than 450 educators from around the globe, including 27 U.S. states, are converging on Napa, California, this week for the first-ever PBL World conference. Focusing on best practices in project-based learning and featuring a stellar line-up of daily keynote speakers, PBL World is co-sponsored by the Buck Institute for Education and the Napa Valley Unified School District. Can't make it? No worries. Thanks to social media, there will be plenty of virtual opportunities to expand your PBL toolkit right alongside attendees. Today is the first in a weeklong series of Edutopia blogs coming to you from the conference site, New Technology High School in Napa.

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John LarmerJune 5, 2012

Everyone thinks that Project-Based Learning has something to do with "authentic" learning. But not everyone agrees what this means.

Take this quick quiz.

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Danielle Moss LeeMay 17, 2012

As we glide through the month of May, I know that many teachers and students are steadily dreaming of how to spend their summer vacations. Some will be off to sleep-away camp, some will travel to faraway places, and many others are still trying to figure it out. But for many families, the summer will also bring a level of anxiety. In the age of budget cuts, the opportunities for quality programs and government subsidized summer jobs will be few and far between. According to the National Summer Learning Association, many low-income and underserved students will face two to three months' summer learning loss in reading and math, while affluent and better resourced students may show slight gains in reading over the summer because of their access to summer enrichment.

What does this mean?

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Suzie BossMay 2, 2012

Back in 2005, West Virginia embarked on a bold effort to reinvent public education. The vision was ambitious, especially for a rural state with a high poverty rate. "We're not tinkering around the edges here -- we are completely transforming every aspect of our system," then-Superintendent Steven Paine told Edutopia in the early years of the initiative. To make change happen, the state Department of Education enlisted a willing group of partners: West Virginia teachers.

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Suzie BossApril 13, 2012

On April 22, a billion people around the world are expected to take part in Earth Day 2012 celebrations. Among the anticipated "billion acts of green" will be scores of events for students and schools, from gardening lessons to eco-fairs to solar cooking demonstrations. It could be an ideal set-up for young people to dive deeply into problem solving and creative thinking -- but only if we trust students to figure out which problems they want to tackle.

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Suzie BossMarch 28, 2012

Today's students may not realize it, but they belong to the largest peer group in history. This global "youth bulge" of more than 1.2 billion faces economic and social challenges which many young people are ill-equipped to tackle, according to a new report from the International Youth Foundation. Helping prepare this unprecedented number of 15- to 24-year-olds for a more productive future will require better access to education and expanded opportunities to develop essential career skills.

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Todd FinleyMarch 27, 2012

Did you check out Open Education Week this month? The international event highlighted free lesson plans and materials, searchable by subject, grade and quality. I spent a couple days throwing keywords into OER (open education resources are digital materials freely available through open licenses) search engines to assess the quality of secondary and higher education writing curricula.

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Andrew MillerFebruary 8, 2012

Project-Based Learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it "looks like" in the classroom. In fact, the inspiration for this blog came specifically from requests on Twitter! We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project.

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