How to Design Project-Based Learning Classrooms for New York Private Schools
Traditional New York classrooms tend to fit a specific mold where students face the front of the room while teachers lecture. Students take notes, finish homework, and hope to memorize loads of information just long enough to pass a test. The traditional system does not accommodate all learning styles, and passion and engagement are often in short supply among students and lecturers. Add project based learning to the equation. Rather than reciting facts and hoping they stick, teachers provide students the resources they need to look for context and real-world applications. Teachers expect students to make mistakes and learn from them. As a result, students become active instead of passive learners.
What is PBL: Project-Based Learning Explained
Today, project-based learning (PBL) is making a buzz in the education world. Many people consider an alternative to passive and rote learning. Analogy-wise, if traditional education is classical music, PBL is jazz. In a PBL setting, instead of short-term memorization strategies, teachers allow students to develop knowledge and skills by presenting them challenges and problems to solve together. Students work in groups while teachers guide them to find the information they need to plan their projects. Lecturers encourage each learner to find ideas and answers to their questions from different sources.
An example of project-based learning in action is a science-based project where students visit a zoo to learn about animal habitats and form opinions on which home best suits each animal. In this project is the team collaborates to develop a research-supported habitat plan for presentation to zookeepers, local zoology students, and professional zoologists. They explore their local environment and describe conditions within a habitat that are beneficial or hazardous for living things.
Project-based learning requires students to think and act like professionals in their respective fields. When professionals fail to execute their job correctly, they suffer consequences. Students can thrive in the same authentic environments where they do much more than pretend.
4 Rules for Designing a PBL Classroom
Often, traditional learning never ventures beyond the realm of the academic. Project-based learning connects students to the real world and prepares them to accept challenges as a matter of course. Of course, a great deal of planning, a healthy dose of flexibility, and a learning environment that supports collaboration are necessary for a successful PBL classroom. Here are four must-follow rules for designing a productive PBL setting:
Learning Spaces Set the Tone
One key characteristic of a PBL environment is attention to group work where students encourage each other, solve problems with their peers, and develop critical thinking and decision-making skills. This means that teachers should organize the learning environment in a way that supports cooperation and collaboration. Teachers need a central location where all students can gather to hear lessons, but there should be dedicated space for groups to work together.
You Don’t Have to be the Ultimate Resource
Perhaps the key element of a PBL classroom is its teacher. Unlike the traditional learning environment where the teachers follow a detailed curriculum, PBL classrooms can be unpredictable and student-guided. Even if teachers often feel like spectators, they have to be flexible, supportive, and engaged in the learning process.
Utilize the Technology with a Purpose
PBL learning environments use educational technology to help students develop real-world skills and use video-editing and presentation software to organize information and transmit ideas. However, technology can become a distraction, so teachers should monitor Internet use and guide the students in the use of technology to achieve project goals.
Think Information Access
Young children are often tactile learners, so it helps to divide the room into subject-themed areas that display learning materials and other supplies. However, since PBL is unpredictable and student-guided, parents must understand that it is important to keep learning materials to support rather than limit creativity.
All students, no matter what their background or where they live, deserve access to high-quality education. Make your children creators--their futures depend on it. Equip your children to become problem solvers, game-changers, and critical thinkers at Hudson Lab School! If you want to know more about project-based learning in private schools in New York, check out our website today or call us at (914) 775-7058 for more details.
Project-Based Learning in Hastings-on-Hudson: Is It an Option to Consider?
Education is a must. The learning your child gets from school makes them what they are in the future. Learning is an important part in the development of your child. This development is shown over time by progress. Learning from direct experience can be more effective if combined with reflection and will help your child relate the skills that have learned to problems they face in the world.
Learning should begin at a young age. Natural occurrences in daily life can be a struggle for children if they are not educated properly. Learning happens on a day-to-day basis even when it does not happen in a classroom. Education may come from anywhere, anytime, and anyone. Valuable lessons can be picked up throughout your child’s life without lifting a single book. Project-based learning accommodates learning strategies uncommon in today’s society.
What Is Project-Based Learning?
Project-based learning lies in the basis of exploring and wondering about the outside world. The child makes creative decisions to overcome struggles. When project-based learning is undertaken, the child is subject to an array of learning strategies that contribute as a channel for them to express themselves. Also, project-based learning programs are considered a reliable way to ensure the development of your child.
Project-based learning involves discrete projects. It relies on multi-step problem solving which encourages the child’s mental ability to develop. The growth comes from multiple learning techniques, such as logical deduction, research, and trial and error. Project-based learning strategies focus on the empowerment of a student. Rather than putting all the focus on school readiness, we assist each student in building life skills to change, adapt, and develop into the person he or she aims to grow up into.
Hudson Lab School and the Basis of Project-Based Learning
Hudson Lab School’s project-based learning engages students in a method to develop cognitive learning. Personalized learning is the basis where we, at Hudson Lab, understand and communicate with individuals. Our learning procedure encompasses different goals for your child.
• Academic fortitude
Hudson Lab School relies on primary learning standards. It focuses on your child’s motivation to learn. Reading, writing, and math are taught in compact but active groups based on each individual’s skill level.
• Project-based learning
This is the foundation on which we connect with students. Diversity and innovative thinking are essential to the learning process for the child. Students are driven to learn by participating in crucial decision making and answering questions. Project-based learning makes the student strive for more. Motivation comes from challenges and reflection. This helps the student solidify their learning and develop a communication process with one’s self.
• Place-based education
We not only teach our students at Hudson Lab through project-based education but also through place-based education. This type of strategy uses the outside world as a learning platform for them. Each individual comes with different skillsets.
• Self-understanding
When our students at Hudson Lab School learn, they do not only learn about what is outside but also who they are on the inside. We value self-awareness as a way to connect with others. The integration of social learning makes each student accept who they are and who they want to become.
To sum it all up, Hudson Lab School is not a traditional school that uses traditional learning techniques. We utilize the ability of each student to make their own decisions to solve problems and tasks. We adapt to lessons to students based on their needs, the best approach to learning, and their interest. Dynamic groups make it possible for your child to have in-depth discussions and brainstorm with other kids.
Let your child learn through the outside world. Let them strive for something they want to have in life. The knowledge they will possess will help them overcome challenges in the future. And with the confidence gained through those experiences, they will more easily be able to attend to their future needs.
If you want to enroll your child in our program, please see these schedules provided or contact us at (914) 775-7058 for more details.
• Thursday Classes from 3:30 – 6:00 pm. Class dates are March 7, 14, 28; April 4, 11, 25; May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; and June 6
• Friday Classes from 3:30 – 6:00 pm. Class dates are March 1, 8, 22, 29; April 5, 12, 26; May 3, 10, 17, 31; and June 7.