Articles On Project-based Learning

Molstad Gorder honored

She received the award during the South Dakota Association of Career and Technical Education awards banquet on Aug. 1.

As a business and information systems professor at Dakota State University, Molstad Gorder teaches a variety of classes and supervises student teachers in business and computer education. She incorporates information on career and technical student organizations in South Dakota and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) into the methods course she teaches to students who are majoring or minoring in business and computer education.

She has presented sessions on project-based learning, 21st Century Skills in the Classroom, and ways to engage students through technology at conferences and laptop institutes in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska. She has also written peer-reviewed articles for professional publications.

For 28 years, Molstad Gorder has served in a leadership position at the South Dakota state FBLA executive secretary and testing director. In this position, she is responsible for the FBLA state conference, fall conference, legislative days, budget meeting and officer training.

In a letter of recommendation, it was noted that "Ms. Molstad Gorder is an individual who possesses remarkable strengths and valuable personal qualities. She takes great pride in her collegiate classroom as well as in South Dakota FBLA. Much of her success is due to her strong work ethic and pure passion and desire for educating tomorrow's leaders."

Other awards presented at the state conference included Teacher of the Year, Joline Dunbar of Brookings; Lifetime Achievement, Coleen Keffeler of Sturgis; Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher, Bridget Twedt of Centerville; Outstanding Service, Marlys Hauck-Fenner of Freeman; and Outstanding Teacher in Community Service, Bridgette Brucklacher of Philip.

Project-Based Learning: Real-World Issues Motivate Students | Edutopia

Ask Seymour Papert, renowned expert on children and computing, why students are turned off by school, and he quickly offers an example:

"We teach numbers, then algebra, then calculus, then physics. Wrong!" exclaims the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician, a pioneer in artificial intelligence. "Start with engineering, and from that abstract out physics, and from that abstract out ideas of calculus, and eventually separate off pure mathematics. So much better to have the first-grade kid or kindergarten kid doing engineering and leave it to the older ones to do pure mathematics than to do it the other way around."

In a growing number of schools, educators are echoing Papert's assertion that engaging students by starting with the concrete and solving hands-on, real-world problems is a great motivator. Ultimately, they say, such project-based learning that freely crosses disciplines provides an education superior to the traditional "algebra at age nine, Civil War at ten, Great Expectations at eleven" structure.

Advocates also say that the availability of technology that can call up the knowledge of the world's best thinkers with the click of a mouse, that can graph in two seconds what once took hours, and that can put scientific instrumentation in a pocket-sized computer further argues for moving away from century-old models of instruction.

"Everybody is motivated by challenge and solving problems, and we don't make use of that in schools enough," says Bruce Alberts, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco , and former president of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). "Project-based learning gives everybody a chance to sort of mimic what scientists do, and that's exciting. And it's fun if it's done well."

Projects Run the Gamut

Examples of projects applicable to the here and now abound:

Soil Superheroes Project at King Middle School in Portland, ME :

African Wildlife DNA Project at High Tech High in San Diego, CA : African Bushmeat Expedition .

Water Wheel Project at Ferryway School in Malden, MA :

The Big Picture

In project-based learning, students try to answer a question -- one that has relevance for them -- that is greater than the immediate task at hand. In its publication Connecting the Bits , the NEA Foundation gives the example of students at a Kentucky elementary school conducting surveys, doing research, building models, and taking field trips with the goal of determining the best kind of new bridge to build over the Ohio River.

RT @: It's on! New Charter School Takes Project-Based Learning Where District Does Not - Berkeley,

It's on! New Charter School Takes Project-Based Learning Where District Does Not - Berkeley,

@ Did you see our profile on REALM? 200 students signed up, and more on the waiting list.

Berkeley's new charter school, REALM, focuses on project-based learning and technology:

Weaving technology in the design of learning experiences in world language teacher education: The development of a cognitive tool, an instructional device and an exploration

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: A PROMISING PATHWAY TO TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN WORLD LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION Abstract This article presents project-based ...

An exploration of project-based learning in two California charter schools

Org/ew/articles/l 999/03/3 l/29boaler.hl 8.html? querystring=boaler Buck Institute for Education (BIE). (2002). Introduction to project-based learning. ...

Project-based second and foreign language education, past, present, and future

There are few research articles that examine project-based learning in EFL contexts. Most of the available literature consists of anecdotal reports of how ...

Project-based learning as a facilitator of self-regulation in a middle school curriculum

To date, however, there has been limited research on self-regulation within a project-based learning pedagogy, although some agreement exists on what ...

Project based learning handbook, a guide to standards-focused project based learning for middle and high school teachers

... often begin with a vision or idea sparked by a discussion or an article. ... ■f Incorporate Simultaneous Outcomes PBL is not only a way of learning, ...