What is Project Based Learning?

At Coons Rapids High School in Minnesota, Leah Sams’ biomedical class, over 25 weeks, investigated a staged death, using a manikin for a body. They performed labs on pills found near her body.  They did fingerprint and footprint comparisons.  They used fake blood drops with a similar viscosity as blood at various drop-heights to determine the splatter effect at various trajectories.  They then compared those labs to the drops found at the crime scene.  “The class really enjoyed the blood spatter lab,” said Sams. “They also enjoyed the body temperature lab where they calculated various temperatures, made inferences based on how long it took to get the victim’s body temperature when found, and completed a graph on the results.”  All of this work was strictly hands-on, project based learning of a realistic experience. 

Project based learning is not a unique concept.  Doing projects has been a long standing tradition in American education.  When educators talk about project based learning (PBL), they are really talking about projects like Sams’ dead body. PBL has been shown to help kids retain information better and for longer periods of time and to demonstrate improved communication and collaboration skills.  How it’s done varies.  Some schools use Project Lead the Way, which provides STEM curriculum for participating schools.  Other schools use curriculums from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Museum of Science in Boston.  Internet resources are vast with sites like Edutopia, NASA, NSF, How Stuff Works, Engineer Girls, GEMS, and others.  But the key aspect of PBL is that students are actually doing the work and coming up with real results.  As a teaching method, it is exciting; however, it requires a learning curve for teachers and their students. 

Dr. Shannon McKinney, Principal at K-5 Elementary School at Boren in Seattle, found that her teachers were more than ready to break out of the traditional school learning modes.  ”We knew that we wanted to integrate and present concepts in a project based learning model,” said McKinney. But it requires, says McKinney, planning and collaboration across the curriculum for it to be successful.  In the end, students and teachers end up focusing on real world, hands on projects like solving the mystery of a dead body.  They are getting their heads out of textbooks and behaving like real world experts. 

To read more about Project Based Learning and STEM see the following article Getting Their Hands Dirty: Project-Based Learning and STEM