Project-based learning is an approach to teaching where students explore challenges and problems that are real-world while engaging in collaborative groups and developing cross-curricular skills (Edutopia, 2009). According to Jonassen, Howland, Marra, & Crismond, meaningful learning occurs when a student is willfully engaged in activities that are active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative (2008, 2). Project-based learning is an instructional environment that is filled with active and engaged learning where students construct deeper knowledge of whatever content they are studying, and because of this deeper knowledge construction, students tend to retain the learning longer (Edutopia, 2009).
Click on the samples below to preview some PBL activities made for various subjects which incorporate technology in different forms.
Using entry points as defined by Gardner in his work on multiple intelligences, this unit on matter was designed so that a student would have five channels in which he or she may choose to explore the topic of matter, its changes, states, and properties. A concept web has been designed to visually steer the student to an entry point that focuses on his or her own learning style. The entry points incorporate web quests, treasure hunts, student creation of quizzes, educational games, and movies. Technology is prevalent throughout the unit with software such as IMovie, Moviemaker, PowerPoint, Excel, Internet, Word, Paint, and other programs and hardware.
PBL-Entry Points in Science