WINNEMUCCA - Which team can engineer the tallest tower that will hold the weight of a giant marshmallow, using spaghetti and tape? Teams collaborate, using their creativity and critical thinking skills to develop the best plan. This was one of the activities used to kick off a week of project based learning this past summer with 30 teachers from White Pine, Elko, Lander and Humboldt counties.
With the support of a Math and Science Partnership grant and additional funding provided by Barrick Gold of North America, the NNRPDP launched a year-long professional development opportunity in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), four interdisciplinary essential disciplines.
Goals of the project are to improve student achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics aligned to common core state standards, to help teachers in the areas of STEM work toward becoming "highly qualified" and to have both teachers and students understand the real world problem solving and project based learning approach of STEM education, why it is important and how it can improve learning in areas of STEM.
Teachers in the project come together once a month to experience project-based learning, one of today's most effective instructional practices. In PBL, students confront real-world issues and problems, collaborate to create solutions, and present their results. As students become more engaged with the subject content their excitement for learning and student achievement increases.
The professional development has explored topics such as Clean Energy, Asteroid Impact, Saving the Biosphere and Robotics. The teachers begin with their specific common core state standards, and design projects for various content areas across all grade levels. Classroom observations provide evidence that teachers are able to adapt and differentiate the content to meet their needs. Students grasp the idea of how each subject is connected to one another and can readily use their critical thinking skills to solve real problems.
These 7 characteristics could be put in a text box beside the article:
Essential Characteristics of Project Based Learning
• Critical Thinking-and-Doing
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Cross-Cultural Understanding
• Communication
• Computing
• Career and Learning Self-Reliance
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