I'm nervous. And excited. And filled with apprehension, fear, and anticipation. This will be the first time my Physical Science students--all freshmen with a smattering of sophomores--will have been asked to do this. I'm going to have to coach, prod, and probe my teacher butt off in order to help them learn rather than simply give them the answers, but it's going to be worth it.
The unit is about the metric system, conversions between numbers with metric units, converting numbers from the English system into metric, and how to measure using metric devices. I know this isn't the most riveting of topics, but we are hoping that the PBL challenge makes it more relevant and engaging for them.
How are we hooking them in? By creating a fake contest for them to enter, with the prize being a trip to Europe. They will meet the problem by viewing a video I made using OpenShot (it is included for your viewing pleasure below) describing the contest which, hopefully, will not send most of my class to the nurse immediately after viewing. The only catch in this contest entry is that they have to plan the trip, using an itinerary we developed from a pre-existing webquest about the metric system, doing the proper conversions along the way. You can view the full lesson plan on my class website here. Feel free to leave and ideas or suggestions you have about it in the comments (and yes, I already know the video is cheese-tastic. To my own self I am true).
Is this a pretty simplistic PBL unit? Yep. Is it what is needed to introduce these students used to filling out worksheets from the textbook, memorizing the information for the test and then forgetting it as soon as their pencils are done filling in their bubble sheets? I think so. We'll see how much they learn--whether it be about the metric system, or the process of learning itself (which, frankly, is what I am more interested in seeing learned).
What they don't realize is that I am learning right along with them, but learning how to make better learners. That's the magic of PBL.
For more on PBL, check out the resources below:
- Great list of links about various aspects of PBL
- Problem-Based Learning at the University of Delaware
- A teaching module about building PBL units
- Project, Problem, & Inquiry Based Learning
- My own PBL Diigo List