Project-Based Learning

What is Project-Based Learning (PBL) and why it matters for your child

Project-based learning is an innovative approach to teaching children. When students engage in meaningful, experiential projects, they develop a love for learning and sense of purpose early on in life.

While math is taught separately in small, skill-based groups, projects are driven by essential questions with scaffolded frameworks providing the structure for students to analyze uncharted subject areas, acquire new knowledge and skills, and apply their knowledge and innovative thinking to address real-world issues. It is process of product.

Projects culminate with an exhibition, where students share their projects with an authentic audience. For lower school students, this is often their community, while middle school students present their work to industry experts. Not only do exhibitions motivate students to persist in the face of challenges and strive for excellence, it further solidifies their learning as they plan how to communicate their newly acquired knowledge.

Kindergarten-1st Grade Project

We met an ecologist and settled on a driving question for our project: How can we as ecologists take care of our environment?
We learned about watersheds, explored our community, and realized a rain garden would help prevent erosion in a problematic area outside our classroom.
We dove into sight words with our water poem and went on a sight word hunt in our journals to see just how important water is to us.
We needed permission from Andrus to plant a rain garden, so we planned and filmed a pitch. Andrus approved. Our first successful pitch!
We researched soil health and discovered that we needed to plant fresh garden soil to moisten the area for new plants to thrive. We also designed our garden with animal-repellent, water-tolerant plants that can thrive in partial sun.
We planted our rain garden and after a torrential rain, we checked the runoff. Our rain garden did a good job, but we decided to transplant moss to eliminate all the runoff.
We had an incredible, joyous exhibition and our rain garden flourished. We reflected on what we learned, what we could have done better, and where we did our best work.

Grades 4-5 Project

We kicked off our partnership with the Greenburgh Nature Center to help infuse project-based learning into their esteemed educational programming for the 100+ local schools that visit annually.
We visited Philipse Manor Hall as part of our ongoing research to determine how learning centers can educate their visitors while making their experiences fun and memorable. to do this, we investigated how people learn best.
We loved hearing the stories about the animals who live at Greenburgh Nature Center, and decided to author fictional narratives in first-person points of view towards building an "animal library" accessible to visitors at the Nature Center.
A meta study, we researched how we learn best. Inspired to support the Nature Center, we decided to plan a fundraising event, which required a LOT of project planning including logistics, programming needs, potential challenges, sponsorships, and public relations.
We continued to research effective learning strategies and styles, building interactive learning experiences, planning community outreach, and synthesizing findings from expert interviews to inform our work.
We presented our findings to Alix Dunn, the Executive Director of the Greenburgh Nature Center.
Our "FUNraiser" was a huge success. We designed interactive learning stations, crafted compelling sponsorship packages and press materials, and we successfully raised nearly $5,000 to benefit the Nature Center!

Middle School Project

Our interdisciplinary project centered around art. We explored how people make sense of art through literature, how inventions and innovations like pigments (pictured above) enabled different art forms to flourish, and the relationship between art and crime throughout history.
How do you make informed decisions as a group? To settle on our project's essential question, we learned how to evaluate ideas, respectfully provide feedback, and advocate for our ideas towards settling on a common path forward.
We agreed to focus on street art, graffiti, and the relationship between art and crime. How could we use our knowledge of street art to express our community's values and challenges in a meaningful way?
At Storm King we learned about the artistic process, how artists express their viewpoints, and how the physical placement of art can affect its impact. We also decided that we would present our arguments via a class mural to challenge viewers to grapple with middle schoolers' challenges and a debate series with community members that influence school policy.
We split into debate groups, devising our strategies and crafting our arguments using demographic analysis to inform our arguments. We also and worked on imagery to use in our debates. A fun expedition, we loved our visit to Dwarven Forge, a Brooklyn-based design studio.
We connected our debate propositions to issues important to us, and we interviewed people with relevant first-hand experience or expertise to inform our arguments.
We wrapped up our research and scripted our arguments and anticipated rebuttals. We also improved our arguments through structured peer reviews. We also consulted with artists, receiving feedback and advice on our mural.
For exhibition, we debated with the Hastings mayor and two school board members serving as judges. We debated hot school topics around later start times, the benefits of homework for students' academic and social-emotional development, classroom pets, and middle schoolers having a smart phone.

Take a deep dive into Project-Based Learning

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Project-based learning helps students become flexible problem-solvers. (2020)

Project-Based Learning

What is Project-Based Learning (PBL) and why it matters for your child

We met an ecologist and settled on a driving question for our project: How can we as ecologists take care of our environment?

We learned about watersheds, explored our community, and realized a rain garden would help prevent erosion in a problematic area outside our classroom.

We dove into sight words with our water poem and went on a sight word hunt in our journals to see just how important water is to us.

We needed permission from Andrus to plant a rain garden, so we planned and filmed a pitch. Andrus approved. Our first successful pitch!

We researched soil health and discovered that we needed to plant fresh garden soil to moisten the area for new plants to thrive. We also designed our garden with animal-repellent, water-tolerant plants that can thrive in partial sun.

We planted our rain garden and after a torrential rain, we checked the runoff. Our rain garden did a good job, but we decided to transplant moss to eliminate all the runoff.

We had an incredible, joyous exhibition and our rain garden flourished. We reflected on what we learned, what we could have done better, and where we did our best work.

We kicked off our partnership with the Greenburgh Nature Center to help infuse project-based learning into their esteemed educational programming for the 100+ local schools that visit annually.

We visited Philipse Manor Hall as part of our ongoing research to determine how learning centers can educate their visitors while making their experiences fun and memorable. to do this, we investigated how people learn best.

We loved hearing the stories about the animals who live at Greenburgh Nature Center, and decided to author fictional narratives in first-person points of view towards building an "animal library" accessible to visitors at the Nature Center.

A meta study, we researched how we learn best. Inspired to support the Nature Center, we decided to plan a fundraising event, which required a LOT of project planning including logistics, programming needs, potential challenges, sponsorships, and public relations.

We continued to research effective learning strategies and styles, building interactive learning experiences, planning community outreach, and synthesizing findings from expert interviews to inform our work.

We presented our findings to Alix Dunn, the Executive Director of the Greenburgh Nature Center.

Our "FUNraiser" was a huge success. We designed interactive learning stations, crafted compelling sponsorship packages and press materials, and we successfully raised nearly $5,000 to benefit the Nature Center!

Our interdisciplinary project centered around art. We explored how people make sense of art through literature, how inventions and innovations like pigments (pictured above) enabled different art forms to flourish, and the relationship between art and crime throughout history.

How do you make informed decisions as a group? To settle on our project's essential question, we learned how to evaluate ideas, respectfully provide feedback, and advocate for our ideas towards settling on a common path forward.

We agreed to focus on street art, graffiti, and the relationship between art and crime. How could we use our knowledge of street art to express our community's values and challenges in a meaningful way?

We split into debate groups, devising our strategies and crafting our arguments using demographic analysis to inform our arguments. We also and worked on imagery to use in our debates. A fun expedition, we loved our visit to Dwarven Forge, a Brooklyn-based design studio.

We connected our debate propositions to issues important to us, and we interviewed people with relevant first-hand experience or expertise to inform our arguments.

We wrapped up our research and scripted our arguments and anticipated rebuttals. We also improved our arguments through structured peer reviews. We also consulted with artists, receiving feedback and advice on our mural.

For exhibition, we debated with the Hastings mayor and two school board members serving as judges. We debated hot school topics around later start times, the benefits of homework for students' academic and social-emotional development, classroom pets, and middle schoolers having a smart phone.

Take a deep dive into Project-Based Learning