Twelve-year-old Ricky spent his elementary years at Newsome Park Elementary School, a Newport News, Virginia, magnet school that emphasizes project-based instruction. A year after he was promoted to middle school, Ricky can still recount in detail the projects he completed at Newsome Park, including one of his favorites—Red, White, and Blue Architecture.
Under the guidance of 5th grade teacher Ruth Kavanaugh, Ricky and the other students in Kavanaugh's class completed a project combining social studies with architecture, a subject that had captured their interest when they saw a 1st grade class project on home construction. They conducted research on the Internet, read books, and consulted experts to learn about the memorials in Washington, D.C., and the American heroes for whom the memorials were built—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, among others. Using a software publishing program, the students then produced a book about their findings.
The students also drew computer models of the memorials and created a computerized timeline of building construction in the U.S. capital to learn about how cities grow. They researched the contributions of James Madison and other Virginians to the U.S. Constitution. They made small-scale memorials for their own personal heroes. Ricky built a memorial to Dale Earnhardt, the stock car race driver who was killed in a crash in 2001.
Parents helped raise money for a field trip to Washington, and each student was allowed to take one family member along; many of the families had never before made the two-and-a-half-hour trip to the U.S. capital. Finally, the students presented their work to community members at one of Newsome Park's biannual Project Days.
In the end, thanks to the meticulous planning and unobtrusive but eagle-eyed oversight of their teacher, Ricky and his classmates had fulfilled a range of state curriculum standards in math (computation, measurement, geometry, graphing, and patterns); social studies (knowledge of the different branches of government); technology (using electronic information to research and communicate); and English (writing for a variety of purposes). They had also gained poise and learned such skills as teamwork, problem solving, analyzing and interpreting data, and meeting deadlines.
Project-based learning is one of the approaches advocated by the George Lucas Educational Foundation (www.glef.org), a nonprofit organization based in San Rafael, California, and dedicated to disseminating information about exemplary school programs through video, newsletters, books, and other media. In its 11 years of existence, the Foundation has witnessed the power of project-based learning through visits to schools such as Newsome Park and through firsthand accounts from teachers such as Ruth Kavanaugh.
Project-Based Learning
- First, the teacher selects a topic of study for the project on the basis of students' interests, curriculum standards, and the availability of local resources. The teacher discusses the topic with the students to find out what they already know about it and helps them develop questions that their investigation will answer.
- Next, the teacher arranges opportunities for students to do field work and speak to experts. The teacher provides resources to help the students with their investigations and suggests ways for students to carry out a variety of investigations.
- In the concluding phase, the teacher arranges a culminating event through which the students share with others (for example, other classes, their parents, or the principal) what they have learned. The teacher helps the students decide how to display their results and, in so doing, involves them purposefully in reviewing and evaluating the whole project (Chard, 2001).
Chard stresses the need for students to work from their strengths, and she is not alone in viewing the display portion of the process as particularly important for students. “In project work, they invest a lot of their own energy and interest. And they appreciate being able to share with others what they've done” (cited in George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2002).
Eeva Reeder, a former math teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School in Students at Newsome Park Elementary visit a local supermarket to learn about food sources (left) and measure the cross-section of a trunk to learn about trees (below). Washington, created a project in which students had to design a school for the year 2050 that was judged by local architects. “Students cannot reasonably claim to understand what they cannot demonstrate,” says Reeder. “No one can become a world-class chef simply by attending lectures, however well delivered. At some point, the student chef must get into the kitchen and cook something.” Reeder also says she has firsthand evidence that project-based learning has beneficial effects on standardized tests. Once students have learned a skill by having to use it, it's theirs. You don't need to cram for it on the test. It's just a way of learning information that works.
Engaging Students Through Projects
Many teachers, administrators, parents, and students agree that project-based, hands-on learning engages all students—from special education to gifted—in a way that the traditional lecture/worksheet/textbook/written test cannot. Research has shown that when students are given the latitude to pursue topics that interest them by doing what real scientists, special-interest groups, or business people do to solve problems, they go far beyond the minimum effort (Buck Institute for Education, 1999; Chard, 1998; Katz & Chard, 1999; Thomas, 2000). They make connections among math, social studies, literature, and science to find answers to open-ended questions. They also retain what they have learned, are able to apply their learning to real-world problems, are absent less often, and have fewer discipline problems. In short, students get excited about learning.
Peter Bender, principal of Newsome Park Elementary, overhears students having animated discussions during recess and lunch about their projects. “In 30 years, I don't think I've ever heard kids talk like that,” he says.
Ingo Schiller, parent of two Newsome Park students, long ago said goodbye to the frustration of the familiar parent-child exchange: “What did you do at school today?” “Nothing.” “There's a visible hunger to learn,” says Schiller. When we sit down to dinner, the kids talk nonstop for 20 minutes, telling us what they did and what they saw. This is literally every day.
Common Features of Project-Based Learning
Common Features of Project-Based Learning
Students conduct multifaceted investigations extending over long periods of time.
The projects deal with real-world questions that students care about.
Students encounter obstacles, seek resources, and solve problems in response to an overall challenge.
Students make their own connections among ideas and acquire new skills as they work on different tasks.
Students use authentic tools (real-life resources and technologies).
Students get feedback about the worth of their ideas from expert sources and realistic tests.
Problems are presented in their full complexity.
Students find interdisciplinary connections between ideas.
Students struggle with ambiguity, complexity, and unpredictability.
Buck Institute for Education. (1999). PBL Overview: What is Project-Based Learning? Adapted with permission of the publisher. [Online]. Available: www.bie.org.
Motivating Hard-to-Reach Students
Jean Lovelace, former principal of an alternative high school in Cortez, New Mexico, and now a school designer for Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, tells the story of Chris, who attended the alternative school because he had little success at a more traditional high school.
Chris had poor academic skills, especially in writing. “He could take in information, make it make sense in his head, demonstrate it, but he could not write it down,” Lovelace recalls. Then he started doing construction math with the special education teacher. In this case, the construction was building sidewalks to connect the school buildings. Students calculated angles, figured out the volume of gravel and concrete needed, and determined how much water was required and how deep and wide the pit should be. Then they did the physical work: digging the holes, leveling the earth, and pouring the concrete. Each student kept a journal of progress. The “audience” for this project was the student body, many of whom thanked their classmates for a convenient walkway and new skateboard route.
“Chris is totally involved in a day like this,” Lovelace says. He's not bummed out, not lying around, not causing trouble for other kids. He's also willing to do the reading and writing part because he knows he'll be using a shovel later.
Challenges for Teachers
According to a study of project-based learning by Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, and Soloway (1997), some teachers find it difficult to choose study topics that incorporate the required curriculum while allowing students to follow their interests. These researchers also found that the in-depth investigations involved in projects often take longer than expected. Classroom management of projects may be complicated, although many teachers say that students' engagement in projects curbs disruptive behavior. Finally, some teachers have difficulty designing assessments that accurately measure student understanding.
Even teacher advocates of project-based learning tell the George Lucas Educational Foundation that it creates more work for them than the traditional textbook curriculum in which they know what will happen during every class period. They need to be ready to encourage a student who wants to take off in an unexpected direction to pursue his or her interests, and also make sure that the student covers a required state or local curriculum. They often have to admit that they don't have the answer and direct students to outside resources. They must oversee students who are often working on 25 different aspects of a theme and who work at different paces and skill levels. And they must come up with a grading system that reflects evidence of mastery in a product or portfolio, not a single test.
But many initially reluctant teachers find it worth the effort to overcome challenges when they experience the students' new enthusiasm for learning. Packaged project-based learning programs help many teachers overcome the barrier of time. For example, the JASON Project (www.jasonproject.org), Journey North (www.learner.org/jnorth), ThinkQuest (www.thinkquest.org), and Classroom Connect's Quests (http://quest.classroom.com) offer full curriculums on the Internet, complete with professional development, assignments, resources, and experts whom the students may question.
Computers and other 21st century technology play a huge role in project-based learning. Students can ask scientists and other experts questions through e-mail, chat rooms, and videoconferencing. They have access to sophisticated, inexpensive, electronic telescopes and to scientific probes connected to portable, wallet-sized personal digital assistants. Students can acquire data and put that information in perspective by immediately graphing the data on a laptop or personal digital assistant.
Motivation Plus Achievement
Many students say that there's no comparison between project-based learning and the more traditional, lecture format. “For me, sitting in the classroom letting the teacher lecture you is not very fun,” says 12-year-old Ramsay, another Newsome Park alumnus. Doing projects teaches you more because you get to experiment and understand how things work. If you can experiment and see how things work, it will be stored in your brain longer. And if it's funner, you'll learn faster.
