So what am I trying this time? A case-based approach, with students trying to determine the cellular cause of death of a young girl who died after ingesting an insecticide. The students are assuming the role of a head physician at a poison control center, and must give a 5-minute presentation to the parents explaining the cause of their daughter's death. They met their problem with this letter from the doctor and this attached case report that was taken from this paper. Each class then developed a problem statement using a "How can we ______________ in such a way _______________" format. You can see an example of one below (please excuse the "I'm trying to talk and lead a discussion and write on the board at the same time" handwriting):
I also told students why we were doing this (something that isn't done often enough in classrooms, in my opinion--why do some still insist on keeping what they want students to learn a big secret, making students stumble around trying to figure it out all in the name of "it's good for them?") by writing some "I can" statements for problem-solving, which is really the skill I need students to develop:
I can solve problems by:
- analyzing given information to determine what you need to know
- doing research and collecting resources using technology
- stating the problem in clear language
- mapping out the problem to arrive at a solution
- proposing a logical solution to the problem based on evidence gathered during your research, and supporting that solution by citing evidence from your research
But what I love about PBL is that I learn right along with my students. Here's a few of those learnings:
- Don't use a case that is easily find-able on the internet. My mistake was using a document for the case report that was on the internet--and easily Googleable. My students found the root cause of the little girl's death within the first day of searching, and this document was quickly passed around the class via email and Edmodo. When I do this again (which I am planning on doing in my next unit), I will create a case of my own that is an amalgam of real cases rather than just use a single one. For me and my students, however, all was not lost--fortunately, I had structured my problem in such a way that just finding the cause of her death wasn't enough to solve the problem. Which leads me to my next learning nugget.....
- Make your problem more than just about finding a "right" answer. Because the focus of the problem was explaining the cellular cause of the little girl's death and not on the ingredient in the insecticide that caused her death, just finding the document revealing the cause on the internet didn't end up cutting my unit short. Also, the inherent real-world "messiness" of my problem lies not in the solution itself but in making the connections between the science concepts and the little girl's symptoms in order to form a coherent and concise explanation for the parents.
- Have students practice making connections between concepts. My 9th & 10th grade Biology students are used to the "memorize, repeat, forget" model of schooling and need practice with upper-level thinking skills. So, I felt the need to provide my students with some practice making connections between the concepts they are researching and the little girl's symptoms by developing this activity. I haven't tried this yet, but when I told students we would be taking a day to stop and make some connections before mapping out their presentations, the relief that occurred was palpable. Bottom line--if your students don't know how to think the way you want them to, you have to have them practice that thinking. Just throwing them out into the thinking pool without any training (or even any floaties to help them) is setting yourself and your students up for frustration rather than learning.
- Provide students with activities to help them learn your curricular goals. When my students do internet research, they tend to latch on to the bits and pieces that are nice to knows, but aren't a part of their need to knows. So, in order to guide them and help them focus their research, I wrote some learning activities using Juno that are aimed to help students focus their research (as well as for me to peek in and see if they are learning what they need to be learning, since Juno collects all of their answers for me in an easy-to-read format). I also still give regular progress checks in Juno as well, so I can use that formative assessment data to plan for instruction and so students can see what it is they need to research.
- But don't let students get so lost in the content forest that the content trees are all they see. That's why I review the problem statement every day, and their daily journals (opening questions) focus on how the content connects to the little girl's symptoms. Don't let them get so deep into the memorizing content zone that they lose sight of the problem they're supposed to be solving.
- Unlearn talking at students and learn to ask them question after question. The one thing I admire the most about my two PBL trainers from this summer (besides their copious PBL knowledge) is their uncanny ability to just ask questions. I have yet to fully develop this skill, but I'm working on it, constantly screaming at myself in my head during class to shut-up with the talking. I am also driving my students nuts with my questions, because now I am not the supreme answer-giver and master science-explainer. But I like asking questions not because of my students' stifled groans of frustration when I ask yet another question, but because it puts the burden of thinking back on the student. The only thing I worry about with me asking all questions is that the students aren't learning how to ask their own questions to develop their own chains of logic in order to dig deeper into a topic or problem. In other words, I still feel like I am responsible for connecting the thinking dots for them with my questions. I will have to work on building this questioning practice into my next PBL unit.
I do like this case-based PBL approach, mainly because it is more concrete for the students but still messy enough that they have to sift through all their research and form it into a cohesive, brief whole in their 5-minute presentations. In retrospect, I felt my first attempt was too nebulous, while my second attempt was too scripted and narrow in focus. This may be the Goldilocks "just-right" I've been looking for that fits the background experiences and skills my students bring with them to class every day.
Do you have any PBL experiences or insights? Please feel free to leave them in the comments.