Blog Post #9

Seven Essentials for PBL
Kids need to know what they are trying to answer, why they really should care about answering it, a choice in what they are doing and technology to back it up. This teacher really gave great detail on how to do that. The question needs to be wide open and deep, so that the students need a long time to come up with an answer. It should challenge them. Giving them an opening video or something like that makes them open to answering that question. It gets their brains going and drives them to find an answer. Once they have their question, they should be given a set of assignments. But this doesn't mean that they can't pick something of their own to do also. Letting them choose a certain way to present or some tool to use gives them some control over their project and makes them feel more responsible. Finally, they should definitely be using technology for their project. We are using technology everywhere now, it should certainly be used in the classroom. And don't forget to have them present to an audience.

Project Based Learning for Teachers
The biggest thing I got from this video is there is really no end to the questions you can get a student involved in. It just needs to be open-ended so they can come up with their own answer instead of stressing over finding the exactly right answer. It's more about being able to back up whatever you choose to say. Also, at the end it showed just how many different things there are to use on the computer, for educational purposes. There's so many!

PBL-High School Math
Not all classes are so simple to integrate this new way of learning into. But I liked how one teacher in this video put it as they were trying to think about how professionals in that subject actually do and then give them more of that experience. I thought it was a good way to put it. They talked about one way to teach a book and it showed really how we as teachers are trying to move away from that old way of teaching. They read a book and instead of doing some poster about the book or the author, they answered a very open question about being silent. This just shows the new ways of teaching really coming up in the classroom. It really helps students learn to apply what they learn to the real world and they don't have to wait to do that on their own, the teacher brings it to them.

What Motivates Students This was a great video to get a students perspective of what motivates them. They named off some really great things. Pointing out that a student did well. This really boosts a students confidence and shows them that they did a good job. It's a very positive way to remind them to keep up the good work!
Future goals. Whether they're working toward an awesome job, a big family, an expensive house, etc., teachers should let students know that all of that is much easier with a good education and motivate them to keep at it.
Extracurricular activities. This is more on the parents part, but one kid said he couldn't play baseball or swim if he didn't have good grades. Getting to do things that are fun certainly help motivate kids in school.
These kids were also asked what rewards worked for them.
Charts. These show kids basically where they are with their teacher. If they are on the low end, they aren't getting much, perhaps anything. The higher they go though, the better the prize.
Outside work. Most kids LOVE the outdoors, so an awesome prize for them is to get to do work outside or have a nature walk or something like that.
Food/candy/school supplies. This one's simple. Kids like to eat and they like fun things to use in the classroom. Easy as that.
Daily activities. Kids love having something different to do everyday, even if it's just for a few minutes. It's best if it teaches them at the same time.

Two Students Solve the problem of Watery Ketchup By Designing A New Cap
I won't even lie. I totally picked this video because I can completely relate. I LOVE KETCHUP. And watery ketchup is the worst. So I learned some pretty cool things about students from this video.
Give students a choice and they're more likely to get invested in their project. Do you really think if the topic would have been something assigned by a teacher they would have been this involved? These boys felt passionately about saving millions of users from the imminent disaster of water damage to a delicious supper (do you understand my feelings for ketchup yet?), therefore they worked hard to make an amazing project.
Technology expands learning and makes it fun. They got to use some cool technology to build a model and then build it in real life. This also saves them time of having to keep rebuilding several models over and over again.
They had fun. How many kids come out of projects saying this was fun? Not many. Project based learning is working and kids are really enjoying it. Learning can finally be fun and still sufficient.

Sources:
7 Essentials
PBL for teachers
PBL-HS Math
Motivation
2 Students