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As the nature of this YouTube clip tells you, it is definitely a challenge at first to transition to inquiry/PBL because it is a change in the status quo. When most of us were in high school, most of us probably had the "sage on the stage" style where a teacher would tell us exactly what we needed to know and our grade was based on how much we could remember.

However, in order to properly prepare our students for their future careers, gauging recall is very low-level thinking.

My challenge to all of you is to find your favorite project you do in your classroom and assess how much of it is teacher-centered or student-centered. From there, see if you can't come up with minor tweaks to start down the path of Project-Based learning in your own classroom.

Picture used under Creative Commons Licensing from blog.ed.gov

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One "buzzword" that has become prevalent in the world of education is Authentic Assessment. Simply put, authentic assessment is different from a typical test because we are using real-world scenarios and problems to address how much the students have learned.

This is where Project-based learning comes in. In a project-based assignment, the goal is to have the students come up with questions they need to answer and then go out and produce some sort of summative product to reflect their learning. The article above is a link to Indiana University to explain the difference between typical and authentic tasks in a classroom.

"Final Presentation" Used with Permission of Discovery Streaming

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As part of my economics mini-unit, I wanted my students to create a business plan for a new product or service they would want to start.

Moving forward, I am going to look to expand into having students create websites for their company, shooting commercials, creating a prototype (if possible), and culminate with a local entrepreneur coming in to discuss the process.

Attached to this post is a link to my rubric/intro for the project. Please feel free to comment to me anything you would want to see added if you were the students.

Shark Tank Project

"Marine Shark Tank" Photo used under permission of Free Use from the United States Marines

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This new curriculum which focuses on the Three C's:
-College
-Career
-Civics Life

This curriculum has been adopted by our Social Studies department this year under direction of our district's curriculum office.

The goal of C3 is to provide students with curriculum and technology that allows them to develop 21st Century skills that will allow them to be successful in whichever career path they choose after high school (BIG emphasis on not stressing "College for All")

I feel that PBL and C3 can make for a perfect marriage because students will also get exposure to the "soft skills" of collaboration, problem-solving, hypothesis testing, and learn new programs.

"Students Working" Used with Permission of Discovery Streaming

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"PBL employs inquiry and includes elements that increase engagement, such as authenticity, high-quality public products, and voice and choice."
-Andrew Miller

I believe there is no better subject more poised to integrate PBL into the classroom than Social Studies because they can be used to make connections between events of the past and current day issues.

This article from Edutopia, one of my favorite education websites, provides one educators foray into PBL.

"Diverse Group of Students working on project vector clipart" Used under Creative Commons License from Goodfreephotos.com

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This blog was created by my District's Curriculum Supervisor for the Humanities.

In the fall, I attended a three day workshop on how to introduce PBL into the classroom.

Their book Hacking Project Based Learning is available on Amazon.

"Student Shares Her Learning" Used with Permission of Discovery Streaming