Teachers: How Does Your PBL Garden Grow?

by | Oct 26, 2019 | All Posts, Hackathons, News

Hey Teachers: We’re back from the 2019 Fall convening of STEM Ecosystems, Cleveland, OH where we presented a mind-map exercise on how to make your PBL (Project-Based Learning) environment grow. In this process, we provided a handout that you can use to plan a holistic STEM + soft skills experience to make a “Whole Child” learning experience.

PBL Whole-Child Growth Tips

Tips and tricks were shared by active PBL “gardeners” from around the country who nurture flourishing PBL environments within their ecosystems.  Five presenters shared STEM-focused PBL growth techniques, each highlighting essential seeds of success from their regions, tips for supporting growth and development, and pest management techniques. Attendees left prepared with an action plan that features stakeholder identification, soft skills integration, strategic partners, resources, challenges, and outcomes. More specifically, the session focused on the following LEARNING GOALS:

  • Creating a PBL Theory of Change
  • Identifying Stakeholders and Strategic Partnerships
  • Defining Essential PBL Program Elements
  • Addressing Opportunities and Overcoming Challenges
  • Envisioning Outcomes & Impacts
  • Understanding Strategies Applied by STEM Ecosystems Already Implementing PBL

PBL Music Hack, Hawai’i-Style

Our part in the presentation was to highlight a music hackathon we ran earlier this year at the STEM Works Conference. In this hack, high school students from all Hawaiian islands were flown into Honolulu for a two-day hack to create a new anthem for the Hawaiian canoe, Hokulea’s next world tour (a complete circumnavigation of the globe). Hawaiian cultural treasures Nainoa Thompson and Henry Kapono lead the kids and amazing things happened. The presentation deck is shown at right.

Check out one of the songs created at the hack or hear more at the related Music Hackathon Post:

STEM + Soft Skills

The session covered oh so many inter-disciplinary education topics as well as combined STEM content mastery and the latest in soft skills development through project-based learning techniques. Key themes covered:

  • PBL Theory of Change
  • STEM / content skills
  • Professional Skills (4Cs, SEL)
  • PBL Assessments (4Cs, SEL, Digital Portfolios)
  • Meeting Standards
  • Value to ALL students
  • Student Outcomes & Impacts.

Download the Handout

PBL (Project-Based Learning) Worksheet | Garden GrowWe’re happy to share the PBL handout ~ please be sure to share your thoughts on how to push this further, or if we got it perfect, rain kudos down upon us. Download 145K PDF »