Week 8 - Topic 2 : Project Based Learning

What is Project based learning?


I'm going to put it simply, project based learning is an approach used to engage students interest and motivation. They involve activities which are designed to solve a problem and allow students to reflect. When students are working with a project they have a chance to learn in depth. They get to encounter and work through concepts and skills. There is more then just the content the students are learning. They learn about skills that are useful in today's world, 21st century skills:

• Communication
• Presentation
• Organization
• Time management
• Research and Inquiry
• Self-assessment
• Reflection
• Group participation
• Leadership

Project based learning can be done in groups of students working together toward a goal or individual students working toward a goal. Performance is assessed on the quality of the final product, the depth of content understanding, and contribution made to the process of creating the project. There is a great deal of benefits to project based learning. Students get to control their learning, get some hands on time, practice real world skills and a change of pace. Students get to control their learning, get some hands on time, practice real world skills and a change of pace. It helps students reason and think critically. Gives them a chance to be creative and artistic and can be loads of fun!

There however are some disadvantages. Students will have to initiate inquiry, they have to have a good research design, method, and find the right resources. One of the hardest things is deadlines for some students and others have difficulties with collaborating.

I'm not a teacher... yet, but I have many ideas for projects. My favorite ideas I have so far is based off the video game Minecraft. The projects would include the information on how to create logic gates using red stone and switches which the students will have to use to create anything that is appropriate. In this project students learn binary values, logic gates, how to plan a circuit and what you can use circuit to build. Its a fun little project that teaches some important concepts. Obviously the hardest part is keeping students on track with something like that, ultimately this would be an in class project. The student would be assessed on their use of the gates, binary values, creativity, process (How they plan it all out), and how well the project works.

I personally love projects, but too many projects makes them less fun. Not all projects are fun, examples being your standard research and report PowerPoint. Every class has something like this so it gets over played. Going into computer science field almost everything can be a project, the key is to keep it interesting to the students. Thus the best idea would be to take a break in between the projects to give not the students time to reset but the teacher time to plan a really good one.