During my year-long PBL for my IPC classes, we have been
working on trying to survive on an uninhabited island. We started with water, evaluating which type
of water would be easier to use. Then we
moved on to food, which all students agreed was the next critical component of
survival after potable water.
Using the energy TEKS, I gave the students the problem of
providing a safe and nutritious diet for the survivors of the cruise ship
disaster. The IPC TEKS ask students to
evaluate different sources of energy including fossil fuels, geothermal, moving
water and wind, and solar. Additionally,
when they were doing the water cleaning unit, most of the groups had decided on
some form of heating, condensing, and distilling their water, so a ‘heat’ unit
seemed to be the logical next step.
I wouldn’t say that the unit was a total failure, but it
didn’t fire their imaginations the way the water unit or the nuclear unit
had. They did the work, but they pretty
much slogged their way through it with getting a good grade as their only
motivation. They didn’t put in any hours
outside the classroom and they didn’t drive their parents crazy with their obsession
with the project.
Bummer. I’m always
sad when a PBL unit falls on its face because I’m addicted to seeing student
ideas take flight, where they take my conception of what they should do and
turn it into something remarkable, something I never imagined.
When this happens, I’ve found that the problem usually lies
in the driving question. For whatever
reason, the problem I posed in the heat unit didn’t resonate with them and they
didn’t much care about the project other than the grade.
Driving questions are hard, and I’ve written quite a few of
them. But sometimes no matter how
carefully I craft them, they just don’t work.
And sometimes, I feel the question is lame and not my best
effort, but the students take off with it.
Just shows that I don’t think like a teenager. Also, it shows me the importance of getting
student input into lesson design.
In contrast to the heat unit, the student response to the
shelter unit blew me away. First of all,
this was the unit that they had asked for.
The students clearly understand that this entire year is a complete
story, and certain elements should appear in certain order. My plan was to do it at the end of the year,
but when they insisted that it had to come next, I revised my lesson plans and
worked it in. Perhaps that student
choice had something to do with the success of the unit.
Second, for this unit, one of the requirements was that the
students build a scale model of their shelter design. Kids love building things. And even if a particular student wasn’t into
construction, they could do other things to support their group, such as research
or writing.
Their final presentations reflected their enjoyment of the
project. I saw many different ways of
solving the problem and some in-depth thinking about the issue. The students maintained a high level of
interest in their work throughout the unit.
If I could harness that energy and enthusiasm every time I
write a unit, I might think I actually know how to do this. As it is, this shows me how much more I have
to learn!
