PROJECT BASED LEARNING

Independent Student Projects - I will be putting more information here throughout the school year. I have several step-by-step guides to help you get started. Some choices that you have right now:

Independent Student Projects - I will be putting more information here throughout the school year. I have several step-by step guides to help you get started. Some choices that you have right now:

Create a multi-media presentation of a topic you want to investigate. Share the presentation with your classroom teacher and share with me during our individual meetings. (lesson to guide you or I have another version in my K-6 room)
Create a game that others can play to learn about what you are studying in your daily classes
Learn vocabulary or spelling words from your daily classes in another language
Create and present a live or animated puppet show about something you are learning about
Create a radio or television broadcast, video production, webpage, or podcast about a topic you are interested in.
Write a diary or journal of an important historical event or person as if you lived that life.
Create an invention to fill a personal or social need
Study the life of a famous entrepreneur such as Steve Jobs, Martha Stewart, etc. Create a manual, "How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur"
Create a song, rap, poem, story, advertisement, or jingle and perform it.
Create a travel brochure for another country or planet (example of steps).
Write a script for a play or a mock trial
Write to a local Representative or Senator about something you would like to see changed.
Create a learning center in your classroom (with the teacher's permission). Make this something that you think all students could learn from.
Gather political cartoons and analyze them (tell what they actually mean)
Write a "how-to" manual for people who need instruction on how to do or use something.
Contact publishers about how to get something you've written published
Find an email address to one of your favorite authors and email them questions that you have
Create a new recipe and then advertise it as if you were going to sell the product.
Develop an app to help students learn about our community. You can learn how to do this at code.org. Discoveries Unit 4 - the Design Process This will teach kids to develop an app.
Develop healthy eating and exercise scan codes to place around the school
Create a debate project
Create a survey project
Create a science project
Create a model project
Create a special event project
Make a podcast or a Ted talk of the knowledge you have and want to share
make a word card game - using information from one of your subjects
trading card creation - using information from one of your subjects
Soundtrack to my life
Additional activities to look through from readwritethink.org
Make an interactive greeting card
Create an interactive book report
Make a vocabulary poster in a foreign language
Create an interactive herbavorium
Build a diorama with QR codes
Design Projects
Create a crossword puzzle using vocabulary or facts
Create an interview of an expert in what you are studying
Create a flow chart or diagram
Write an interview of a relevant person
Create questions and an answer key
Write journal/diary entries
Write a postcard or letter exchange
Create a scrapbook
Create a photo album
Make an instructional video
Create an interactive notebook
Create a set of task cards
Make a pamphlet or brochure about your topic
Write a newspaper article
Perform a puppet show
Create an episode of a reality show
Create a game show
Have a panel discussion of “experts”
Use a Venn diagram to compare two aspects of the topic
Create a children’s story about the topic
Create a map
Write a fable or myth about the topic
Create a help wanted add and a letter/resume to answer it
Write a text message dialogue relevant to the topic
Write a series of tweets relevant to the topic
Create a Facebook wall relative to the topic
Create a Pinterest board relative to the topic
Start a blog
Decorate a box and fill with relevant objects
Create a foldable
Create a flip book
Create a Cootie Catcher
Create a cereal based on the topic (cover a cereal box)
Assemble a time capsule
Create several bookmarks about different aspects of the topic
Write a recipe relevant to the topic (good for showing causes of an event)
Do a newscast
Write an acrostic poem
Create an Internet scavenger hunt
Write an advice column with several problems related to the topic
Create flash cards or trivia cards
Create a cheer relevant to the topic
Make a short documentary film
Create a museum exhibit
Create a top 10 list relevant to the topic
Create a video game
Make a “Choose Your Own Adventure”
Create a mini book with one fact/idea per page
Create a glossary of relevant terms
Make a paper chain with a different fact for each link
Make a flower with a different fact for each petal
Write a handbook or instruction book
Create a newsletter

Readwritethink.org has many great lesson plans to walk students through projects.

From:

Boss, Suzie. “10 Ready-to-Borrow Project Ideas.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 27 July 2015, www.edutopia.org/blog/10-ready-borrow-project-ideas-suzie-boss.

"What's your story?

Project #1: In this language arts project for the early elementary grades, students compose photographs that tell compelling stories about their community. To get ready for this challenge, they interview professional photographers for advice about composition. Then they identify locations that they think make their community special. They also write informational text to accompany their photos. To make their work public, students might produce a StoryMap to publish online or a kid-friendly travel brochure for their community visitors' center.

How can we, as ecologists, solve the wild horse problem?

Project #2: This is a high school science project with a strong local focus. The teacher behind the idea is from Nevada, where the wild horse population poses a threat to the fragile desert ecosystem. Students will research the issue and propose solutions to an expert panel. They will be expected to defend their solutions based on facts, data, and ethical decision-making, and appeal to stakeholders on all sides of this contentious issue. Note: Although this project idea is tied to a specific location, other teachers could adapt it by considering the ecological issues facing their communities.

How can we redesign a space that makes us think our school is cool?

Project #3: Here's an idea suitable for any school that is overdue for a makeover. The teacher behind this idea has built in constraints to force creativity: proposals must make the building more efficient and student-friendly. Students will apply their understanding of math and art to generate scale drawings, which they'll pitch to school administrators (along with proposed budgets and rationale or justification for the change). I can also imagine students making prototypes in a makerspace or using an online tool like SketchUp to generate plans.

What can we do to help kids get outside more?

Project #4: This project challenges "big kids" (grades 5-6) to enhance the health of preschool kids by proposing creative ways to encourage more outdoor play. I can imagine how a strategy like design thinking would be useful for helping students understand the perspective of their intended audience (in this case, preschoolers and their teachers or daycare providers). For final products, students might produce an online guide to local parks, or lead play days in which they would demonstrate games or activities to get little guys and their caretakers outdoors.

How would you incorporate working gears into the design for a hamster-driven vehicle?

Project #5: Here's a project for upper elementary or middle school grades that's big on the fun factor while addressing specific science and engineering content. Design constraints set expectations that the vehicle will be safe for the hamster and durable enough for multiple trials. Students (and hamsters) will test their final products in lunch-hour races and other public demonstrations. Videos of these events will be shared online to reach a wider audience.

How can we learn to love reading (or love reading even more) and share this love with others?

Project #6: Intended to engage seventh-grade students in English language arts, this project puts a premium on student voice and choice. Students will be asked to discover what makes reading "work" for them, and then share their strategy with peers. The results might be read-alouds, library events, student-led research, community action, or whatever students propose. There are good opportunities for differentiation in this project.

How can we, as future city planners, reimagine empty lots as places of importance in our community?

Project #7: This project invites students to be innovators. Where do they see opportunities for local improvements? How can they use engineering principles to design and model improved purposes for empty lots or blighted spaces? Student investigations are likely to include surveys, interviews, prototyping, collaboration, and more as they take on this real-world challenge and share their results with local decision makers. The same project could incorporate social studies or economics by having students consider the stories behind specific places. What used to occupy now-vacant spaces? What changed? What was lost?

How can we help first responders help hypothermia victims?

Project #8: Intended for middle school science students, this project focuses on an authentic need in mountainous regions. Students will apply their understanding of science and engineering to design a device that emergency responders can use to warm hypothermia victims. Products will need to be portable and suitable for covering large portions of a victim's body. Potential benefits could go well beyond academic understanding; these products could be lifesaving.

How can we apply our understanding of slope to build stairs for a community member who needs them?

Project #9: For math teachers wondering if PBL can work in their content area, here's a project to consider. Understanding of algebra is literally bolted into this project. By adding the service component (i.e., building the stairs), students will be able to see how math is used outside the classroom. As a modification, students could also design ramps for wheelchair access. This project invites collaboration with community nonprofits that focus on housing and accessibility issues.

How can we make our school more energy efficient?

Project #10: Here's an idea that could generate measurable savings for local schools, while giving students the opportunity to apply their understanding of energy. Depending on content focus and grade level, students could investigate everything from energy audits to alternative energy sources and behavior change. As an extension, students might contribute their results to the Cool School Challenge."

From: “6 Creative Classroom Project Ideas.” Getting Smart, 24 May 2019, www.gettingsmart.com/2019/05/6-creative-classroom-project-ideas/.

"1. Video Creation

There’s really no classroom project where you can’t incorporate some type of video creation. Before you think video creation isn’t right for your classroom, hold on just a minute. All you need is an iPad and some imagination. Then, let the kids go create! One of the coolest part of kids creating videos as a classroom project is that teachers don’t even need to know how to create the videos, the kids can handle that. Beyond that, creating videos solves a problem educators have experienced for many years—so many of the projects we’ve had our students engage in aren’t shareable outside the classroom! But the ability to share video projects across different platforms is supported across so many different sectors in 2019.

You can incorporate video creation into your classroom in just 4 steps.

Take your classroom project idea.
Brainstorm and mind map with your class all the different components that need to be included.
Put them in groups to collaborate
Give them an iPad with iMovie to create, edit, and produce what they’ve learned.

2. Experts

Bringing experts into your classroom across pretty much all disciplines allows your students to connect in fun ways that will take classroom projects to new levels. Just last year, I was speaking at a conference in Missouri and talking about how drones could be incorporated into the classroom. Two partner teachers in the crowd took the idea, went back to their school, and convinced their principal to purchase a few. They have no formal training in drones or how to operate them. But they do have passion, excitement, and the willingness to try something new (even if they fail). After just a few months of coding the drones in class, a local company that designs and builds drones actually heard about what they were doing. The company contacted the school to see if they could send their in-house experts to the class for support. WHAT!!! To say that the teachers and students were beyond excited is an understatement. Ask local experts for help. Or simply put out into the universe what you’re doing, and they may just contact you.

3. Robots

Robots are everywhere. They’re in hotels. They build the cars we drive. And some of them even drive the cars we drive. Incorporating robots into your classroom projects is a must in 2019. My favorite go-to robot is Sphero. For $129, you can kickstart your classroom projects in pretty much any area of the content the day it arrives. Open the box, download the iPad app, and have kids create, design, problem-solve, and even work out math problems. A middle school class we worked with decided to incorporate their Sphero while learning about the Silk Road in Social Studies.

Instead of just reading about the Silk Road in a textbook and taking a quiz, they used the Sphero to code a map of it and learn that way! Check out the Sphero Academy for some awesome online professional development to get your classroom projects ramped up in no time!

4. Podcasts

Podcasting is the new blogging, and EVERY class needs a podcast. Five years ago, it was pretty labor-intensive to record, upload, and distribute a podcast — not anymore! Podcasting is also a profession, so preparing kids for an actual job they may have someday is an excellent classroom project. There are tons of great resources and ways to get started with podcasting, and Anchor is my favorite one-stop-shop for it all. You can record and distribute it all in one place — for free!

Here are some ideas to get started with podcasting as a classroom project:

1. Book Reviews

Don’t just have kids talk about the book and what they enjoyed about each one. Have a book review podcast host who actually interviews students and creates a dialogue about the books.

2. Sports Podcasts

If your students are excited about sports, try a Sports Talk Radio podcast. They can talk about their favorite teams, standout players, any stadiums they’ve been to, and maybe even some local Little League action can be thrown in for fun.

3. “Life As A …”

Kids can talk about their life at school, such as giving tips to younger grades, their favorite subjects, study habits, what to eat, and what to avoid in the lunchroom. It can be a reality show of sorts without all the cameras. Now that sounds fun!

Whatever your podcasting idea may be, it’s way too easy to start, and there’s absolutely no reason to not start today! Check out Anchor, and just start talking.

5. Create A Business

Creating a business as a classroom project is now more relevant than ever. I’ve seen this done in middle and high school over the years, and there’s no reason why it can’t be implemented in elementary as well. I say it’s relevant because pretty much anyone can start a business in 2019. You can build your own website for free, create an Instagram account and a Facebook page, and you’re ready to roll. You can have your students create an actual business, or a fictitious one, but still go through the website design and social media creation as an exercise.

Here’s a quick example: If I was in middle or high school right now, I’d take all the money from my savings and buy a nice camera and drone. Then, I’d go to the local real estate page and create an aerial video montage of every listing for sale in my hometown. You could try to sell the videos to all the realtors in town as part of their marketing package. Or — you could distribute them through your website and social media channels while tagging those realtors in your posts. Talk about guerrilla marketing and a great classroom project. It might even make your students some money while they’re in school.

6. Genius Hour

When in doubt, do Genius Hour. During my time as an elementary principal, we implemented a lot of innovative and new ideas. But the one that had the greatest impact across all grade levels and almost every subject matter were Genius Hour. It’s free. It’s super simple to get started. And if you’ve never heard of it before, just visit Edutopia and type Genius Hour in the search bar. You’ll have access to more videos, resources, and ideas than you can handle.

Final Advice

I have one piece of advice that will drop some serious educational mojo on your classroom projects. Here it is: Don’t overthink it. Way too often, adults complicate things by getting in their own way, second-guessing their own skills, and maybe even lack knowledge with something. The beauty of living in 2019 is that information and learning, in general, have been completely democratized. We have Google, Siri, and Alexa. And if you need some tech help — just ask a 9-year-old. Supercharge your classroom projects, and see what happens!"

For more, see:

By providing links to other sites, Clarinda Community School District does not guarantee, approve, or endorse the information or products available on these sites.

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