Heritage Academy staff strives to insure that all students are engaged in self-directed STEM learning in which students do the "heavy lifting" and teachers guiding the learning through inquiry based questions and methods. Student learning during PBL implementation is driven by the questions that they generate during the Know and Needs to Know session that takes place during the PBL Entry Event. The questions that are generated guide students' initial research on the PBL topic and formulate the basis upon which student solutions to the overall unit task is built upon. Educators spend time observing student interests, needs, abilities, and listening to student dialogue with peers, to determine how to best cater questioning and guidance to their varying needs. Student research and participation in science experiments, hands-on lessons, and explorations set them up to be self directed learners as they move into the Plan, Create, and Improve phases of the Engineering Design Process . The goal of PBL tasks is to make sure students have voice and choice when deciding how they will complete their final tasks. They are able to choose how they will solve the problems that they are faced with throughout the PBL.

Our educators becoming facilitators of learning doesn't happen automatically. At the beginning of each school year, educators participate in specially designed Professional Learning geared towards conducting inquiry based lessons, and utilizing questioning to guide student learning. The goal of these PL opportunities is to assist teachers to become comfortable with empowering their students to take some control and accountability for their learning.