PBL Organizations

Edutopia

https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning

Expeditionary Learning

EL Education is a national nonprofit partnering with K-12 educators to transform public schools and districts into hubs of opportunity for all students to achieve excellent equitable outcomes and release their unique genius. EL Education is guided by a vision of education equity and student potential, by a reimagined definition of student achievement, and offers research-proven resources and practices, including:

The acclaimed EL Education K-8 Language Arts curriculum
Core Practices driving continuous improvement for equity
Highly-rated professional learning

Agency by Design
Harvard Graduate School of Education
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/agency-by-design

Agency by Design’s current work focuses on developing documentation and assessment tools that are designed with maker-centered learning environments in mind and built on the project concepts of maker empowerment, sensitivity to design, and the three maker capacities of looking closely, exploring complexity, and finding opportunity.

Core questions that guide this work include:

How can learners make visible their ability to look closely, explore complexity, and find opportunity?
How can teachers qualitatively measure students’ performance within the realm of these three core maker capacities? and
How can we collaborate with students and teachers to design a suite of practical documentation and assessment tools best suited to the development of maker empowerment?

High Quality PBL
https://hqpbl.org/

Various models and guidelines for designing PBL have been created by experts and organizations in recent years. These are typically written from the perspective of the teacher. Therefore, effective PBL educators around the world are designing projects using a variety of different tools and frameworks. While ‘how’ PBL educators design and implement PBL in their settings may vary, consistently we all ought to be striving for high quality PBL student experiences

High Tech High- San Diego, CA
https://www.hightechhigh.org/

PBL Projects https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/projects/
Learn about PBL at High Tech High https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/visit-hth/

Project Based Learning, or PBL, is a teaching method that uses hands- on experiences instead of textbooks and lectures. It is a more exciting way for teachers to teach and students to learn. This method teaches students how to work in groups, research, volunteer, make decisions and manage time.

Project Based Learning relates skills students are learning to real-world situations, and having real world connections helps students realize that what they are learning is important. Our goal at High Tech High is to make learning memorable while also covering state standards. Our teachers teach students the necessary skills they need for the next grade and beyond, while making their lessons memorable. They are free to teach using any method they would like. Most teachers split their students into groups, because it teaches collaboration and patience.

Project-based learning will include more traditional specific skill training as needed, whether in ELA, math, science, or technology, but the project serves as an umbrella to integrate these skills into a meaningful project.

i2 Learning
https://i2learning.org/

i2 Learning has partnered with over 20 of the world’s leading STEM organizations to develop a wide variety of STEM courses not typically seen in schools today.

Courses have been run successfully as immersive in-school experiences, summer programs and as stand alone activities throughout the school year. Each course comes with a step-by-step educator guide, student pages, a materials list, and training videos. All curriculum is completely free and can be adapted to fit your particular school classroom needs.

Lucas Education Research
https://www.lucasedresearch.org/
Our work is guided by the idea that sustaining transformative change through rigorous project-based learning can only happen via teachers and students. Our design-based research approach centers on teachers’ needs and their involvement as essential partners in a variety of classroom and community settings.

Publications https://www.lucasedresearch.org/research/
Sprocket PBL Curriculum https://sprocket.lucasedresearch.org/
Book: Core Practices for Project-Based Learning

John Spencer

Collaboration in PBL

Making the Shift to PBL

Instructional Strategies for PBL

My PBL Works

https://my.pblworks.org/

Project Designer https://my.pblworks.org/project-designer
PBL Resources. https://my.pblworks.org/resources

Deeper Learning Network

https://deeper-learning.org/

Deeper Learning describes the higher-order thinking skills, learning dispositions, and collaboration skills needed for students to succeed in twenty-first century work and civic life. Deeper Learning competencies promote the ability to transfer learning and apply to new and complex situations in an ever-changing global environment.

Deeper Learning Competencies

CONTENT EXPERTISE

Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.

CRITICAL THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING

Students consider a variety of innovative deeper learning approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.

COLLABORATION

Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.

SELF DIRECTED LEARNING

Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

ACADEMIC MINDSET

Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.