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Most of the illegal ivory sold around the world comes from elephants that have been recently killed. It's not coming from old stashes of ivory, but from elephants that have been poached within the last few years, according to researchers.

Typically, authorities wouldn't know when the ivory was poached, but with new technology researchers used carbon dating to study hundreds of samples of ivory confiscated from around the world. The analysis found that most of the ivory came from elephants killed less than three years ago.

Among savanna-dwelling African elephants, populations are declining by about 8% per year, according to the Great Elephant Census, including a 30% drop between 2007 and 2014. Similarly, the number of African elephants living in forests dropped an incredible 62% from 2002 to 2013. These deaths, notes Smithsonian Magazine, are "intimately linked with the illegal global trade in ivory."

This suggests the poaching crisis may be even more dire than previously thought.

In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the international commercial trade of African elephant ivory, except under a few rare circumstances. In the same year, the U.S. Congress passed the African Elephant Conservation Act (AECA), banning the importation of ivory from African elephants. Since then, the U.S. commercial ivory market has virtually collapsed.

That's not the case in Asia, however. As much as 70% of the illegal ivory currently being plundered is being routed to China. Revered for millennia as a rare, status-boosting luxury item, ivory has long been out of reach for most. But as China's economic boom created a vast middle class, many new customers entered the market, which elevated the price of ivory to a staggering $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing. The tusks of a single adult elephant can be worth more than 10 times the average annual income for an African worker.

The lust for ivory and the situation in Africa have created what may be the greatest percentage loss of elephants in history. Many fear African elephants won't survive.

What can we do?

If you're a mercenary, you can strap on your Rambo gear and go to Africa to fight warlords and poachers. If you're in China and purchase ivory objects, you can decide to stop. But what about the rest of us? None of us can single-handedly stop the ivory trade, but we are not helpless - as much as it may feel like it. Here are six actions we can take to support these grand creatures.

1. Obviously, don't buy ivory.

Or sell it, or wear it. New ivory is strictly banned, but antique ivory can be legally available for purchase. (The regulations are complicated; this is a good overview.) Ivory has traditionally been used for jewelry, billiard balls, pool cues, dominoes, fans, piano keys and carved trinkets. Shunning antique ivory is a clear message to dealers that the material is not welcomed, and it's an easy way to show your solidarity with the elephants.

2. Buy elephant-friendly coffee and wood.

Coffee and timber crops are often grown in plantations that destroy elephant habitats. Make sure to buy Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber and certified fair trade coffee.

3. Support conservation efforts.

If only we could all be Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey, and move to the jungle or plains and thoroughly dedicate our lives to wildlife. Alas, for most of us that's the stuff of daydreams. In the meantime, we can support the organizations that are actively committed to elephant preservation. There are many, but here are a few:

4. Be aware of the plight of captive elephants.

Historically, zoos and circuses have offered elephants a life of, basically, indentured servitude. Fortunately, the zoo industry is starting to wake up and is beginning to develop more elephant-friendly environments, yet they have a long way to go. Circuses, even further. Make a difference by boycotting circuses that use animals, and by boycotting zoos that offer insufficient space to allow elephants to live in social groups, and where the management style doesn't allow them to be in control of their own lives.

5. Adopt an elephant.

Who wouldn't want to take home a cute elephant, protect it from the bad guys, and raise it as their own? OK, so that's unrealistic, but there are organizations that offer elephant adoptions so you get cute pictures of "your" elephant, and they get funding for their elephant conservation efforts. World Wildlife Foundation, World Animal Foundation, Born Free and Defenders of Wildlife all have adoption programs and are good places to start looking for that special pachyderm.

6. Get involved with Roots & Shoots.

Founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students, Roots & Shoots is a youth program created to incite positive change. There are hundreds of thousands of kids in more than 120 countries in the Roots & Shoots network, all working to create a better world. It's a great way to get youth involved in conservation and pursue careers to help elephants and other wildlife.

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Most of the illegal ivory sold around the world comes from elephants that have been recently killed. It's not coming from old stashes of ivory, but from elephants that have been poached within the last few years, according to researchers.

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Tweet #WorldElephantDay to spread the word about the plight of elephants and visit our Press Room for Facebook cover photos, sample blog posts, tweets, and more!

Sign the World Elephant Day Pledge to show your support.

Tweet #BeElephantEthical to promote safe, ethical elephant tourism. Do not support organizations that exploit or abuse elephants and other animals for entertainment and profit.

#10DaysForElephants. You can protect elephants and their homes. Take 10 actions in the 10 days leading up to World Elephant Day, August 12.

Do not buy ivory or other wildlife products. Be an elephant aware consumer.
Currently it's not legal in California, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington State. Ivory ban legislation is also currently being considered in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Massachusetts.

Support one of 10 elephant conservation projects in critical landscapes through The Bodhi Tree Foundation's 'Power of 10' initiative.

Study elephants in their "keystone" role in the environment and interrelationships with plants and other animals because all of nature is interconnected.

Visit elephants in countries where they live in the wild - tourism benefits the economy, provides needed jobs, deters poachers and abuse, and gives you the opportunity to experience the beauty, intelligence, and emotional capacity of these magnificent giants.

If you wish to experience elephants in their natural environment, choose eco-tourism operators who support local elephant conservation projects and who treat elephants with respect and dignity.

Learn about and support organizations that are working to protect habitat for wild elephants and finding solutions for human-elephant conflict.

Support organizations that are working to stop the illegal poaching and trade of elephant ivory and other wildlife products.

Support organizations that are protecting wild elephant habitat.

Support organizations that are building natural sanctuaries and alternative habitat for domesticated elephants to live freely.

Support healthy, alternative, sustainable livelihoods for people who have traditionally relied on elephants, wild animals and natural resources. Learn about indigenous cultures that have traditionally lived in harmony with elephants.

Be aware of elephant habitat. Do not buy coffee that is not fair-trade or shade-grown, nor products with palm-oil. These commercial crops are grown in plantations that have decimated elephant habitats. Only buy wood products that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which promotes responsible management of the world's forests - the natural habitat for elephants and other wildlife.

Talk about elephants at your school. Initiate an elephant study group to share knowledge and ideas about the plight of elephants and what can be done to ensure their survival into the future.

What do you love about elephants? Their intelligence, empathy and caring for one another are just a few of their qualities. Embrace these qualities and live them in your own life.

Use your love of elephants and World Elephant Day, August 12, to start a conversation with the next person you meet. Tie a string around your finger right now so, like an elephant, you don't forget!

Elephants are living treasures. Nature's gardeners. Nature's great teachers."
- Virginia McKenna OBE, Founder and Trustee Born Free Foundation

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Tweet #WorldElephantDay to spread the word about the plight of elephants and visit our Press Room for Facebook cover photos, sample blog posts, tweets, and more! Sign the World Elephant Day Pledge to show your support. Tweet #BeElephantEthical to promote safe, ethical elephant tourism.

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Elephants and How to Save Them 🐘 | Mission Animal Rescue

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Why, Where and How to Help Elephants in Thailand

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What if students controlled their own learning? | Peter Hutton | TEDxMelbourne

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Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders | Kayla Delzer | TEDxFargo

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Impact on students

PBL blends content mastery, meaningful work, and personal connection to create powerful learning experiences, in terms of both academic achievement and students' personal growth.

PBL can be transformative for students, especially those furthest from educational opportunity. Now more than ever, we need young people who are ready, willing, and able to tackle the challenges of their lives and the world they will inherit - and nothing prepares them better than Project Based Learning.

Here are just some of the ways that PBL transforms students' educational experiences:

- Engaged hearts and minds

Students actively engage with PBL projects that provide real-world relevance for learning. Students can solve problems that are important to them and their communities.

- Deeper learning

PBL leads to deeper understanding and greater retention of content knowledge. Students are better able to apply what they know to new situations.

- Exposure to adults and careers

Students interact with adults, businesses and organizations, and their community, and can develop career interests.

- A sense of purpose

A great project can be transformative for students. Seeing a real-world impact gives them a sense of agency and purpose.

- Success skills

Students gain skills valuable in today's workplace and in life, such as how to take initiative, work responsibly, solve problems, collaborate in teams, and communicate ideas.

- Rewarding teacher relationships

Teachers work closely with active, engaged students doing meaningful work, and share in the rediscovered joy of learning.

- Creativity and technology

Students enjoy using a spectrum of technology tools from research and collaboration through product creation and presentation.
See Stories of PBL Success

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We believe Project Based Learning is transformative, providing students with real-world challenges and meaningful experiences that lead to deep and long lasting learning.

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Project Based Learning: Start Here | Cult of Pedagogy

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Maybe you’ve always wanted to try PBL, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Here’s a set of beginner-level resources to get you started.

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Evergreens purchased through Kansas Conservation Tree Planting Program are bare-root or "containerized", depending on species. Containerized species are grown in a tube in a greenhouse; Plants maintain their entire root system when containerized because they are not harvested from a field grown environment. Root systems are more intact and fibrous.

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Creative writing five top tips - School of English

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How to build a fictional world - Kate Messner

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It's exciting when your bookworm teen announces his or her plans to be a writer. But teenagers can be a finicky lot: if the adults in their lives are too excited or too supportive of a new goal, suddenly that aspiration is gone. (And having a teen with the writer's temperament means you're likely dealing with a moody teenager squared.)

Rather than bombard them with fancy pens and motivational reading, direct them to a comfort zone: the Internet. These sites are great resources and landing spots for future storytellers. Suggest them to your teen writer (or maybe just leave this list lying around somewhere where it'll be seen).

Figment - Specially tailored for the teen reader/writer, Figment is a community dedicated to reading and writing stories online. Addictively fun, users can rate stories by whether they made them laugh, blush, cry, or just say "wow." The site frequently runs contests and features work from well-known authors and editors who sometimes drop in for Figment chats with the site's community.

Wattpad - The largest online reading platform, Wattpad is considered the YouTube of writing because it allows authors to share their work with the world. Well-known writers such as Margaret Atwood and Cory Doctorow even post their work here. Teens can find and follow their favorite authors and release their own works as serial novels. Access to an audience in the millions - the site has 25 million members, and that number is always growing - has led to big-name book deals for successful Wattpad authors.

Teen Ink - Supported by the nonprofit Young Authors Foundation, Teen Ink is the twenty-five-year veteran in the fostering-teen-writers game. The magazine, book series, and website are devoted entirely to writing, art, and photos by teens. It's also a go-to for teens interested in writing and publishing nonfiction essays and articles as well as poetry.

One Teen Story - Direct kids here to introduce them to the nonprofit's monthly magazine. Each issue features one short story about the teen experience, usually from a known young adult author. Teens drawn to the short story form can also submit their work for consideration in an annual issue that features a story written by a teen for teens.

NaNoWriMo - Short for National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is an awesome thirty-day adventure for any writer, but teens might be especially inclined to join. In November, would-be novelists the world over attempt to write a 50,000-word (or more, if they can do it) book in thirty days. For teens with pressing homework demands, the Young Writers Program might be a better fit, as it allows authors to set their own word-count goal to meet before the month is out.

Tumblr - The blogging platform is of course a wonderful place for self-expression, but it also doubles as a go-to for young literary enthusiasts, bookworms, and those in need of some writing motivation. Some to check out: The Writer's Helpers (for advice on everything from grammar to plot); Writing Prompts (just what it says, provided in fun visual ways by a ninth-grade teacher); and John Green's Tumblr (the Tumblr account of YA author John Green, which is just fun and inspiring).

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6 Great Websites for Teen Writers | Brightly

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It's exciting when your bookworm teen announces his or her plans to be a writer. But teenagers can be a finicky lot: if the adults in their lives are too excited or too supportive of a new goal, suddenly that aspiration is gone.

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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Come on craftsmen here is one more inspirational post for you. We present you a bunch of creative DIY projects for your home that you need to make this spring. Spring is the time when we usually need something to freshen up our home and our interior design. So this is the right idea. The following DIY ideas are simple, easy-to-make and cheap, but in the same time they are awesome and they will fit in every home decor. We really like the DIY nightstand created from an old suitcae and the desk made from old pallet. Be creative and refresh your home!

Convert your wine bottles into small gardens

BUILD A DIY SUITCASE NIGHTSTAND

DIY Vintage wine rack

Vintage Shutter Wall Clock

Cute Paper Chandelier

Instant Bathroom Storage

Creative DIY candle holders

Vintage Kitchen Accessories Holder

Wine rack from repurposed ladder

DIY Decorative Window Ledge Idea

Plaster flower candle holder

DIY Wine Barrel Vintage Mirror

Use old windows to display family photos

PVC Pipe for organizing hair tools

Birch-Log Coffee Table

Lovely pallet planter

DIY Moroccan-style wall stencil

Candle Pillars Made from Cinnamon Sticks

DIY Pallet Coffee Table

Baby food jar vases

A little basket from old newspaper

Source

DIY Covered sandbox for kids

DIY Food Storage Shelf

Colorful DIY window box

DIY Rolling toy storage crates

DIY Wall clock from your Instagram photos

Practical vintage milk crate wine rack

PVC pipes as bathroom storage

Source

DIY Pallet Plant Stand

DIY Driftwood wall candle

Painted bottle flower display

Chic bath caddy for guests

Neon concrete block planter

Jewelry stand made from bottles

Tags: coolest diy projects, diy, diy and crafts, DIY projects, spring crafts, spring diy projects

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The Coolest 34 DIY Projects You Need To Make This Spring

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Come on craftsmen here is one more inspirational post for you. We present you a bunch of creative DIY projects for your home that you need to make this spring. Spring is the time when we usually need something to freshen up our home and our interior design.

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The 52 Easiest And Quickest DIY Projects Of All Time

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They should take you less than an hour. Unless you are a tortoise. In which case, it may take you about two.

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25 CUTE AND FAST DIY PROJECTS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

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DIY ROOM DECOR! 20 Easy Craft Ideas at Home for Teenagers

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Gmail is email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

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It's easy to remember the highlight reels of the project-based approach I used when I taught eighth grade. I think about the moment we finished our second mural and my students were so excited they started spontaneously cheering or the moment students asked thoughtful questions to our guests during the immigration documentary or the way students continued to surprise me with their blogging projects year after year or the creativity in their STEM-related engineering projects.

But for all the highlights, there are also a string of failures. I've made a ton of mistakes in my PBL journey. Big mistakes. Epic mistakes. I designed project-based units that were cringe-worthy; where I had to stop after a few lessons and say, "This was a bad idea. I tried something and it failed. We're going to change this up a bit."

One such project was the Great Linear Equation Debacle of 2011. As an eighth grade self-contained teacher, I wanted to prove that our math block could be fully project-based. After a successful statistics project, I decided we would do a "Linear Equations in Real Life" project. I challenged students to find real examples of linear equations and interview experts who used this skill in their daily life.

It tanked.

Students couldn't find enough real examples, much less, experts they could interview. The project felt forced and the end goal was something they didn't find relevant. To make matters worse, students struggled to determine linear functions while looking at a graph or to solve a linear equation using an algorithm. At first, I blamed my students. I viewed their disengagement as laziness rather than confusion. However, after four days of a failing project, I realized it was a design problem. On a fundamental level, those standards didn't fit in with a project-based approach.

In my drive for authenticity, I had created pseudo-context. In my rejection of cookie cutter learning, I had turned the PBL process into something cookie cutter. At that point, we regrouped and focused on a problem-based approach with more scaffolding and some time for guided practice.

It was a hard lesson in how to align the content standards you have to teach with the project-based learning that leads to student voice and choice.

How to Align Standards to Projects

People often debate about whether we should be process-driven or product-driven in project-based learning. But I think there's a third option. We can be learning-driven. In other words, we should start with the question, "What do we want students to learn?" and let that drive the process and the product.

At times, this looks very product-focused. Ask a student in the midst of a NaNoWriMo project (where they create a novel in a month) and they are focusing on that end result of a finished novel. True, the process is important but they might just deviate from it a bit. By contrast, a student in a design thinking project might begin with empathy toward a group and only later, after working through the process, hit a place of ideation and prototyping. But regardless, you as a teacher, will be focused on what they are learning through this journey.

PBL is not a license to ditch the standards or take a break from real learning. It's not the same thing as a pizza party or Field Day. As educators, we need to make sure our projects lead students to a place where they can master the standards. But how do we actually accomplish this?

How do you do PBL when you have a ton of standards to teach?

Whenever I mention Geek Out Projects or Genius Hour, people ask, "How do you get away with teaching whatever topics you want? Don't you have a ton of standards you need to teach?" People assume we have added an additional project to an already packed plate. But that's not how it works. We aren't adding anything. We're re-arranging the plate in a way that honors student voice and choice.
The key is to tap into content-neutral standards. For example, in our Geek Out Blogs, my middle school students had to make sure that their blogs included persuasive and explanatory texts. Here are the two main standards we used.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

Students also engaged in research:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

They moved through the entire writing process:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 8 here.)

They also published their work to the world, both in writing shorter and longer posts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.10: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

This project included nearly every single Common Core Writing Standard in the first few weeks of school. Notice, also, how none of those standards mention specific topics. These were all topic-neutral standards, which meant students could choose skateboarding or fashion or history or video games and they're still learning the same standards. As long as they were practicing discreet skills in reading and writing, they could choose their own topics. This was an interest-driven approach to PBL.

Our Tiny House Projects, by contrast, required students to master specific conceptual standards with the freedom to use multiple modalities. We combined volume, surface area, and proportional reasoning with standards around budgeting and finance. This was a problem-driven approach with a tight focus on specific concepts.

A little nuance here. Even in a project-based learning unit, you might still need to teach some specific skills through direct instruction. I still had to demonstrate how to find the volume and surface area. We also practiced using proportional reasoning to solve spatial problems all around our school. However, I integrated direct instruction and skill practice into the project rather than taking a "teach first, project second" approach.

Students began this project with a specific challenge:

Fitting the Standards to the Framework

Notice in the previous two examples how the types of standards required two vastly different approaches to project-based learning. That's not a bad thing. There isn't one single, perfect PBL approach. Sometimes, the best option is an open-ended topical project. Other times, it's more inquiry-based. Still other times, you might choose an empathy-driven design thinking framework.

Check out the following table to see the connection between the types of standards you teach and the corresponding PBL approach.

ModelFlexibility of StandardsThe Standards-Model FitInquiry-DrivenFlexible Content Standards with Specific Skill StandardsThe standards must allow for students to ask their own questions and find their own answers.Interest-DrivenContent-Neutral Standards with Specific Skill StandardsThe standards must allow students to pursue their own interests.Product-DrivenVarying Flexibility on Content Standards with Specific Skill StandardsThe standards must fit within the idea of designing a tangible product.Problem-DrivenSpecific Content Standards (with a Focus on Concept Attainment) with Flexible Skill StandardsThe standards must allow students to engage in problem-solving.Empathy-DrivenVarying Flexibility on Content Standards and Skill StandardsThe standards must connect to creative design and empathy with an authentic audience

Note that sometimes you will use a hybrid approach. For example, I have combined elements of inquiry-based learning when I had students do interest-driven PBL. Many of our design thinking projects also had elements of problem-based PBL. And every single PBL approach had elements of product-driven PBL. So, there is always going to be some overlap between the models. However, the key idea here is the word driven. What is the key driver in the project your students are working on?

#1: Inquiry-Driven

Inquiry-driven PBL begins with a state of curiosity and wonder. It might be as simple as the sentence stem "I wonder why _________" or "I wonder how _________." Students then have the opportunity to research, ideate, and create. However, it might also begin with an observation of a natural phenomenon. I recently wrote about biomimicry, and the way engineers often study nature for inspiration in their designs. It's why geckos are the future of spacecraft and why birds solved the problem of noisy trains.

With the inquiry-driven PBL approach, you can have open-ended topics or you can have a specific concept-related topic and ask students to pursue their own questions within those parameters.

If you're interested in an inquiry-driven PBL project, you might want to check out the Wonder Day or Wonder Week Project. These two projects walk students through the inquiry process, allowing them to answer their own questions and share their insights with an audience.

Check out the following sketch video you can share with your students. You can also download the Wonder Day Project Here.

#2: Interest-Driven

Another approach is the interest-driven PBL process. I alluded to the Geek Out blogs earlier. But another option is Genius Hour. Modeled after Google's 20% Time, students get to choose their own passion projects and work through a process of discovery and creativity independently.

Check out the following video to see more about the Genius Hour process:

Here's a Genius Hour video you can use with your students.

Note that Genius Hour still connects to specific content standards. However, these are skill-based, topic-neutral standards.

#3: Product-Driven

PBL experts often say, "Students should focus on the process and not the product." But there's also a time and a place for projects that challenge students to focus on developing a quality product. In these projects, the product has tighter parameters but the process is more flexible.

One of my favorite examples is the NaNoWriMo project. Here, students know specifically that they will create a novel. They might not know the audience and they aren't necessarily focused on a question or a challenge. True, they will engage in inquiry and empathy at some point. But they are driven by the challenge of creating a novel in the month of November.

Similarly, when we created our Scratch Video Game projects, students started with the simple challenge of designing a functioning video game in three weeks. Although they focused on crafting for an audience and they went through an ideation process, it was product-driven. They wanted to create an awesome video game that people would actually play.

In product-driven PBL, students typically have tight guidelines on the format but looser guidelines on the topics. In this sense, it resembles elements of interest-based PBL, with a key difference being the emphasis on creating the product rather than on the discovery of new information. So, instead of students making something to demonstrate what they learned, the focus is on the making itself.

#4: Problem-Driven

Problem-driven PBL begins with a specific problem or challenge that students must solve. An example is our maker challenges that present a specific scenario that leads students into research, problem-solving, ideation, and a final product that solves the initial challenge.

Here's an example of a Maker Challenge:

With problem-driven PBL, teachers typically begin with specific concept standards and then provide more flexible options of what students design and create. However, not every problem-driven PBL project has to include a tangible product. Sometimes students design a system or plan an event. Sometimes their creative work is merely a "pitch" to a group of judges from the community.

#5: Empathy-Driven (Design Thinking)

Empathy-driven PBL can have elements of the previous four PBL approaches. In fact, with the LAUNCH Cycle (a K12 design thinking framework that A.J. Juliani and I developed), we don't always begin with empathy. Sometimes it starts out with a problem, a geeky interest, or a sense of wonder at a natural phenomenon. But even so, students begin to build empathy as they Ask Tons of Questions and as they clarify the audience during the Understanding and Navigating Ideas phases.

Check out the following video on the LAUNCH Cycle:

Note that the LAUNCH Cycle will often begin with a challenge, a phenomenon or a product idea but this will ultimately focus on empathy. That's the critical component that leads to genuine design thinking.

Why Teachers Are the Key to Making This Work

It is possible to teach with a PBL framework while also reaching all the standards. But this requires us to think creatively about how we teach. It can help to ask questions like: Where is the authenticity in this standard? Where outside of school might a student actually practice this standard? Is this a connecting skill standard? A process standard? A concept? Where is the freedom built into this standard? How does this standard fit with other standards? Where is the student voice and choice? For example, do they get to their own formats (multimedia, for example)? Do they get to choose their own topics? How do these standards work with each PBL model?

Ultimately, when this happens, students are able to master the standards at a deep level while also engaging in meaningful work and powerful projects.

Get Your FREE PBL Toolbox

Curious about getting started with PBL? Check out the free Project-Based Learning Toolbox. This toolbox includes a set of projects and mini-projects, along with a Getting Started with PBL guide and a set of assessment resources you can use within the project-based learning framework. I will also send you a weekly email with free, members-only access to my latest blog posts, videos, podcasts and resources to help you boost creativity and spark innovation in your classroom.

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How Do You Teach to the Standards When Doing Project-Based Learning?

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It's easy to remember the highlight reels of the project-based approach I used when I taught eighth grade. I think about the moment we finished our second mural and my students were so excited they started spontaneously cheering or the moment students asked thoughtful questions to our guests during the immigration documentary or the way students continued to surprise me with their blogging projects year after year or the creativity in their STEM-related engineering projects.

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Introduction to Project Based Learning (PBL) Process

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Rare, 'one-in-a-million' footage of a critically endangered wild forest elephant fleeing from a technologically generated bee sound, has been captured by a wildlife camera trap in remote Liberia, western Africa.

As human-elephant conflict continues to rise across Africa, researchers are searching for new ways to keep a watchful eye on wild African elephants, even looking to space for guidance.

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the most high-value illicit trade sectors globally, threatening both human well-being and biodiversity.

Historically, elephants and humans have been integral players in the structuring of the African savanna landscape.

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Rare, 'one-in-a-million' footage of a critically endangered wild forest elephant fleeing from a technologically generated bee sound, has been captured by a wildlife camera trap in remote Liberia, western Africa. As human-elephant conflict continues to rise across Africa, researchers are searching for new ways to keep a watchful eye on wild African elephants, even looking to space for guidance.

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You Get to Have Your Own Genius Hour (A Video for Students)

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Reimagining education | Michael Bodekaer | TEDxCERN