Mrs. Mewborn

Fourth grade students at North Hart Elementary recently participated in a project based learning activity involving game planning with questions about 4th grade standards. Students were presented with a documentary of how board games were made.. After the introduction of the project, students worked through sustained inquiry in their research for what board games . Not only did students have to complete the challenging task of creating a board game with clear and concise directions, they also had to work with groups and agree on all the decisions that were made throughout the project. The project was designed to give students the opportunity to think critically when it comes to planning a game with realistic expectations throughout the process. They had to not only create a board game but they also had to create grade appropriate questions and a theme for the board game.

In the beginning of the project, students thought this would be an easy project. However, upon researching all of the components of a game, students quickly realized their expectations would need to be adjusted to meet the rubric. Once students worked through all of the details, they had to reflect upon their decisions and ultimately decide if they had made the best choices. Students organized their plan, decided how to create their game, write the instructions, and create their game pieces, along with questions.

After students completed their projects, they had other students play their game and received feedback to make changes. Students then presented their games to another fourth grade class and they played the final product and the students explained the process done for this PBL.