Project learning can inspire the best of high-performance teamwork, or it can be devolve into unfocused chaos. How can we support each other to keep our eye on the prize? Share your project ideas, questions, and implementation experiences.
PBL Camp Collaborators Wanted: Grade 6-8 (Week 2)
Please share your name and grade level and some info about the project you'd like to do. If you know your driving question, you can include that. If not, it's OK. You can collaborate with your team to develop that.
To connect with someone who has posted a project here, click their name to view their profile. In the left column, under the photo, there is a link SEND A MESSAGE. Use that to securely communicate. From there, you can share your email address or phone number. Please don't post your personal contact info in the group.
Once you've found collaborators, you may click "edit" at the bottom of your post and type PROJECT FOUND in the subject line so the rest of us know you're not available for this collaboration.
To connect with someone who has posted a project here, click their name to view their profile. In the left column, under the photo, there is a link SEND A MESSAGE. Use that to securely communicate. From there, you can share your email address or phone number. Please don't post your personal contact info in the group.
Once you've found collaborators, you may click "edit" at the bottom of your post and type PROJECT FOUND in the subject line so the rest of us know you're not available for this collaboration.
Comments (32)
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Migratory Birds (Grades 4-8)
Mary Ball
Environmental Educator from East Tennessee
Posted on 7/17/2010 7:19am
Is anyone interested in developing a unit on migratory birds? There are lots of good lessons and other resources to access online. And there are lots of ways students can get involved in migratory-bird conservation, no matter where you live.
Please contact Mary Ball directly.
Physical Science - 8th grade
denise Oppenhagen
Teacher
Posted on 7/17/2010 9:17am
Physical Science - 8th grade
I am trying to design this as a multiple objective long range process. My thoughts are to create different modules, the first being a discussion of what is oil. In this module, I want to have them "get" physical and chemical properties of matter, basic, basic periodic table (through discussing oil as a hydrocarbon), elements, compounds, and mixtures. My plan is to create an "oil", push that oil upward through sand on the ocean bottom, and then find the constituent parts. For activities, they will do the oil spill cleanup and a density segment.
I started thinking of this earlier this summer and although it sounds pretty planned out, it really isn't that far. I would love to have collaborators with ideas and am very open to modifications.
Please contact denise Oppenhagen directly.
Lego robots and environmental protection
I am Florence Duarte and I teach 8th grade science in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
My project idea is to combine lego robotics with environmental science and have groups of kids design a robot to address one issue that has come up in the gulf coast oil spill.
My guiding question should look something like:
How can robots help us repair damaged ecosystems, or oil rigs, or prevent further accidents such as the BP Gulf coast oil spill of 2010?
I could strech this out to include Denise's chemitry section but have not relly decided. I also second her when she says, "I would love to have collaborators with ideas and am very open to modifications."
Looking forward to hearing from someone(s) soon!
Florence
Hi,I teach 6 and 8 science
Hi,
I teach 6 and 8 science in Tucson AZ. I am looking for three "sister" schools that my students can survey at the beginning of the school year (mid Aug). The surveys will aim to gain insight into how different students living in different parts of the US view and feel about the BP spill. Looking for at least one school that is at "ground zero" and able to have students who have a local beach impacted by the oil spill. Another community with access to beaches not impacted would be good…and a 3rd school from someplace landlocked would round out the group nicely. Survey answers will lead to graphing using a spreadsheet program. I might also be cool to compare Wallwisher responses and look for patterns based on geographic location?
I am open to ongoing collaboration and am thinking that this project will be done by all 6th and 8th graders during our first semester. Guiding questions that I like so far are: How Big Is This Mess? …and Whose Mess Is This? What Are The Pros and Cons Of Our Nation's Dependence On Oil? These ideas also looked promising: student "oil footprints",mapping the area and the volume of the spill, modeling cleanup of oil (yuk factor), journaling the human stories, analyzing physical and chemical properties of oil, researching past spills, researching present and past scientific studies done on impact to ecosystems. Anyway…I am in the brainstorming mode. Anyone out there interested in collaborating with a school in Tucson Az?
Compare Robotics Notes (Florence and Others)
I'm sure there's some ground for collaboration as regards robotics and the oil spill. We introduce robotics in 5th Grade and so our kids get a little cool to the topic in general by 8th but working as a team doesn't mean all taking the exact same approach right? We'd be trilled to share in your driving questions with a view to building knowledge together and reporting back to one another via Skype or similar? Feel free to email :)
Peter
FOSS Middle School Water Planet
I'm going to be using the FOSS Water Planet curriculum this fall for 6th graders and want to do PBL in conjunction with it, both to motivate the study and to have the kids do authentic scientific research.
I want the students to develop their own curricularly-related topics, but think that they'll be interested in possibly looking at ocean currents + the oil spill migration, oil in a storm, hot oil/cool oil, oil on hot/cold water, oil under pressure, oil round-up/containment, evaporation + oil, and oil + coagulants. Each group will develop and do a project/experiment, using the scientific method, and prepare a science-fair type presentation, possibly using fancy tech tools.
Is anyone else using this curriculum or doing other similar Earth Science? Wanna collaborate? Please email.
Middle School Math Robots
I would be interested in working with a group that used robots.
GOOD NEWS!
Great! Let me draft something in the project planning wiki and run it by both of you..I'll message you later
Reply to Jeffrey Decker
Hi,
I teach 6 and 8 science in Tucson AZ. I am looking for three "sister" schools that my students can survey at the beginning of the school year (mid Aug) ... Another community with access to beaches not impacted would be good ... Survey answers will lead to graphing using a spreadsheet program. I might also be cool to compare Wallwisher responses and look for patterns based on geographic location? ... Anyone out there interested in collaborating with a school in Tucson Az?
I have students who could to respond to your survey and maybe be involved beyond that BUT we're not back in school until after Labor Day. We're in Southern California. We're located in the San Fernando Valley which isn't along the coast but most (if not all) of my students spend at least some of the summer at our local beaches.
An Essential Question
Hey gang:
I won't be able to actually do a project next year. I'm in a co-teaching/inclusion situation that seriously impacts my ability to plan and implement any ideas.
But ... I've been thinking about this project as if I would do it. And I came up with this essential question:
What is true connectiveness?
This really applies to the oil spill on so many levels. Through research and learning about the spill/leak, many avenues can be explored around connectiveness - and it applies to every subject area. And with my students who live in an impoverished area of a large, urban city (not too far from the Northeastern coast but far away enough that they don't think about it much) this could really delve into how we connect with people we've never met in situations we aren't familiar with.
I hope this is helpful for some of you who are able to use this next year. I really wish I could!