HANDS-ON SUCCESS

Teachers and students seeing benefits of project-based learning

“How can we bring peace to the world?” This was the question Monte del Sol sophomores spent the entire 2018-19 school year addressing. The answer was located at the Peace Museum: a collection of student-developed artifacts, writing and artworks related to finding peace in unpeaceful experiences. On opening night, students served food and presented their projects to an audience of over 300 people.

The yearlong project was a far stretch from the textbook readings and lectures people often associate with traditional classroom settings. The peace curriculum at Monte del Sol Charter School is an example of a new kind of classroom environment built by “project-based learning” that advocates believe keeps students engaged, in charge and on track to becoming lifelong learners.

“It made them proud that they did something good in the community,” said language arts teacher Elizabeth Tidrick, who co-organized the museum. “I never saw kids who were so proud of their work. To this day, I still think the Peace Museum was the best thing I ever did as a teacher.”

Project-based learning is a teaching method where students learn through a project. Through the construction of the museum, students learned aspects of peace through conflict including war, genocide, mental illness and violence in schools. Tidrick said her students worked together to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to find and bring peace.

“It takes some encouragement from the teachers and some direction. But in the end, they came together as students and did those projects on their own. I think they really learned a lot,” she said.

Project-based learning sets older teaching methods like memorization aside and instead uses projects focused on real-world problems and driven by a central question, often with no single right answer, where research and teamwork are required to find a conclusion.

Light projects are occasionally used by teachers to enhance a topic already learned in the classroom, but with project-based learning, projects don’t just add to the learning — they are the learning.

“It is a process of discovery instead of just memorizing something. It’s more you’re reaching into something you don’t know, and you continue to learn and grow as you reach and look for solutions to your questions,” said writer and Monte Del Sol teacher Dayni Staddon.

Teachers like Staddon who take interest in project-based learning say the format makes students take the lead.

“I want students to feel a sense of agency in their learning,” she said. “That they are in charge of their learning and have a sense of independence and pride in what they are doing. And to be able to work on a real-world problem that they care about.”

Beyond anecdotal evidence, studies show project-based learning could boost academic achievement. One study funded by Lucas Education Research examined the effectiveness of project-based learning in elementary science classes. Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan studied 46 different schools and 2,371 third grade students. Each third grade class was randomly assigned to either incorporate project-based learning into their curriculum or use current methods.

Students with access to project-based learning scored eight percentage points higher on their tests in science learning than their peers. Then in the following year, students outperformed their peers by another 10 points. In the study, both high-level readers and struggling readers performed better academically and socially in a project-based learning environment.

Will Rushing, a longtime teacher and head of the humanities department at Monte del Sol, said the hands-on focus of project-based learning “is good for everybody, but for people who struggle, it’s massive.” By allowing students with different skill sets to learn and express their knowledge, project-based learning lets them show off their skills and learn material that interests them.

According to a different study, which tested project-based learning’s approach on Advanced Placement curriculum, the amount of AP test-takers from low-income families nearly tripled in classrooms with project-based learning. Over the past 15 years, the percentage of low-income test-takers went from 11 percent in 2003 to 30 percent in 2018. The number has since jumped to 38 percent after more teachers started implementing project-based learning into their curriculum.

Project-based learning engages students in a long-lasting experience, where instead of a teacher battling for students’ attention, it’s quite the opposite.

“You take a classroom, give them a tape measure, and tell them to [measure] the volume of this room. Once you start doing it, you understand it at such a deeper level than if you’re just reading about it,” Rushing said.