m.bie.orgOut of the Gate

Preparing university faculty, preservice teachers, and cooperating teachers for high quality PBL Preparing university faculty, preservice teachers, and cooperating teachers for high quality PBL To help you effectively implement Project Based Learning with your students, this site provides support for both high quality project design and the practice of project based teaching. Model Projects To support you in designing high quality projects, you will find model projects to adopt, adapt, or use as inspiration for an original project of your own. Project Based Teaching Strategies To support you in shifting your teaching practices to PBL, you will find specific and detailed strategies to use with students as you implement projects, as well as several example videos of the strategies in action. More Resources Find more projects, project planning tools and teaching strategies at my.pblworks.org . Projects Inspired by Nature Science • Elementary Students design nature-inspired solutions to problems faced by humans. Journey to the Red Planet Interdisciplinary, Science • Elementary Students present a unique engineering design for an invention to make it possible for humans to survive Mars exploration. Starting a Business Mathematics • Elementary Students develop a concept and plan for a new business while learning key math skills. Make a Difference English Language Arts, Social Studies • Elementary Students explore how they can act as change agents and meet their civic responsibilities. Community Photojournalist English Language Arts, Arts & Music • Elementary Students design and present photo essays about their community. Healthy Choices = Long Life! Health or Physical Education • Elementary Students research aspects of health and wellness to improve the school community. Waiting on the World to Change Social Studies • Elementary, Middle School, High School Students actively engage in the political process by identifying a problem and designing an action plan to raises awareness or solve the problem. Community Voices Social Studies • Middle School Students tell a compelling story using data about a high-needs community issue. Grow It Green Science • Middle School Students experiment with and test two approaches to growing vegetables, grounding their experiment in research on sustainable gardening practices. Bridging the Gap English Language Arts • Middle School Students study adolescence through the lens of their own experiences, the experiences of their peers, literature, and the work of expert researchers to create a “Survival Guide” for 5th-6th graders. Parabolas for Profit Mathematics • Middle School, High School As market research analysts working for locally-owned companies, students determine the most profitable price point for one of their goods or services. Making Space for Change Science • High School Students design community spaces for environmental sustainability. Design It Clean Science • High School Students use the engineering design process to develop water filters to meet the needs of a specific community struggling to access clean water. Think Globally, Act Locally Science • High School Students determine the health and well being of a local environment and connect it to the larger watershed to which they belong. Ultimate Design Challenge Mathematics • High School Students use the engineering design process and geometric modeling to redesign a product’s packaging to make it more sustainable. The Moth English Language Arts • High School Students explore the art of storytelling, investigate the craft of storytelling, and create and perform their own true story. A Civilized World Social Studies • High School Students unpack concepts of “primitive” and “civilized,” creating multimedia exhibitions of ancient societies while critiquing the labels placed upon them. Are You Buying What I'm Vending Social Studies • High School Students use economics and marketing to develop a proposal for a new vending machine products. Strategies Use these project based teaching strategies to develop your skills in implementing BIE’s Project Based Teaching Practices and cultivating Deeper Learning Competencies in your students. The strategies are organized by BIE’s Project Path to give you a sense of when in the course of a project they are most useful and this table shows how the strategies align to the deeper learning competencies. Launch Creating and Using Norms to Build Effective Culture How to create and use norms in your classroom to build, positive, productive culture. To learn more watch this video on community agreements. Using Roles in Teams How to create roles to maximize the effectiveness of student teams. Generating Need to Knows How to initiate inquiry and access prior knowledge through the creation of student-generate questions. To learn more watch this video on need to knows. Creating and Using Team Contracts How to manage student teams while building students' skills of self-management and collaboration, and classroom culture. To learn more watch this video on team contracts. Revisiting Need to Knows How to sustain inquiry throughout the project using the student-generated list of need to know questions. Build Knowledge Learning Log How to help students keep track of their questions and learning as they research. Work Time How to structure work time during projects to focus on new learning, its application, and the development of the final product. To learn more watch this video on goal setting. Exit Tickets How to quickly and efficiently formatively assess and create opportunities for students to reflect on their learning. Develop and Critique Using Rubrics How to use rubrics as a tool to throughout the project to support learning, revision, and reflection. Critique Protocols How to use critique and revision to improve student products and learning throughout the project. Present Working with Outside Experts How to engage with outside experts to increase authenticity, which also increases accountability and enthusiasm. Post Project Reflection and Feedback from Students How to engage students in critique and revision of the project. Audience Feedback Form How to increase audience engagement during final product exhibitions. Videos Community Agreements Team Contracts Need to Know Goal Setting About the Project The project explores and examines the use of Project Based Learning (PBL) by Teacher Education Program (TEP) faculty to prepare preservice teachers to teach PBL “out of the gate,” so they enter K-12 public school districts ready to engage all students in meaningful deeper learning. The goal of this project is to build the capacity of TEP faculty to teach and support preservice teachers to use PBL as an instructional method for all students, including those who are furthest from opportunity (i.e., students who are living in poverty, students of color). Thanks to generous funding from ECMC Foundation , BIE is providing customized professional development to faculty, and preservice and cooperating teachers at four teacher education programs and 12 district partners in four states, identified below. Learn more about this project here . For more information, email [email protected] . Grand Valley State University Allendale, Michigan Forest Hills Public Schools Lowell Public Schools Kenowa Hills Public Schools Kent Innovation High School Kentwood Public Schools Otterbein University Westerville, Ohio Canal Winchester School District Olentangy Local School District Westerville City Schools Whitehall City Schools Worthington City School District University of Mary & Dickinson State University Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck Public Schools About the Authors The Buck Institute for Education is a nonprofit organization who believes that all students – no matter where they live or what their background – should have access to high quality PBL to deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life. Since 1998, BIE has provided ...