“Project Based” Learning in Secondary Science

Patrick Wells (pwells@bishops.ntc.nf.ca)

Presentation site:http://www.bishops.ntc.nf.ca/science/project2/index.htm

Trials, tribulations and triumphs!

The Commitment - The Reasons The Bishops College Science Department has made a

commitment to fit project based learning into our curriculum.

The benefits of this type of learning are very positive for the learners.

We have developed web pages to support both term projects and science fair projects. Students have the right to chose either.

Students must use some technology during the project and write a formal paper.

The Science Fair Project Page Student science projects follow a model

posted on web pages developed by all department members.

These pages provide ideas, search tips, email addresses of experts and provides students with ideas for a project. Lets Look.

Project Pages - the guide The sequence of required projects steps closely reflects

the style of research used by professional scientists . We provide the students clear expectations. The content of each part of the project is clearly

outline as are the deadlines. The support links they need are supplied. Again, most importantly, we follow a pattern of

successful model of project development. The model page

Trials and Tribulations This project style took about 5 years to

develop and development continues. Science Fairs are very labor intensive and

require a lot of outside support. Equipment problems can cause troubles for

high end projects. Students can get in over their heads - this

makes more work for everyone.

Triumphs! We have developed partnerships as a result

of our quest for support and equipment. Students struggle and succeed as a result of

the efforts of our special science teachers. All students leave better equipped for the

next level of their education. This project style has been very successful

on a national level. Time to brag….

The other half: Term Projects As stated previously students have a choice to do

Science Fair or a Term Project. Students must do a term project for each science

course or one science fair project for a several of courses (recruiting….)

Each science teacher has their own type of term project they offer to students.

All the projects I offer involve creating web pages or power point presentations

The Challenge

Without question the internet is growing into a huge entity that cannot be ignored (parents and students will not let you!).

How can you tame this huge beast that is full of all humanity; both good and evil?

Answer: create your own beast and make it suit your own curriculum needs.

Making the beast is the lesson! Use the constructivist

project based learning strategy to get maximum results for your efforts.

What is this? Getting students to

construct their own understanding of concepts based on their own experiences.

The Basic Steps (works for all subjects)

Engage the students by offering a variety of topic possibilities that would interest them.

Model your expectations (through written directions or using previously submitted works)

Set them free to explore with reasonable expectations of results in place.

Now they are the builders - good things happen!

Examples

Lets look a few examples of online projects from the Biology Page and then the Science Page

Biology Online Project

•Main objective - to increase student appreciation of local habitats, plants and animals (within Newfoundland).

Keeping this project within the Biology 3201 curriculum

Project subjects: Newfoundland Ecosystems, Invertebrates, Vertebrates and Plants.

These were directly from Units I and II of the course.

We were careful to outline our project objectives and expectations in great detail.

We produced multiple topics which allowed for greater selection flexibility for students.

Love that page, hate that page! Once a topic was selected, the real work could

begin using the project page. The page was a great method of keeping the

students on track. All needed information was posted and easily

available, even to students without computer access at home.

Deadlines for the projects were posted after the projects were selected.

What did we get? Some good quality projects. We were happy that project based learning could

be fit into our busy curriculum. Students developed collaboration skills,

increased software proficiency and increased the knowledge and confidence.

Group work - it was nice to see the students learn about human nature along with Biology and Technology.

Results!

Conclusions Project based learning using technology has all the

positive attributes of this style of learning with the added bonus of opening up the internet to students.

Ownership - The student builders not only construct an understanding of concepts, they own the resource they developed. There is pride in ownership!

Process - The lesson models a process for acquiring and organizing knowledge.

Thoughts... The requirement of the term paper before the

creation of the web page was very important. Why?

The knowledge base of the students must be developed before they can create a useful web site. Proof…..

Students who performed poorly on the term paper section often had difficulty producing a quality web page

Fixes for the future Many students did not like the paper, but the

teachers feel this skill development will serve them well later in life (post secondary).

Email was submission great, however, we are still converting some Mac created projects to Html.

The project submission for this year is a powerpoint presentation which is converted to Html (option).

Micro-projects

This year we started using a number of smaller projects to increase student usage of our web pages.

Why? Look at our Biology Page.

Small scale building Using existing pages we can now have

students take on sites to fix them. Using small groups students are assigned to

pages in a site. They use online or in school resources to

build edit the page. Take a look..

Some other nifty things….

Field Trips! These things are scary. What can you do to make the lesson more effective?

I have built a web site for a field trip to the intertidal zone. This has been great for outlining trip objectives and safety.

Let look at the trip. Go!

Other Biology Site Features

Online notes Online tracking Guides for study habits Useful link pages Lab support pages Go and see

Classroom ideas

Stamps!

Classroom ideas

Portfolios

Classroom ideas

Group work

Classroom ideas

Student Expression

Classroom ideas

Fun stuff

Classroom ideas

Be yourself!

Brain Storm

Lets get some ideas cooking! In groups at your tables, lets figure out

some technology related student projects. The ideas should be student centered!

Comments…. Please pass make some comments on my presentations. I would love to here any of the ideas you have!

Computers: These devices are not the enemy, be patient they are useful!