Blog post #9 EDM310 Class Blog Melissa Keeler

The site titledSeven Essentials for Project Based Learning by John Larmen and John R. Mergendoller was enlightening and reinforcing. I learned that to be successful every project needs two things. 1. The students need to feel that the work ahead of them is personally meaningful. 2. The meaningful project needs to be educationally valuable. The seven essentials or "steps" that follow will ensure that any future projects will be successful.

1. Create a "Need to Know" for the students. This can be done through discussion, videos, or guest speakers to name a few methods. With a need to know the students will be driven to complete the project rather than look at it as busy work or with contempt.

2. Let the students come up with the "Driving Question". This should be an open ended question and will lead the students in correct direction.

3. Once the students are thinking about the driving question, explain what is required of them to fulfill the needs of the project. Let the students get together and "Voice and Choice". This is where they can brainstorm for ideas and voice their opinions and chose which solutions they want to explore.

4.Students pair off into groups of three or more and get to work on their ideas. They monitor their work throughout the project with rubrics. The students decide who will work on what. They sove their own problems if any arise. The students are using "21st Century Skills" here. Using all resources available to collaborate and make the project work.

5. As the students research they come up with more driving questions and answers. This part is called "Inquiry and Innovation". This engages students even further through "real inquiry" where they are asking questions and actively seeking answers within the community, and other unexpected areas rather than the usual sources.

6. While developing their ideas and projects the teams review each others work and give feed back. This allows for the teams to take feedback and change or improve on their work. This is the "Feedback and Revision" step.

7. When the projects are finished they are "Presented Publicly". This is the final step of Project Based Learning and it is important because the students feel more of a drive to complete the project to "show off" their work. Rather than doing the work for a test or the teacher, the students put more emphasis on a project that will be public because they want it to look good as well as themselves.


The videoProject Based Learning for Teachers by Tony Vincent was exciting because of the music. It reinforced the fact that PBL is more conducive to today's way of learning rather than the past ways of learning.

I chose the postProject Based Learning in PE from Pflug's blog. This post taught me some things I had no idea about. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education and the six standards for Physical Education. I was unaware there were specific standards for P.E. In this post the project mentioned is one where High school students are challenged to prepare fitness programs for the students attending Middle school. In order to produce an effective program for each middle school student, the high school students had to sift through tons of information on each M.S. student. Information such as age, weight, and levels of previous physical activity. The H.S. students then had to analyze this information to create effective fitness programs for each M.S. student. The final product was then implemented in the class rooms giving the creator students validation for their work.
This project covered all six of the P.E. standards as well as the 7 essentials of PBL.

The next choice I made was What Motivates Students?
I loved this video. I really enjoyed hearing directly from the students themselves what they feel works for them. I learned some of the things that motivate today's students. I was most surprised by the younger students who were very concerned with their future and understood that in order to achieve their goal career in the future, they need to get good grades today. Wow! I wish I would have had such forethought at that age. I found out that pointing out a student's positive rather than negative achievements will get me a lot farther as a teacher, and that parental restrictions still count. I picked up some great reward ideas from the students as well. Treats, food and others such as stickers, rulers, pencils can be given out for great behavior. A "token" or cash system can be set up with a small "store" with trinkets for the students to buy. A very big treat I picked up on was OUTSIDE TIME! Any time outside was appreciated GREATLY by all ages. Being allowed to mingle and socialize was a big number 2 on the list. Both of these treats are literally free of charge and very motivating so I will probably be using these two Largely.

My final choice was Two Students Solve the Problem of Watery Ketchup by Designing a New Cap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JTuEUSauc0. How impressive! I am literally astonished at what the high school students are doing in this program. I have a feeling we will be seeing these two names in the future, the two young men who came up with the watery ketchup solution are seniors in high school. They were given all year to study, research and produce their final product. They came up with what they call a shroom cap for the ketchup bottle that eliminates the first watery squirt without shaking the bottle! Just amazing to me and exciting because I will be teaching one day and be able to see these projects in action.