Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg NewsA proposed design for a cigarette packet under Australia’s plain-packaging law. Go to related Fixes column »
We’ve asked the education writer Suzie Boss to do a series of guest lessons for us about using The Times Fixes blog, which explores solutions to major social problems, as inspiration for designing real-world projects for schools.
This post, the first in our series, introduces the concept of “project-based learning” and suggests some ways in which this strategy can work with recent Fixes topics.
For Authentic Learning, Start with Real Problems
If your students are prone to asking, “When will we ever need to know this?”, then maybe it’s time for a dose of reality.
By sparking students’ interest in real issues that affect them and their peers around the world, you will give them cause to think more critically about what they are learning. Better yet, you may give them a head start on becoming tomorrow’s problem-solvers.
Fixes, a series that is part of the Opinionator section of The New York Times, focuses on some of today’s most pressing social problems and the innovators working to solve them. These global dispatches offer ready entry points for projects that challenge students to propose their own solutions to issues that may strike close to home.
For example, a recent Fixes post, “For Teenage Smokers, Removing the Allure of the Pack,” begins with a compelling statistic: only 1 in 10 smokers picks up the habit after age 18.
The columnist Tina Rosenberg explains why teenagers hold the best answers for curbing smoking rates. The article practically invites students to begin their own viral marketing campaigns to make smoking uncool. In the process, they could meet academic standards for science and health, English language arts, or technology integration.
Across the curriculum, more learning opportunities can be found in Fixes posts relating to everything from addressing illiteracy to common-sense solutions for environmental challenges. Project-based learning, or P.B.L., offers a framework for investigating these real-world issues while also addressing academic learning goals.
P.B.L. Basics: Questions Come First
Inquiry is the engine of project-based learning. That is why good projects start with intriguing questions that students will want to answer. These are often called driving questions because they drive students toward important learning goals.
Students learn academic content by doing investigations, which may involve traditional research or background reading, interviews with experts, data gathering and analysis, or designing and testing their own solutions. While working on project teams, students also develop so-called soft skills like collaboration and time management.
Unlike more traditional instruction, which often ends with a test or paper that the teacher assigns, P.B.L. asks students to apply their learning in creative ways. At the end of a project, students typically produce something, demonstrate or perform something, advocate for a policy change or other solution, or teach something to others, honing their communication skills in the process.
Appropriate questions for projects are open-ended (and can’t be Googled), allowing students room to follow their curiosity. Good driving questions are relevant, connecting to students’ lives or interests, and should challenge students to think critically.
For Example…?
Here are a few examples of project ideas inspired by real-world issues described in recent Fixes posts:
— “For Healthy Aging, a Late Act in the Footlights” describes an arts program, called EngAGE, for low-income elderly people that challenges stereotypes about creativity and aging. Students might be inspired by the article — and an analysis of health care costs for the elderly — to suggest solutions to this question: How can we help our elders live healthier and happier lives?
A 2011 video about EngAGE, the subject of this Fixes post.
— In “Open Education for a Global Economy,” the Fixes columnist David Bornstein examines the opportunities of free and open online education. Although he suggests potential benefits for unskilled workers in high-poverty regions of the world, he also points out, “Online learning is a mixed bag.” This article could prompt students to evaluate online learning programs, like Khan Academy or Udacity, or contrast online and face-to-face learning. A driving question for a project might ask students to discover: How do we learn best?
— “Fighting Depression, One Village at a Time” begins with this revelation: “The disease that robs the most adults of the most years of productive life is not AIDS, not heart disease, not cancer. It is depression.” Tina Rosenberg reports on growing global attention for mental health issues and low-cost approaches for treating depression with lay therapists. Students could use Ms. Rosenberg’s reporting as the starting point for examining access to mental health services in their own community or within their demographic group. A driving question you might ask students to consider: What keeps us from caring?
Getting Started With Projects
If you are new to project-based learning, you can watch an overview of this instructional process in the Edutopia video Project-Based Learning: Success Start to Finish.
You will notice that projects have bookends: an entry event that grabs student interest at the outset and a culminating event where students showcase what they have learned at the end. In between is the deep learning that you, as teacher, help to facilitate.
More resources for project planning, management and assessment are available from the Buck Institute for Education. The institute also provides research summaries about the benefits of P.B.L., which include heightened student engagement and academic gains along with increased teacher satisfaction.
Find more strategies for using the news as a hook for “ripped from the headlines” projects in this Edutopia post.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll look at a recent Fixes column, “The Recycling Reflex,” and offer strategies for turning a ubiquitous issue like trash into an engaging, relevant service-learning project.
Ms. Boss is the author of “Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World... and “Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a ... She alsowrites about project-based learning regularly at Edutopia.
