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Here is my PBL design finifshed. Hope you like it!
https://v.gd/mL1vYw

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You can find my PBL design at:
https://v.gd/mL1vYw
Any comments and or reflections are wellcome.

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This is the link for my first outline of the PBL design:

https://v.gd/mL1vYw

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In which situation I failed but I kept trying to get it? I suppose that a good example is when trying to get my pupils involved in the lessons of Science. When I started to teach Science I thought that it was enough to propose experiments or practical task to make students show interest for the subject. I was wrong. It took me some years to realize that they needed for one side some scaffolding to develop their work and, on the other hand, some connection with their personal interests and real life to get engaged.

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Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom

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Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom

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Finding a professional expert that could come to our classes to help the students with a project would be a wonderful way to engage them in their work.

The external collaboration will help the students to connect with real world and that what they are doing has a meaning and could be used in real life. On the other hand, a person who is working continuously in a topic and knows the actual problems that could appear in the process of developing a project will be able to make the students go deeper in the knowledge of this topic.

I think that it is possible to find collaboration inside and outside the school. Could it be partners experts in one topic (app development for ITC, competition organization for Physical Education, economics in general for a project administration, etc.). From outside the school it would be nice to count with help of some parents that are working in a field related with the topic of one project (business people, restaurant owners, lawyers, architects, (graphic) designers, pharmaceuticals, nutritionists, etc.). I’m quite sure that there are a lot of them with a lot of to explain in our classes and willing to do it. We can also think about collaboration from people from the business around the school (besides, most of them bring their children here) or from some colleagues from other schools that have experience with a determinate kind of project or field of work. It would be a good idea, as well, to find researchers in the topic related with our project, but I find it more difficult.

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Do my students make effective collaboration?

In my courses it depends on the subject. I’ve got my students working in groups in all the subjects most of the time, but it doesn´t mean that they have interdependent tasks, share responsibilities or depend on each other to arrive to the goal.

In ITC subjects (Informatics and Technology) I think that I have manage to organize the development of the courses to promote effective collaboration and students really work in that way, though sometimes it’s hard to make them accept that they can only succeed if they work together and cooperate in taking decisions and assuming team’s responsibilities.

For me it’s more difficult to achieve this goal in Maths. Except for some sessions (usually 1 or 2 per unit) in which I prepare specific cooperative activities, my students are in groups and though they use to interact and help each other, their collaboration is not effective in the sense that their work doesn´t fit the conditions previously mentioned. That’s why I’m planning to design my PBL in the subject of Maths.

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Subject: Maths

Level: 2nd grade of Secondary Education (12-13-year-old students)

Topic: volumes, areas, proportions, percentages, properties of materials, 2D computer design, 3D computer design…

With this question I’d like to drive the students to the study of geometry and proportions via a problem that, even is not going to be applied (at least for the moment), is a realistic one and whose solutions could be put into practice.

The question is, for sure, open-ended and, probably, engaging to them (in this point I’m not completely convinced) as they are going to work in a problem that concerns their daily life.

With respect to the learning goals, I guess the problem will lead the students to learn about surfaces and volumes, as they would have to model the garden and playground space via a scale-model using real figures or computer 3D design (may be both techniques) and thus, many teams will end making a physical scale-model they will have to use also proportions, and also construct regular solid models to simplify the real objects (trees, walls, changing rooms buildings, etc.).

Of course, this project would also involve another content apart from mathematical aspects (ITC skills, properties of materials, local varieties of trees and bushes…) and if I’m able to design it properly, skills such as leadership, self-confidence, cooperation, etc.

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I think that I spent too much time talking at my lessons, specially in Maths and Science. In a tipycal session of 55', my students listen to me (at least some of them, hehehe), for around 25' - 30' and then they have less than half of the time to work by themselves, individually, in peers or groups. I'd like to change that way of developing the sessions and I'm introducing some different strategies like cooperative learning, at least once each two weeks, "flipped classroom" and projects. But sometimes I feel insecure with new methodologies and, besides, sometimes I've got objections from parents, specially when using videos to learn theory at home.
I think PBL would be a good complement to all these strategies in the sense of focusing the learning process on the students' interests and making them the center of their own learning. In particular, I've got the idea of mixing "flipped classroom" methodology with PBL, so students could learn theory at home and use the classroom time to work in projects and/or make cooperative learning.
I've used PBL in previous years, but I think I there were some points, like connecting to the students’ needs or matching theory and practise, that didn’t work out well. The main reason was, that in those projects I designed activities that where too directed, not leaving enough autonomy to my students due to my fear that they don't learn what I wanted them to learn.

This course I’d like to introduce PBL in my courses of Maths, in the second year of Secondary School (12-13-year-old students). I'm planning and open problem that they have to solve using their knowledge on proportions and percentages.

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Due to the last rainfalls, the school’s garden and playground have been very damaged and need a refurbishment. Could you design and present a purpose for a new playground and garden space with plants adapted to our weather? Could you estimate how much it will cost?

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My name is Roberto Medrano and I'm from Valencia, Spain, and I'm teaching ITC, Mathematics and Science in Colegio Pureza de María.
Today I begin working on the PBL course tasks.
I'm really looking foward to share experiences and ideas to introduce in my classroom.
Let's have fun!