What is Project Based Learning?
Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills. Working for a long period of time to:
- investigate
- respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge
For instance, a teacher may pose a question such as “What is a cold, and how can it be avoided?”. The teacher will then launch activities with the question in mind. While still integrating many subjects to meet content standards. Students are then encouraged to take responsibility for their work. This allows students to go in a direction of their own, but still stay on the course of the question at hand.
Why Project Based Learning?
Learning is no longer about passively learning facts and reciting them. Today, students need both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and 21st century skills (personal and social responsibility, problem solving, critical thinking, time management, research gathering, knowledge of technology tools) to solve highly complex problems in the world around them. Project Based Learning acknowledges these skills and gives students the opportunity to become managers of their learning, while still being guided by a experienced teacher.
Students are Actively Engaged
- Students are genuinely showing a lot of interest in Project Based Learning projects as they actively search for answers and take learning into their own hands.
- PBL implements real-world issues in which students can take an active role in learning how it affects them and the world around them.
The Use of Resources and Technology
- Benefit from using a array of tools to help achieve a greater understanding of how to answer their question or solve their problem.
A Sense of Purpose
- They are making a real-world impact when they are able to find solutions to problems that those around them may be facing.
21st Century Skills
- Students take:
- leadership in planning
- critical thinking
- creativity
- decision making
- knowing what tools to use to achieve the best outcome for their project
Legacy School Private School Omaha
Legacy School believes that Project
Based Learning is essential to a students education as it readies them for the challenges, problems, and questions they may face during their lifetime. One PBL project requires students to document a live caterpillar across it’s lifespan. Students have the teachers support to research and actively find answers to their questions before sending their butterfly out into the vast world.