As a kid who is actually in high school with a few teachers who do this stuff, I actually rather have the memorization. Here are some of the issues I've experianced with group projects. 1) It's in a teen's nature to procrastinate. If we have groups, those who don't procrastinate will end up doing all the work, otherwise everyone will procrastinate and not do the amount of research and colaboration the teacher wanted. 2) No matter how great an idea is, majority vote comes into play. (cont part 2)

I'm interested in how they get students to participate. How do they motivate those that think everything is boring and lame? How do they get loners to work well with groups? How do they deal with students who game the system?

@iwasfrancisd I'm a student, The thing that gets student like me motivated is the fact that you make the topic of your project interesting, not make it seem like something we should be extremely excited about (not overdoing it), and allow humor.

While it's true that groups will not always function correctly, it's vital for kids to do this kind of work because in the real world, they may be assigned into a dysfunctional group. It's important for kids to learn to adapt. And even if the group is dysfunctional on occasion, does that mean memorization and regurgitation of information is a better way to learn? At least with project-based learning the kids participating are more likely to remember the information.

(part two) No matter how shallow and stupid it is, social status and friends in the group WILL come into play on who has the "best" idea. 3) People will automaticly be draw to the assembly line method, each researching one thing without learning everything about the topic. 4) It's important that we get experiance, but teachers today spend about one week per topic/unit. There's not enough time to work in these projects. 5) its more productive to do projets with 1-2 people who will EACH understand

Good stuff. I am a Civics & Law teacher in NYC and am currently getting students prepared for a mock trial. Only a couple of my teams are working well together. After watching this video, I have decided to let the students choose how they want to present their part of the trial. Instead of all written material, they could create a posterboard of the charges in the case, gather a bag of evidence they feel is relevant, and so forth. That might solve the "I'm tired of writing" complaint. Thanks.

Awesome! Thanks to Buck Institute and Lee and the gang at CommonCraft!

Easy to understand and good introduction to PBL. : )

This works well if all the students are equally motivated. Sadly, most of the time they aren't. This system looks good on paper, but it doesn't exactly work out as perfect as they say it does.

@Rugby80 The basics are ignored, and the previous are just examples from social studies. I, personally, graduated from a high school that had PBL back in the 90's. Although I was a good student, when I went to college I had to RELEARN EVERYTHING! I went to (supposedly) one of the best public schools in the country, and I was not prepared for a taste of the real world. A lot of this was due to PBL training students to do a GREAT diorama, but not knowing how to properly read, write,

That's how my school is. I love it this way. c:

¡Un proyecto genial!

So how can we do this with math? I hated all of my high school math classes because my teachers failed explain how I will ever use factoring a trinomial, or knowing how to calculate with imaginary numbers will ever com in handy in my adult life; therefor I never understood why I should pay attention and break my back just to learn these inconsequential calculus equations.

@Rugby80 I have read your posts, and have a lot of respect for your opinions. However, I would like to constructively argue with you that the basics have NOT been "ignored," but rather, in PBL are not the end-game. Our standardized tests don't require our kids to even Remember facts...just recognize the correct one from a list. As kids Create their projects, the teacher needs to be sure that the skills they are learning are becoming more complex as they work their way up Bloom's Taxonomy.

@Rugby80 "entertainers" for them. This does not help them in the long run. Projects CAN be useful SOMETIMES- but it should be a tool, not the basis. And yes, lectures CAN be engaging for students. I find it funny when it's stated lecturing is not engaging; however, a stand-up comedian can engage an audience of hundreds or thousands LECTURING with humor. The problem is not lectures in the classroom, but how the material is presented. PBL can have negative impacts in the long run.

Fantastic project! :)

excellent job!

Great, but it's not possible to do this for every topic. We do a lot of this in Ireland in the 4th year of high school, but it takes up a lot of classtime.

For some subjects this can work, but, I'm sorry, the BASICS still need to be taught, and PBL cannot teach them this. For example, I teach high school social studies. Most of my students have had PBL since elementary. By the time the students got to my classes, they knew how to make a great project, but DID NOT know the 50 states and their locations, DID NOT know the difference between Washington DC and Washington state, etc... This is due to PBL.

The really big problem about this is; Not everyone are able to work in groups, either because they just don't like working with others, or because of social problems.

but we can't get good marks in IGCSE if we do this kind of work in school.

I wish my last school had at least 1/10 of the technology that's shown in this.

yes i remember what it was like in school. Im going back tomorrow and the day after... :

Totally awesome! I'm all for more projects and fewer dittos and scantrons.

we have this one in our schoool!!!

This doesn't work. It's a good theory, but most of the students I know don't split the work equally and it ends up being pushed onto one person, even if they report it to the teacher as "everyone did their fair share."

i have an essay to do....that counts as a project right? i dont wanna do it !!!

The project is amazingly interesting.

hay isn't that the guy who also explained how bittorrent works?!

In short, hands on learning is better than being lectured.

Fantastic!

@Rugby80 Just 2 cents worth from an American public school educator who is frustrated on how our students are being "taught".

@beccalincecum You can make the goals worthwhile. Take a look at sports. Why would people run for miles, lift weights for hours, risk injuries, and perform repetitive motions day after day? I think athletes do those things because there are some very basic human desires that are fulfilled by sports. I think one way to make math more human is to focus proving something. Look at that story about Archimedes and The Golden Crown. He was so happy that he ran naked in public screaming "Eureka!"

Im planing on Home Schooling my boy.

@Rugby80 due basic math without the use of calculators, etc. If we have generation after generation of students being taught how to do projects, but they do not retain the information for long-term use, it can have major negative impacts on American society. Furthermore, PBL teaches students a unrealistic lesson: everything has to be FUN. This isn't how life works, and I, as a teacher, am not doing my students any favors if I give them the notion that I and the school are nothing more than

@TheBallKeeper Despite the couple of your expressed ideas that hold merit, your delivery is littered with biased and on the whole deeply ignorant. To say the least If you were clever you'd realize that if you want to influence someone's thinking, you don't insult them.