The Discovery of a New Classroom

Support and Get Out of the Way

Project-Based Learning (PBL) leverages students' inherent wiring to wonder and focuses that energy on curriculum and content. It challenges teachers and students to move academics into action, reaching higher-order critical thinking by applying and using content. The teacher role is re-defined to facilitator, creating the conditions for group and/or individual inquiry that moves students toward collaborative problem-solving.

The key is to provide just enough structure, guidance, and shared accountability to target shared learning goals, and then get out of the way. This makes for powerful moments of instruction in classrooms, but the most powerful moments often connect the classroom and all that happens there with an authentic context.  In this case, the context is the community in which students live and our schools serve.     

The New Classroom: How can Steve and Lori turn
this garden into a real-world learning experience
 for elementary and high school students?

To start our Project Based Learning, adult stakeholders gathered to brainstorm a variety of ways in which our outdoor lab could provide learning, service, and community opportunities for students, families, and service organizations. We had lots of options from which to choose: studying soil samples to determine necessary additives to encourage growth, reviewing crop yield in order to create a rotation plan, or planning and implementing the design process for the new space. 

The connected, higher level learning opportunities are endless, especially when we empower students to give their input or voice and then listen to what they have to say.

The Planning: A full length white board in the FHS College
and Career Academy was covered by the time the
planning session ended. (Or perhaps it just started!)

The Planning Process

In our PBL, teachers will guide students to create original and sustainable solutions that serve the community and meet the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. For example, these are two needs or problems for the project:

Need/ Problem #1: Community partners want the garden to be handicap accessible.

• Driving Question: How we can make this garden handicap accessible using ADA guidelines?
• Collaboration: We will design a system to partner elementary students with high school students to solve problems collaboratively, implement solutions, and create authentic audiences for sharing.

Need/ Problem #2: The soil we have is not suitable for the crops we intend to grow.

• Driving Question: How can we improve soil health for the types of plants people want and enjoy eating?
• Collaboration: High school students will serve as experts for elementary soil research, and all groups will share their information with community stakeholders.

Process Over Product

Our journey on this PBL is just beginning, and we are excited to continue with this process and see the authentic, relevant, collaborative partnership unfold. At this point, we have no idea how it will all turn out, the direction students will take the project, or the impact it will have on the community.  The important piece is the process, not the product.

We look forward to learning along with our students.  Stay tuned for updates later in the school year….

Steve and Lori