Project Based Learning

Try It

Students work in small teams on authentic projects tied to the real world. Consider one of our suggested ‘starter projects,’ or come up with your own. Draw students into the process of estimating how much class time is required.

Discuss It

In person or online, dive into these essential questions:

• What surprised you about this?
• What skills and mindsets did students develop through this work?
• How did you deal with students whose work fell short?
• A common challenge with projects is that a few kids do most/all the work. Did that happen? How could this be used to help all kids become better collaborators on the next project?

Explore It

Check out our list of Starter Projects to begin implementing project based learning in your classroom.

If you’re looking to go further, get to know these organizations:
Buck Institute of Education , including this set
of month-long PBL offerings.
New Tech Network
EL Education
Try a one-hour
Performance Task
designed by the educators at
Two Rivers Charter School
DIY Bootcamp
Big Picture Learning