“The 10th International Submarine Races (ISR) drew 21 college and a few high school teams from around the world to see whose 10- to 16-foot-long crafts would impress the judges and win — for innovation, speed, cost-effectiveness and best use of composite materials”, writes Jillian Berman from USA Today. “Brian Green, a mechanical engineering student going into his fifth year at the University of Florida-Gainesville … isn't getting course credit for participating” but states, “‘designing and building the submarine gave them valuable experience. What drove us back here was the hands-on interaction we get with our degrees.’ ISR executive director Nancy Hussey explains, “‘When students are in the classroom they get all the theoretical knowledge and they absorb it and take all their tests, but they don't have the chance to apply it to the real-world environment.’” This competition gives students the chance to put their ideas into action.
Project-based learning is in full swing at Poudre High School in Colorado. “FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is all about inspiring and motivating students to become engaged in math, science, engineering, and technology. Each year, teams of students, teachers, and professional engineers respond to the FIRST challenge by designing and building a robot,” writes Roberta Furger. Students on the team have become passionate about their creations. “‘The hands-on experience I gained from working on this project has just been absolutely phenomenal,’ says Tsai, a two-year veteran of the Poudre High Robotics Team…‘It's really neat the way the students design and fabricate the robot. It really shows you what you can do.’”
Seniors at High Tech High, a San Diego charter school, regularly complete projects that "mesh principles of art, physics, engineering, and other sciences. Teachers from the different disciplines co-lead this effort.” Student designers describe each science-art project in these web videos.
Seattle’s Aviation High School is open to anyone with a “passion for aviation”. This project-based learning school demonstrates that textbooks are not the only way to learn. In this web-video, students show how they solve real world problems such as designing wings on an aircraft to bear a weight load, while proving that science and engineering is do-able for high school freshman. In the end, students presented their ideas to aviation experts. Assessment included the experts’ score on presentation and teammates’ scores for each other’s efforts.
As Grace Rubenstein, a staff writer and multimedia producer for Edutopia, walked around a busy classroom, sophomore Maya Walden took a break from researching the root causes of genocide. Maya wondered what Grace planned to do with her recordings. Grace explained that [she] would use editing software to meld the best clips into a soundtrack for an audio slide show, to appear online. "Oh," Maya said. "We could probably do that for you." And they did. At San Diego’s High Tech High, students prepare to become “professionals in a modern world”, and every part of the textbook-free school fosters “personalized project learning with pervasive connections to the community”. To read more about High Tech High and to see the audio slideshow the students put together for Rubenstein, click on the link above.
Explore project-based learning and its impact on school design. EdVisions grew originally out of the creation of the Minnesota New Country School in 1991 when a group of educators used the Coalition of Essential Schools model and a teacher-owner cooperative centered on project-based learning. Since then, EdVisions models have sprung up around the country. Replication grants totaling close to $9 million have been awarded to EdVisions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This has helped to spark over 30 schools in a variety of settings nationally.
What is the experience of students who attend schools with project-based learning programs? This study of the graduates of Minnesota New Country School, a 7-12 chartered school that has no formal classes but rather supports student-directed projects, offers students’ perspectives about the school's effects on students’ project-based skills, individual responsibility, resilience/persistence skills, reflection skills, and relationship skills.