8 Essentials

7/31/2019 8 Essentials

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Essentials forProject-Based

LearningSome “projects” border on busywork. Others involvemeaningful inquiry that engages students’ minds.

A N N E D O W I E P H O T O G R A P H Y

Students at Mare Island Technical Academy in Vallejo present their project work to an audience.

John Larmer

John R. Mergendoller, PhD.

Buck Institute for Education

s Mrs. McIntyre walkedaround the high schoolscience classroom, sheplopped a packet of paperson each student’s desk andannounced a “project.”

Each student would create a posterabout a water-borne bacterium that canbe harmful to humans, the bacterium’seffects, and disease prevention andtreatment. The handouts includedan assignment sheet with due datesand grading policy, a rubric, a guidefor designing the poster, and a list of websites and books. The teacher woulddisplay the best posters.

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Handout #3 for ASCD CCSS webinar: "Project Based Learning and the Common Core State Standards" A. Miller. Page 1

Source: Originally published as “7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning,” by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller, in Educational Leadership,

68 (1), © 2010 ASCD. Reproduced and updated with permission of ASCD. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.



A good driving

question captures

the heart of the

project in clear,

compelling language.

Sound familiar? When you were inschool, did you make posters, dioramas,and models of buildings or volcanoes?If you are a teacher, have you asked

students to research a topic and presentinformation with PowerPoint slides?These are all-too-common examples of the kind of meaning-lite assignments thatteachers bill as projects. A classroom filledwith student posters may suggest thatstudents have been engaged in meaningfullearning. But it is the process of students’learning and the depth of their cognitiveengagement – rather than the resultingproduct – that distinguishes projects frombusywork.

What Every Good Project Needs A project is meaningful if it fulfills twocriteria. First, students must perceive itas personally meaningful, as a task thatmatters and that they want to do well.Second, a meaningful project fulfills aneducational purpose. Well-designed andwell-implemented Project Based Learning(PBL) is meaningful in both ways.

As educators with the Buck Institutefor Education, we provide professionaldevelopment to help schools set up asustained program of in-depth Project

Based Learning throughout a district,network, or state. In our work withteachers, we have identified eight essentialelements of meaningful projects. Let’s lookat each element by considering what thefictional Mrs. McIntyre could have doneto create a meaningful project instead of handing out prepared packets.

1. Significant contentBack when she began planning theproject, Ms. McIntyre started withher content standards. She knew the

standards about microorganisms anddisease were reflected in high numberof items on her state’s test, and her own judgment told her this was an importanttopic for young people to understand.She also thought her students would findthe topic significant, since bacteria anddisease had concrete effects on their lives.

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Project Based Learning is sometimesmistakenly believed, based on oldstereotypes, to be an ineffective vehiclefor teaching content. But while is it is

true that a teacher cannot “cover” (whichisn’t, after all, the same as “teach”) asmuch material in a project as he or shecould through lectures, worksheets, andtextbooks, students in a well-designedproject understand the content moredeeply. Teachers should plan a projectto focus on important knowledge andconcepts derived from standards. Thecontent should also reflect what theteacher thinks is essential to understandabout the topic. And students should findthe content to be significant in terms of their own lives and interests.

2. A Need to KnowImagine that on the first day of theinfectious disease unit, Ms. McIntyreshowed a video depicting scenes of abeautiful beach, which ended with ashot of a sign saying, “Beach Closed:Contaminated Water.” Suppose watchingthis video led to a lively (and sometimesdisgusting) discussion in which studentsshared their experiences with suspiciouswater quality, discussing times whenbeaches had been closed and why. Theteacher could then introduce the projectby telling students that they would belearning more about ocean pollution andtaking action to combat it.

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Teachers can powerfully activatestudents’ need to know content bylaunching a project with an “entry event”that engages student interest and initiatesquestioning. An entry event can be almostanything: a video, a lively discussion,a guest speaker, a field trip, or a pieceof mock correspondence that sets upa scenario. In contrast, announcing aproject with a packet of papers is likely toturn students off; it looks like a prelude tobusywork.

Many students find school workmeaningless because they don’t perceivea need to know what they are being

taught. They are unmotivated by ateacher’s suggestion that they should learnsomething because they’ll need it laterin life, or for the next course, or simply

because “it’s going to be on the test.” Witha compelling student project, the reasonfor learning relevant material becomesclear: I need to know this to meet thechallenge I’ve accepted.

3. A Driving Question After the discussion about beachpollution, Ms. McIntyre led students inbrainstorming possible solutions, such asenacting laws, designing better waste-treatment systems, and raising publicawareness about the need to reduce

contaminants. Students created a DrivingQuestion to focus their efforts, focusing

on a specific, local area: How can wereduce the number of days Foster’s beachis closed because of poor water quality?

A good Driving Question captures theheart of the project in clear, compellinglanguage, which gives students a senseof purpose and challenge. The Questionshould be provocative, open-ended,complex, and linked to the core of whatyou want students to learn. It could beabstract (When is war justified?); concrete(Is our water safe to drink?); or focusedon solving a problem (How can weimprove this website so that more youngpeople will use it?).

A project without a Driving Question islike an essay without a thesis. Without athesis statement, a reader might be able topick out the main point a writer is tryingto make; but with a thesis statement, themain point is unmistakable. Without

Handout #3 for ASCD CCSS webinar: "Project Based Learning and the Common Core State Standards" A. Mi ller. Page 2





Students find

project work more

meaningful if they

conduct real inquiry.

a Driving Question, students may notunderstand why they are undertakinga project. They know that the series of assigned activities has some connectionwith a time period, a place, or concept.

But if you asked, “What is the point of allthese activities?” they might only be ableto offer, “Because we’re making a poster.”

4. Student Voice and ChoiceOnce her students’ interest was piquedby a challenging question, Ms. McIntyreexplained the requirements for the “Don’tClose the Beach” project, which includedan individually written paper, a productof the students’ choice created by teams,and an oral presentation of their workaccompanied by media technology.Students chose to develop media kitsfor journalists, video public serviceannouncements, web pages, brochures,and letters to government and industryofficials, among other products.

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This element of Project Based Learningis key. In terms of making a project feelmeaningful to students, the more voiceand choice, the better. However, teachersshould design projects with the extent of student choice that fits their own styleand students.

On the limited-choice end of thescale, learners can select what topic tostudy within a general Driving Questionor choose how to design, create, andpresent products. As a middle ground,teachers might provide a limited menu of options for creative products to preventstudents from becoming overwhelmedby choices. On the “the more the better”end of the scale, students can decide whatproduct they will create, what resourcesthey will use, and how they will structure

their time. Students could even choose aproject’s topic and Driving Question.

5. 21st Century SkillsOnce Ms. McIntyre’s students had decidedon actions that would help them respondto the Driving Question, they got towork. Collaboration was central to the

project. Students formed teams of threeor four and began planning what tasksthey would do and how they would worktogether.

As they worked, each team regularlypaused to review how well they werecollaborating and communicating, using

diseases can you get from water? Do youhave to drink it to get sick? and Wheredo bacteria come from? The teams fine-tuned their questions and discussed howto find answers from their teacher, books,

articles, websites, experts, and visits toFoster’s Beach.

As these learners found answers, theyraised and investigated new questions.Students synthesized the information theygathered and used it both to inform theirindividually-written papers on the DrivingQuestion and to help create their team’sproduct related to that question.

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Students find project work to bemore meaningful if they are asked toconduct real inquiry – which does notmean finding information in books orwebsites and pasting it onto a poster. Inreal inquiry, students follow a trail thatbegins with their own questions, leads toa search for resources and the discoveryof answers, and which ultimately leads togenerating new questions, testing ideas,and drawing their own conclusions. Withreal inquiry comes innovation – a newanswer to a Driving Question, a newproduct, a new solution to a problem. Theteacher does not ask students to simply

reproduce teacher- or textbook-providedinformation in a pretty format.

To guide students in real inquiry, referstudents to the list of questions theygenerated after the entry event. Coachthem to add to this list as they discovernew insights. The classroom cultureshould value questioning, hypothesizing,and openness to new ideas andperspectives.

7. Feedback and Revision As they developed their ideas and

products, student teams reviewed andcritiqued one another’s work, referringto rubrics and exemplars. Ms. McIntyrechecked research notes, reviewed roughdrafts and plans, and met with teams tomonitor their progress.

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rubrics the class had developed with the

teacher. To boost collaboration skills, Mrs.McIntyre used role-playing and team-building activities. She showed studentshow to use time and task organizers. Theypracticed oral presentation skills andlearned to produce videos and podcasts.In writing journals, students reflectedon their thinking and problem-solvingprocesses, which they knew they wouldneed to explain in their oral presentation.

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A project should give students

opportunities to build such 21st centuryskills as collaboration, communication,critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well inthe workplace and life. This exposure toauthentic skills meets the second criterionfor meaningful work – an importantpurpose. A teacher in a Project BasedLearning environment explicitly teachesand assesses these skills and providesfrequent opportunities for students toassess themselves.

6. Inquiry and Innovation After the discussion about encounterswith pollution, in addition to choosing aDriving Question, Ms. McIntyre’s studentsas a whole class generated a list of moredetailed questions about diseases, bacteriaand their effects, and sources of watercontamination. Questions included, What

Handout #3 for ASCD CCSS webinar: "Project Based Learning and the Common Core State Standards" A. Miller. Page 3





John Larmer (415-883-0122; john

[email protected]) is director of product

development and John R. Mergendoller

([email protected]) is executive director at

the Buck Institute for Education, 18

Commercial Blvd., Novato, CA 94949.

Students at Tamalpais High School in California study U.S. History in a project.

Buck Institute for Education18 Commercial Blvd.Novato, CA, USA 94949ph: 415-883-0122www.bie.orgyoutube.com/biepbltwitter.com/biepbl

Formalizing a process for feedback andrevision during a project makes learningmeaningful because it emphasizes thatcreating high-quality products andperformances is an important purpose of

the endeavor. Students need to learn thatmost people’s first attempts don’t result inhigh quality and that revision is a frequentfeature of real-world work.

In addition to providing directfeedback, a teacher should coach studentsin using rubrics or other sets of criteriato critique one another’s work. Teacherscan arrange for experts or adult mentorsto provide feedback, which is especiallymeaningful to students because of thesource.

8. Publicly Presented ProductIn Ms. McIntyre’s class, teams presentedtheir analyses of water contaminationissues and their proposals for addressingthe problem at an exhibition night.The invited audience included parents,peers, and representatives of community,business, and government organizations.

Students answered questions andreflected on how they completed theproject, next steps they might take, andwhat they gained in terms of knowledgeand skills—and pride.

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Schoolwork is more meaningful whenit’s not done only for the teacher or thetest. When students present their workto a real audience, they care more aboutits quality. Once again, it’s “the more, thebetter” when it comes to the authenticity.Students might replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals—but evenbetter, they might create real productsthat people outside school use.

The Rest of the StoryThe hypothetical project described

here was inspired by a real project,“Media Saves the Beach,” carried outby students at High Tech High in SanDiego, California. In this real-life project,students worked alongside establishedlocal groups to advocate cleanershorelines. Several government agenciescame through with funding for watermonitoring at local beaches.

In truth, one of the products studentscreated was a poster. What made thatposter different from the meaning-liteone Ms. McIntyre had assigned? TheHigh Tech High students chose to dotheir poster because it was an effectiveway to communicate their message atExhibition Night—and the team stoodnearby to explain it. To create the poster,

students engaged in an extended processof inquiry, critique, and revision. Theylearned important things in the process.In short, even a poster can be meaning-heavy if it’s part of a project embodyingthe eight essential elements of ProjectBased Learning.

Author’s Note: Individuals and

some place names in this article arepseudonyms.

Handout #3 for ASCD CCSS webinar: "Project Based Learning and the Common Core State Standards" A. Mi ller. Page 4



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8 Essentials