[2.9] How can we promote STEM education via project-based learning?

Season 2 of the Impactful PBL Podcast ended in May which marked two years of this podcast. The podcast started as a “learn in public” project so that I can document my professional journey and share insights about what I’m learning about project-based learning. In this episode, I’m sharing a progress update on my 2021-2022 goals and why I'm pausing the podcast.

Tune in to...

• Explore what it means to learn in public and why I started this podcast
• Hear why I'm shifting to building in public
• Examine successes & failures with my 2021-2022 professional growth goals
• Hear about my professional growth goals for the 2022-2023 school year and what it means for this podcast

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE] Check out The Impactful PBL Roadmap™: 9 Steps to PBL Success e-guide which covers the nine phases you need to design a memorable, authentic, and rigorous learning experience for K-8 students via project-based learning.
3. [PAID] Join our Impactful PBL Roadmap™: Launch program, an online course, coach, and community of educators exploring and implementing research-backed project-based instructional practices.

Phase 2 of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™ is to map the scenario and write a driving question. The initial scenario structure will involve first determining what students will learn (i.e. standards), thinking of a theme or topic second, and then writing the driving question. The next step is to draft a scenario. I've noticed that most teachers can select standards, a theme, and compose a driving question but some struggle with writing the scenario in its entirety. In this episode, we will explore how to write a compelling scenario for a PBL unit.

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

As I support teachers to design project-based learning experiences, I notice confusion often arises during phase 5 of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™ planning process. Phase 5 is about creating students' daily learning experiences or lessons. Teachers are usually excited about exploring project-based learning as an instructional method. However, when asked why they haven't implemented project-based learning in their classroom as of yet or why they don't facilitate a project-based learning unit often, teachers typically state that time is a factor.

I generally hear, "I don't have time for projects because I have to teach the standards or follow the district-provided curriculum." When I hear these sentiments, I immediately know that the teacher is unclear about how to draft a PBL unit plan. This episode is for you if you have uttered these statements before.  In this episode, we will explore how to write a PBL unit plan.

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

An essential part of the project-based learning experience is producing a public product or artifact to showcase knowledge for an authentic audience. Depending on the PBL topic and driving questions, the audience could be peers, parents, or community members.

Teachers often wonder what students can create for projects besides designing a poster or presentation. Students may also struggle to come up with ideas without seeing examples or without being given a list of example public products. This episode will explore how to utilize the driving question to help students brainstorm public products to share their knowledge. The goal is to create learning experiences that apply to the real world by connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, challenges, or problems.

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

It is essential students buy into their project since they will be exploring their complex question or challenge over an extended time. While hooks for traditional lessons are typically short, less than ten minutes, project-based learning hooks may vary in length to sustain students' interest over a more extended period. A PBL hook typically occurs at the start of the unit, although it is not uncommon for teachers to integrate several ways to cultivate students' interest throughout the project. In this episode, we will explore how to get students excited about the project-based learning topic.

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

In traditional learning experiences, subject areas are taught in silos, and teaching often focuses on the "what" of a subject area. Students do not synthesize the material when they memorize parts of a cell in isolation or memorize the steps to solve a math problem without understanding why the process works. Educators know that knowledge should not be measured by simple content regurgitation. It is often encouraged to connect multiple content areas within lessons. In this episode, we will explore how to promote STEM education during PBL?

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

We've all participated in a fundraiser at some point in our life, especially as a student. It seems kids bring home items to sell every year to support a team, club, or school. Although many students do not necessarily think about whether or not their fundraising efforts are supporting a cause, they gain some valuable skills during the process. You may be excited (or at least interested) in incorporating a fundraising component into your PBL curriculum but wonder how to get started. As you can imagine, executing a successful fundraiser takes planning. In this episode, we will explore how students can support a cause via project-based learning?

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

Project-based learning is an effective way to help students foster their social-emotional learning skills, especially during group collaboration. During phase eight of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™ planning guide, we focus on uniting students and building a collaborative culture. It’s easy to assume that all students enjoy collaborating, possess the skills to handle conflict effectively, and understand how to interact with feedback. However, as educators, we must teach students how to contribute as effective group members. In this episode, we will explore how to create a dynamic group culture during project-based learning.


Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

Recently I’ve heard from many of you that listen to the podcast, attend my workshops, or communicate with me on LinkedIn that you're finishing up a project-based learning unit.  I've been checking in with past and current members of the Impactful PBL Network to hear updates.  I love to listen to what's working, what's not working, and what you're learning.  

I know it can be easy to wrap up a project-based learning unit and immediately move on without really having closure.  When this happens, it can lead to a feeling that PBL was just "a thing we did that one time."

But if we want to build a robust project-based learning culture in classrooms, we must do some practices consistently. Reflection is a critical practice to implement. I often hear from teachers that they skip the reflection process due to timing, but trust me, making time for reflection is essential. 

In this episode, we will explore the role reflection play in the project-based learning process.

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]  Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

As a project-based learning coach, I'm often asked if it's possible to design a PBL unit that integrates standards. Teachers wonder how they will find time to teach content standards and allow students to create public products. Identifying the learning objectives for your project-based learning unit is phase one of the Impactful PBL Roadmap, the planning framework that I created to help educators craft a high-quality project-based learning unit for students. In this episode, I will share the audio version of a short training that I led to help educators select purposeful learning objectives for their PBL unit. If you are struggling with this phase, perhaps this training will help you move forward in your planning process.

Tune in to...

• [1:50] Discover the nine phases of the Impactful PBL Roadmap
• [4:17] Identify how to select academic standards for a PBL unit
• [5:23] Explore ways to make a PBL experience interdisciplinary
• [8:54] Hear how it’s possible to collaborate with colleagues when designing a PBL unit

Are you ready to become a high-impact project-based educator?

1. [FREE] Download the Impactful PBL Roadmap™  planning document to craft your next project-based learning unit + receive weekly tips to enhance your facilitation skills via email.
2. [FREE]   Review the Impactful PBL™ Toolkit, which provides proven strategies and invaluable tips for building a sustainable project-based learning culture at your school without overwhelming the instructional leaders, teachers, and students.

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