July 4 - 8, 2016

Each Friday we post a list of our favorite articles, blog posts, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

How Can We Personalize Rigorous Projects?
Getting Smart
Elina Alayeva, director of national strategy at Springpoint Schools, offers guidance for combining PBL with that other hot trend, personalized learning.

Connecting iGeneration to the Natural World
Edutopia
Elementary educator Kevin Barisonek blogs about a variety of smartphone apps he’s used with his students in field work where they become “citizen scientists” who observe nature and record and analyze data.

Artful Education: How Spacesuits and Drones Changed the Way Students Perceived Art and Themselves
Nashville Arts Magazine
A report on two super-cool projects at Maplewood High School, Tennessee (in BIE’s partner district Metro Nashville). The cross-curricular projects involved nearly 300 students and – love to hear this – “sent cultural shockwaves throughout the school.”

Solar Panels Enhance STEM Learning
National Science Teachers Association
This blog post is not explicitly about PBL but should give PBL teachers ideas for projects; it describes how solar panels are being used by STEM teachers for a variety of hands-on learning activities that address NGSS standards.  Includes handy tips for finding funding and resources.

Power the PBL Through Partnerships
PittsburgGalPrincipal blog
An interesting post about Avonworth High School in Pennsylvania, where a STEAM grant is allowing students to work with adults to redesign the physical space on campus to make it environmentally- and PBL-friendly.

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