Blog Post #9. What can teachers and students teach us about Project Based Learning?

While reading the online article Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning by John Lamer and John R. Mergendoller, I learned a few more things about Project Based Learning that I didn't know already. Papers are a turn off, I know this from being a student, but have never really though of it till I read it in the article of how much I'd rather do a fun project rather than write a long boring paper. I think kids should always be able to have their own opinion about things, but should have answers and proof to back it up. Another thing that stood out to me was when they talked about how the students work is more meaningful when more than just the teacher will see it. If the students knew that they would have an audience of their peers or family viewing the project I think the students would work harder on it because they think so much of what their fiends think of them. The Project-Based Learning for Teachers YouTube video makes several good points of why you should use Project Based Learning in your classroom. Some of the examples it is good for are grouping students together, meeting deadlines, addressing an audience, and brainstorming branching questions.

PBL: What Motivates Students Today?

I enjoyed watching this video because it is from a students point of view. I learned that students like to be recognized when they do a good job, not in a bragging type of way but rather compliments. Students are motivated by sports as well, they have to keep up good grades if they want to be on the team of keep playing. Even at such a young age kids understand to have a good future they have to work hard and find a good job, which is also a good motivator. another great motivator the video point out is to reward the kids with fun prizes. Prizes can be anything from being the line leader one day or giving out candy.

Project-Based Learning and Physical Education

As a Physical Education major this article was very interesting to me. This was a great idea for a Project Based Learning project. The high school students were to make a unit of PE skills for the middle school students. To succeed and make something they would like the high school students would have to go online and search games, as well as interview middle school students to find out their interest.

Project Based Learning in PE

This online article is very much like the one I wrote about above. It explains the importance of Physical Exercise and how much the high school students enjoy getting to teach and help the younger middle school students. It also points out by doing this project it is not a waste of time because it is meeting the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) requirements.