Commonalities Amongst Project Based Learning Videos
There were some commonalities amongst the three videos entitled “More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!” (Curtis, 2001, October 1), “Geometry Students Angle into Architecture through Project Learning” (Armstrong, 2002, February 11) and “March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies’ Migration” (Curtis, 2002, June 6) that focused on project based learning (PBL) experiences. Even though the projects were all focused on different topics and the ages of the students involved varied, the way the projects were designed and implemented were similar.
For example, each project focused on an idea or question that allowed the students to explore and research through outside sources provided by the teacher. The videos also showed that each teacher provided students the opportunity to use technology throughout the PBL process and that each student prepared a final project that allowed them to share what they learned to their class and other interested groups. The projects covered multiple subject areas in each of the videos as well and allowed the students to develop collaborative skills. Because students have to work with other students on these projects, they learn how to communicate with different personalities and how to learn and work together.
How much or how little the student learned was up to them. Each of the videos showed that when students are given the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning and the opportunity is designed and prepared properly by the instructor, students will learn more than traditional textbook teaching methods. Proof of this is that schools that use project based learning properly have higher scores on national testing then schools that teach with traditional methods according to Peter Bender, the principal of Newsome Elementary School. Test scores are higher because in PBL “learning is connected to real world problems and technology has helped the students create quality products” (Curtis, 2001, October 1).
According to Eeva Reeder, the designer of a geometry project that allows students to design a state of the art high school for the year 2050, students permanently learn skills and information through project based learning (Armstrong, 2002, February 11). In other words, the information is not temporarily learned for a test and then forgotten. By learning through their own experiments and research, the information becomes instilled in the students because they have had control in how they learned and implemented the information. Through the creation of a final project, students are able to transfer the knowledge and skill they acquired during the research and investigative portion of the project. The final project is how teachers assess how much was learned. All three videos support that much more learning takes place and that students enjoy the learning process more when done through PBL activities.
References
Armstrong, S. (2002, February 11). Geometry students angel into architecture through project learning. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects
Curtis, D. (2001, October 1). More fun than a barrel of,,,Worms?! Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms .
Curtis, D. (2002, June 6). March of the monarchs: Students follow the butterflies’ migration. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs .
