- Decide that I want to write a PBL about a particular topic. For example, molecular and Mendelian genetics.
- Sit down at my computer and stare at a blank Google Doc for a while, trying to think of totally new, earth-shattering problems that will take my students' minds to new levels of critical thinking.
- Get up and annoy all nearby coworkers by bouncing my ideas off them, including the physics teacher who tells me he hasn't done a genetics Punnet square since he was in 8th grade. Privately question relevance of making students do Punnet squares.
- Sit back down at computer and stare at blank Google Doc for 5 more minutes.
- Revisit my objectives for the unit (which I believe you should have nailed down before designing anything remotely PBL-related), hoping that re-reading them will give me some sort of PBL inspiration.
- Stop trying to reinvent the PBL wheel and do a Google search for ideas.
- Get sucked into some great science articles and learn lots of new information based on current research (Yeah, I'm talking to you, Nature).
- Refocus and find more useful things on the internet like the document below (which I found here and you can find a copy here):
- Wonder why almost every Google search I do for PBL ideas involves urine in some way, shape, or form.
- Determine that I like the basics of what I've found in the document above, but my perfectionist tendencies rear their ugly heads and stop me from using it as-is. Why? Because the case given above isn't really a problem; it's a case, which is designed for a different purpose. This is fantastic for promoting discussion; however, if you look carefully at the entire document, you realize that this document is too helpful (to use Dan Meyer's terminology). It does most of the thinking for them--which is what students in a case-based teaching format are supposed to pick out from how the case is written and then draw further conclusions. However, I'm looking for them to do all of the thinking; as a problem, this case needs some reworking so students can solve the boy's problem, not have it explained to them.
- Rewrite the case as a problem, with some curveballs thrown in. My students are taking on the role of a doctor again, only this time they will have two problems with which to contend: the first is to come up with the diagnosis for the baby in this case, and the second is to determine the pattern of inheritance and develop their own pedigree without it being laid out for them. They are provided with a list of symptoms, but I was a learning jerk about this--I researched some diseases with similar symptoms and threw those in to the overall list. They were also given a brief genetic history of the family, with some extraneous information included as well. I'm not actually doing this because I enjoy being a jerk to my students; I'm doing this to make the problem messier. Because real problems are really messy, and involve weeding out information that really isn't useful to find what you really need.
- Make sure I eliminate all specific details from the problem so that one Google search won't enable them to find the above document or find the "answer" within 5 minutes of searching. For example, I left out the three specific amino acids that cause the maple syrup urine disease that are listed in the case, and use the general term "amino acids."
- Sigh with relief that I am ready to go with this PBL.
- Internally swear as I remember things I forgot to include. Go back and edit the document a few more times. (You can see it in its current version here.)
- Relax, thinking I am now done with my PBL.
- Panic after realizing I haven't written up the entire activity on the class website. Go do that.
- Look at the clock, realize its almost 7 P.M. and I'm still at work--and my poor dogs still haven't been let out yet and have probably expressed their displeasure on something expensive in the house.
If you have any other great ways you come up with PBL activities, please feel free to share.