Grandview superintendent Dr. Kenny Rodrequez (Missouri Superintendent of the Year) explains how the four career academies — health and engineering (both PLTW pathways), business and the arts — are adding client projects and dual enrollment courses. Grandview hosted the first PLTW engineering program in the area and their leadership encouraged regional growth to now over 95,000 students. Grandview Assistant Superintendent Patty LeMoy said Grandview elementary schools are adding more real world learning.

On recent visits to metro Kansas City high schools, we spotted evidence of more real world learning including more client-connected projects in core and elective courses, more internships and entrepreneurial experiences during and after school, and more dual credit courses and industry-recognized credentials.   

Summit Technology Academy (STA) is a next-gen career center in Lee’s Summit that opened in 2017 with the University of Central Missouri. It offers half-day experiences in five pathways: engineering, computer science, health, human services and natural resources (which is offered at a new location this year). Each pathway offers a career capstone project assessed for agency, authenticity, and articulation (i.e., how well students tell their story). Lucy, a senior, is completing an engineering capstone project to reduce contaminations from electronic waste. Lilli is taking on a challenging digital media project for a client and learning to use constructive feedback. JC appreciates time in the flight simulator (which he helped build over the summer). Blake will graduate in the spring with extensive work experience, 60 hours of college credit and will be on track to finish a finance degree in two years at KU. Instead of sports trophies, the results of PLTW biomedical research projects are proudly displayed at STA. 

North of Kansas City, Kearney High teachers are adding client projects to core and elective courses. Botony teacher Kaitlyn LaFrenz lined up garden projects with civic organizations and a church. Culinary teacher Kassidy Robertson helped students organize a catering event. Students in Angie Carmack’s Graphic Arts class served community clients with campaign collateral. Dustin McKinney turned choir into a client project with community deliverables while teaching quality, service, and entrepreneurship.  

Kearney Principal Dr. Andrew Gustafson showed off the professional broadcast studio where students produce news and sports programming. Several dozen Kearney students are engaged in an education internship where they teach an elementary class for an hour each afternoon. 

Shawnee Mission high schools (in southwest Kansas City and home of Kansas Superintendent of the Year Michelle Hubbard) are adding client projects in core and non-CTE courses. Tenth grade English at Shawnee Mission East High includes a project for a school district client; students problem-solve real issues in school operations and deliver a written report with solutions.   

Like Summit Tech, the Shawnee Mission Center for Academic Achievement opened in 2017. The next-gen career center hosts a world-class culinary program (above) and restaurant, the Broadmoor Bistro, which serves more than 150 guests per day (and is booked out through Valentine’s Day). It is supplied (in part) by a horticulture program that includes a greenhouse and garden (below). 

Above the restaurant are labs where seniors are doing capstone biomedical research with a molecular biologist, Dr Kenneth Lee (below). Research topics include microbes that degrade plastic, mycelial networks, micro-building blocks, and treatments for diabetes.  

Shawnee Mission elementary schools have added career exploration experiences. There is a middle school career fair and a high school internship fair. Secondary students use YouScience to identify strengths and interests and match them to possible futures.   

Bringing Real World Learning to Scale in Kansas City

The first cohort of 15 school systems received planning grants four years ago. It now includes 35 systems and 80 high schools in three Missouri counties and three Kansas counties. 

The goal is that all students will graduate with at least one valuable experience (called Market Value Assets) including internships, client projects, college credit (9 hours) and industry-recognized credentials. 

Many of the participating school systems have improved the number of students graduating with valuable experiences from a baseline of one-fifth to almost half. A few systems had more than 70% of graduates earn MVA, with many earning two or three. 

The Kansas state board has recommended that students should graduate with at least two valuable experiences (with a slightly broader definition). 

Principals from 49 of the regional high schools are participating in a fellowship program learning from each other how to add more real world learning. (The school visit observations in this blog resulted from accompanying principals as they visited other real world learning schools.)

Adding more real world learning experiences is boosting student engagement and job-ready skills, it’s developing learner agency and social capital, it’s connecting youth to possible futures and inviting them to experience success in what’s next. As more graduates leave school with valuable experiences, it’s likely to boost entrepreneurship and economic mobility and make Kansas City even more equitable and vibrant.

The post More Real World Learning in Kansas City appeared first on Getting Smart.

In many high schools in the nation, the traditional course sequence and graduation requirements remain static: four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, etc. Both mathematical and language literacies still hold major importance for every graduate. And, as the world becomes more complex and unpredictable, new consideration should be given to the required core content. 

We talk a lot about the most innovative learner-centered schools that combine personalized, competency-based and project-based learning co-designed around real-world experiences. Here, content emerges from student interest in high-purpose topics while also linking to standards or competencies. These learning environments are challenging the Carnegie status quo and sit on the horizon of education. While important signals for the future of learning, they remain the minority.

Updating content areas would accelerate learning around three core types of skills expected by schools: core skills (typically the skills of writing, reading, mathematics, history, arts found in state standards), technological skills (industry skills earned through CTE programs, work-based learning, apprenticeships, career pathways, etc.), and transferable skills (durable skills, XQ). Weaving in the content below will create engaging and future forward ways to nurture the core, technological and durable skills while preparing young people to govern, contribute and thrive as adults.

Next-Gen Economics

Every learner should engage in learning about entrepreneurship. Releasing a generation of empowered problem-solvers equipped with the tools to contribute to ventures that have both financial and/or social impact, helps future generations find their sense of purpose and ownership. Uncharted Learning, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and KnoPro from NAF all provide resources to embed entrepreneurial experiences and content.

Additionally, with both our country and many individuals experiencing significant debt, financial literacy remains low for graduates. Yet, it can have the most profound outcome on financial stability. Budgeting, credit, borrowing, and investing increase the long-term probability of financial stability for graduates. Both entrepreneurship and personal finance are well-represented in those who choose the CTE Finance or CTE Business and Administration career clusters, but this is not universally available. Many free or low-cost resources exist (see list here).

Artificial Intelligence

While school leaders and educators still are in the early stages of understanding the impact of AI, there is no doubt that it will rapidly become immersed in the education sector (likely in hyper-personalized learning of core skills and support for learning design and assessment). However, every graduate should understand the core principles of AI functionality and how to use it to augment intelligence and performance. These skills will be requisite in almost every future professional career. TeachAI.org recently released a guide for AI implementation while some districts, like Gwinnett County Public Schools, offer an AI CTE program pathway.

Civics and Citizenship

While often found in civics classrooms, the content remains less about good citizenship and more about the structures and function of government. While the structures and function are important, every student should understand their role in a democracy through political processes, how to move an idea to action, and community organizing for change. For example, the United States, with less than 50% of eligible 18-29 year old voters participating in elections, is in dire need of core education in civics. Organizations such as iCivics and Citizens and Scholars offer innovative and engaging approaches to civic education.

Media Literacy

Few other influential forces impact the current (and future) generations like digital media. The power of disinformation, misinformation, bias, etc. propagated through heavily financed algorithms will only increase. High school graduates need the tools and filters to process and evaluate everything they see online to better understand ways to get to the truth. Advances in AI around image, audio and video generation will make discernment of fact even more difficult. Resources such as Civic Online Reasoning at the core of every high school curriculum will have a significant positive change for future generations.

Healthy Living

Data shows the declining mental and physical health of adolescents. A generation struggling with mental and physical health increases the emotional and financial costs of a nation. While physical education programs have changed significantly over the years (like less dodgeball and rope climbing and more yoga and personal fitness), students still disengage from physical education. Accelerating, personalizing and customizing healthy living as part of core learning will increase the odds of healthy adults. Healthy food programs such as Food Corps and innovative physical education programs that focus on personal fitness can be integrated into the school day.

Place and Sustainability

Too many learners graduate high school with little to no knowledge about their local context and the long-term social, economic and ecological factors that drive the success or demise of a community. Every learner should graduate not only with a deep understanding of their own place, but should also know how to understand and impact future communities. Finding local purpose to inspire students through the creation of high-impact projects (Teton Science Schools’ Place-based Education, High Tech High) and building content around sustainability standards (Cloud Institute) can increase the long-term vitality of local and regional communities.

Neuroscience

One of the last frontiers in understanding the human body (along with the microbiome) is the brain. Every day, students are bombarded with outside stimuli that impact their brains from substances (alcohol, vaping, drug use, etc.) to technology (media, phones) – all while going through one of the more significant changes in the human brain – adolescence. Teaching relevant neuroscience could improve choice-making, mental health and learning in general (Global Online Academy, University of Wisconsin Neuroscience Training Program). By graduation all students should be able to describe the conditions and processes for how they learn and how they manage stress.

Data Science

Data science has surfaced over the last decade as critically important in many higher ed institutions and professions. Too many young people graduate high school never having had to create a spreadsheet, let alone organize, analyze and synthesize large amounts of data. Given the continued acceleration (again hyper-charged via AI) of data creation, every graduate needs to understand how to find, interpret, organize and analyze data in every form (YouCubed). 

Current Events 

While traditional history has expansive coverage in schools, most learners experience fact immersion rather than relevance and understanding. Every high school learner should experience history through a modern-day lens to both understand the throughline (see Throughline podcast) and the repeated themes of history — war, peace, power, oppression, freedom, religion, etc. — to find hope and skills to imagine a more peaceful future. Facing History provides a Current Events toolkit for those ready to jump in.

Systems and Futures

Understanding both systems thinking (the complex interactivity of multiple elements) and futures thinking (aptitudes for transformative vision-seeking over short-term solutions) is critical in a complex and uncertain world. By explicitly creating content and experiences around these concepts, young people are better equipped to anticipate and address current and future challenges.

To be clear, literacy remains paramount and a core pillar of society. While as a nation we still greatly struggle with literacy rates, we cannot wait to adapt our current content base toward possibility, opportunity and contribution. If a high school does not have the support or resources to complete redesign, rethinking the core curriculum may be an alternative first step when state or local policy allows. Replacing or merging the typical core content with the ten content areas above better supports the current generation of students to tackle an unpredictable and uncertain world.

The post The Content Every High School Student Should Learn (But Doesn’t) appeared first on Getting Smart.

At first glance, you might not be able to locate the teacher in Greg Zapasek’s class at Notre Dame High School in Ottawa, Canada. Instead of stationing himself at the head of the classroom, Greg Zapasek is working alongside individual students, conferencing with a small group of students, or triaging between different student groups on projects related to environmental sustainability. Similarly, just over 5,000 miles away in Lagos, Nigeria, Caleb British International School teacher Victor Okosun takes on the role of facilitator and coach to his students who are developing an eco-friendly refrigerator to help local farmers extend the shelf life of their produce. 

What connects both classrooms is Challenge Based Learning, a framework for learning while solving real-world challenges. This framework anchors the Ciena Solutions Challenge, a global design challenge run by Digital Promise and Ciena where students create solutions addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities. The SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked goals for all countries to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Through the three phases Engage, Investigate, and Act, Challenge Based Learning invites learners to identify big ideas, ask questions, identify and solve challenges, gain in-depth subject area knowledge, develop 21st-century skills, and share their learning. 

Challenge Based Learning and the Sustainable Development Goals

While there are many frameworks for hands-on, project-based learning, Digital Promise embraces Challenge Based Learning for its ability to empower students and teachers to be co-learners. The framework encourages students to determine the questions that can lead them to solving their challenge and the steps to discovering what they need to learn. The process supports teachers to act as facilitators and mentors as they learn and problem-solve alongside students, and collaboratively develop a solution to address their challenge. 

“My role as the educator felt more like that of a coach, collaborating with students and offering support as they participated in their challenges,” said Greg Zapasek.

Because Challenge Based Learning helps cultivate authentic, student-driven learning experiences, it serves as a great scaffold for taking action on the SDGs in ways that are relevant to students’ personal lives and local communities. This is demonstrated by over 2,200 students around the world and their teachers–like Greg and Victor–who participated in the Ciena Solutions Challenge. We profile two of these teams from India and Zimbabwe who received a Ciena Solutions Challenge Sustainability Award to sustain and scale their projects.  

Taking Action on Good Health and Wellbeing in Purulia, India

Located in Purulia, West Bengal, India, a team of high schoolers and their teacher Susmita Roy Chowdhury at Santamayee Girls High School used the Challenge Based Learning framework to take action on hunger (Goal 2), good health and well-being (Goal 3), and decent work and economic growth (Goal 8). 

The team says their community is facing challenges such as high rates of unemployment and child malnutrition. Starting with the big ideas of combating malnutrition and empowering women financially, their essential question asks “How can we solve the prevailing rate of hunger and malnutrition in our community?” 

The team conducted surveys with adults and children in their community to learn more about their personal experiences accessing nutritious food. They consulted with nutritionists to learn about what constitutes a healthy diet, and along the way met a team of researchers and scientists at Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University who introduced them to pisciculture. 

With the help of scientists and researchers, they learned about the nutrients in small fish in their local waterways and discovered which types of fish are the most nutritious. After learning about ring pisciculture, they are working toward developing a fish farm on school grounds. The fish farms will be operated by senior students and women in the community who can earn income from cultivating the fish. 

“Teaching the students in the classroom [in a didactic style] and guiding them on a Challenge Based Learning Project are two completely different experiences because in the classroom, the students mostly follow in the teacher’s lead but in this kind of project, it is their thinking and performance that directs the overall progress,” said Susmita Roy Chowdhury. “So, as a teacher, it provided me an opportunity to witness how my learners react when faced with challenges, how they think and work as a team and how they implement their ideas into working models and that helped me understand my students a lot better than teaching-learning in a [didactic] classroom environment can ever do.”

Taking Action on Quality Education in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

In 2017, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education of Zimbabwe introduced a new competence-based curriculum incorporating the use of education technology. However, teacher Jobert Ngwenya and students at Eveline High School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, recognized that there were few quality learning resources meeting the new standards. The team used the Challenge Based Learning framework to take action on quality education (Goal 4) and sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11). 

Starting with the big idea of 21st century learning, the team’s essential question asks “How can we provide free digital content for learning areas that are under-resourced?” Layered within this challenge were their desires to document, record and promote local history and culture, and encourage the use of mobile technology as a learning tool. They explored their essential question by researching readily available printed and online content in history, economic history, and heritage studies reflecting the new standards; comparing the average cost of textbooks with the average income of people in their region; and conducting a survey with students on their access to mobile devices and the internet. 

Based on the results of their research, they created Ilifa Lethu, a podcast through which they share information from difficult-to-access textbooks, local museums, people in their community who hold historical and cultural knowledge, and others with expertise in Zimbabwean culture and history. Their podcast is designed to provide more educational content for students in their community and share important cultural and historical knowledge to their community at large. They plan to scale up production by hosting more educational interviews, visiting and recording information from Matopo World Heritage Site, and getting their podcast disseminated through local radio.

Reflecting on the experience, Jobert Ngwenya says, “The Challenge Based Learning framework is a useful tool for addressing the SDGs because it provides a multidisciplinary, structured approach to problem-solving that engages learners in real-world challenges and encourages them to develop practical, feasible, and sustainable solutions that can make a positive difference in the real world.”

Elyse Gainor is a Program Director at Digital Promise. Elyse works on initiatives supporting youth voice and innovation, including the Ciena Solutions Challenge, a global design challenge for middle and high school youth, and the YouthMADE Festival, a global celebration of youth creativity and innovation.

The post How Challenge Based Learning Helps Students Around the World Make a Difference on the Sustainable Development Goals  appeared first on Getting Smart.

Forest Hills Northern High School (FHN), located in Grand Rapids, Michigan is home to several nontraditional education pathways offered to students in the Forest Hills Public Schools district. Two of the district’s programs, Project NEXT and the STEM Academy, coexist within FHN and strive to bring the “real world” into the classroom and prepare their students for successful futures. These programs are thriving in a newly developed space, in response to their growth, that now reflects the innovative work being done by their students.

Project NEXT

FHN took a bold step to offer their students a new way of learning through a project-based program called Project NEXT in 2018. Project NEXT is a 4-year parallel path program of study that was driven by the school and teachers’ visions to provide students with hands-on and collaborative ways of learning. Educators participated in project-based learning training through the Buck Institute for Education to gain the knowledge and skills needed to support the curriculum. The program originally began as a pilot initiative in the media center with just a handful of students. At the time, a modest investment was made in the pilot program by designing and refreshing the school’s media center with new, flexible furniture more conducive to next-generation, collaborative learning.

As the program has grown in popularity and success, it was clear this type of learning required more dedicated space to continue. Redesigning the school’s west wing to accommodate those musts started with converting a courtyard into a central learning commons, known as the Design Center, which acts as the hub of the program. Project NEXT now supports over 90 students in the high school and continues to grow as students express interest in this new way of teaching and learning. 

“This project was really unique because the architecture complemented the already established program and better supported the curriculum,” said GMB Project Lead, Chris Arntzen, about the project. “We were able to work with the district and teachers to create really intentional spaces based on the class work they had already practiced.”

The goal of Project NEXT is to prepare students for life through soft skills like communication, teamwork, public speaking, and independent thought. The specially designed spaces are intended to be multipurpose, flexible, and connected to achieve the program’s vision. Students in the program must identify and propose solutions to real-world problems, so spaces that fuel collaboration and creativity were essential. The Design Center includes a dedicated presentation area, an extension of a classroom set up for technology/computer lab overflow, and a mimicked coffee shop area. Next to the commons, each grade level has its own classroom pod of four classrooms and a breakout space. The pods can be interconnected for collaboration and co-teaching as needed.

“Students engaged in their learning tend to enjoy school more, retain their learning for a longer period, and build the necessary skills to succeed after high school,” said former Forest Hills North High School principal, Jon Gregory. “The new space allows for this type of learning to occur in a variety of ways due to the flexibility of the space and furniture. Students have commented on how easy it is for them to collaborate and engage with each other in their learning.”

STEM Academy

The Forest Hills STEM Academy is a program that is grounded in actionable learning and has been providing students with interactive learning opportunities since 2015. Coursework includes a thematic and interdisciplinary approach that gives students foundational skills and builds relevant connections in STEM education.

The original setup for the STEM Academy included a couple of science labs with connected instructional classrooms and refurbished classrooms that acted as maker spaces. With continued success in the program, and the addition of another hands-on learning program called Gone Boarding, the STEM Academy has found itself working alongside Project NEXT in the new Design Center. STEM Academy students can now split their time between more traditional academic classrooms and the commons area, which was designed with flexibility and multiple learning styles in mind.

One tangible outcome of the STEM Academy’s unique program is flourishing in the new space and turning their students into budding entrepreneurs. Handmade in the Hills is a soap business organized and maintained by sophomore STEM Academy students studying chemistry. Students are responsible for the development, packaging, marketing, and selling of soaps that come in different shapes, colors, and scents. Students are learning practical skills in manufacturing, mathematics, industrial arts, economics, and more from just this one portion of their curriculum. The success of this self-sustaining business also impacts students beyond just academics; it also develops their core life skills like teamwork and problem-solving.

“A lot of our students come back (to Forest Hills) and say that what they learned in presenting, collaborating, communicating really made a difference in their post-graduation life,” said Austin Krieg, STEM Academy chemistry teacher who leads Handmade in the Hills. “Giving students the opportunity to learn where they will do their best work is a unique aspect of our programs.”

One of the goals of project-based learning is to create cross-pollination between disciplines and build cohesion between curriculums in art, science, and beyond. The Design Center and adjoining science labs, art room, and woodshop can be used by any student at Forest Hills, creating a sense of unity throughout the school and creating opportunities for everyone.

“There is something for every student,” added Krieg.

Hannah Pier-Herendeen is the content writer and storyteller at GMB Architecture + Engineering.

The post Project-Based Learning Programs Support Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Specialized Space appeared first on Getting Smart.

One of the things I most appreciate about working at High Tech High (HTH) is that, in addition to teaching middle and high school students throughout my tenure, I’ve been able to help other teachers incorporate project-based learning (PBL) into their own practice. PBL is an integral part of our approach to teaching and learning and, over the years, our organization has grown from a single high school to 16 elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as a graduate school of education (where I earned my own master’s degree).

Since 2019, I’ve had the opportunity to work with educators from the Ulster Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) as part of a partnership that has connected teachers and students from San Diego, CA, to New Paltz, NY. Here’s how it works.

From Teacher to Trainer

High Tech High is a publicly funded charter school organization centered on PBL and guided by four design principles of equity, personalization, authentic work, and collaborative design. As our organization has expanded to add more schools, I’ve worked at several of our campuses, at both the high school and middle school level, over the years.

Though our funding comes from a statewide benefit for charter schools, we are embedded in the San Diego Unified School District. Students apply to attend and are selected through a lottery. A certain percentage of students from each zip code from across San Diego County is accepted to ensure a student body with diverse demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

As more educators outside our school became interested in project-based learning, we began offering PBL 101 professional learning opportunities to other schools. In the beginning, these usually consisted of teachers visiting our campus and seeing how we worked with students. Over time, some of us teachers had the opportunity to visit other schools to share an overview, and later, we began offering professional development facilitation through our graduate school and coaching as a follow-up. Today, our graduate school offers a range of other in-person and online events to further project-based learning through collaboration with other educators and schools around the world.

It’s work that comes on top of my teaching time, but I love it. We have many unique opportunities at HTH, and being able to work with other schools is one of the many things that I enjoy.

Partnering with Ulster BOCES

We began working with Ulster BOCES in 2019. Having an ongoing relationship with teachers over the years, and seeing new teachers come in as ideas have been disseminated through their district, has been amazing.

The first time that we went to Ulster, we worked with a single-component district. It was productive because they had visited HTH, were familiar with how we did things and knew exactly what they wanted from us. It was a really good fit in terms of us sharing what we do and then receiving feedback. I’ve been brought out to coach there six or seven times now, and it’s definitely a two-way relationship in that I always come back with new ideas for my own practice. After seeing teachers from Ulster’s Hudson Valley Pathway Academy (P-TECH) facilitate an exhibition of student work in front of their community project partners at Viking Packaging, for example, I started implementing their format for panel discussions of student products. Their system for feedback specific to product improvement was great, with benefits to both students and community partners and I have used it ever since.

About 50-60 educators attend the professional development workshops we’ve offered at Ulster this year, which were held in October and January, with one more to go in May. In the professional development sessions, we have everyone from administrators to first-year teachers. It’s difficult to get into solving specific problems in that context, but it provides a good look at the big picture. If a school is really going to dig into PBL, getting everyone together to see how it works from a range of perspectives is useful to everyone involved, even if they’re each only going to use the information in specific ways.

Coaching sessions are attended more on a drop-in basis by teachers who feel a need for some additional support. These are held monthly and attended by different people each time. There are usually about 15 educators in each session.

One of the highlights of working with Ulster has been the freedom they give us to share what we think will be best for their teachers. Having the autonomy as a designer of professional development to be able to ask what is going to work for each specific group allows us to have workshops that are as effective as possible. We have a lot of meetings before the early sessions, especially to talk about what is happening at each new school coming in.

Hudson Valley P-TECH has been a big collaborator from 2019 to today. We’ve collaborated on projects that allowed our students to meet their students, which has been really meaningful. A great example of project collaboration came during the pandemic, when another HTH teacher, Matt Haupert, collaborated with Steve Mason, a P-TECH teacher, to start a virtual project-based summer school course in which students from classes in the Hudson Valley and San Diego worked together to create their own online media publication called Teen Voices. Students worked with a variety of professional journalists and developed everything for the site, including written content, graphic design, and website layout.

A True Collaboration

We spend a lot of time planning the professional development sessions, with the first and third taking place in New York, and the second here in California. The coaching takes place monthly, which provides a great opportunity for us to receive feedback to refine further workshops. Teachers drop into those coaching sessions to get help on whatever they’re working on, so we can plan activities that are more likely to help them further their practice in the next session or the next workshop. During these coaching sessions, we have worked on elements of PBL such as scaffolding critique and revision lessons, ideating for launch ideas and setting up plans for school exhibitions. Most recently we discussed collaboration between teachers and hospital staff at Health Alliance as part of an upcoming health project.

Coaching is collaborative work. The teachers who show up have questions about how they are implementing PBL ideas, but once the questions are out there, we shift and begin working together. It’s a process of asking how we might meet these challenges and then working together collaboratively to push it forward. It’s not me saying, “This is what I do, so you should do this.” It’s me saying, “This is what worked for me as a teacher,” and then the other educators in the room sharing ideas that might also work. We’re all teachers, all dealing with the same things, so how do we make it work? As a teacher who’s been on the other end of coaching myself, I appreciate having an outside voice that isn’t embedded in my classroom to act as a sounding board and source of feedback.

I love working at High Tech High because I get to design with and for my students, and that means we’re always doing something innovative and new. I love coaching opportunities like the one I’ve enjoyed with Ulster for the same reasons. I get to work with teachers who are trying to solve a range of challenges and it’s always exciting to see how we’ll work together to find solutions.

Matthew Leader is a biology teacher at High Tech High. A native of San Diego, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at San Diego in General Biology and Teaching Credentials at San Diego State University. Matthew is an Americorps alumni, Socrates fellow alumni and he completed a Masters in Education in Teacher Leadership at the HTH Graduate School of Education. He can be reached at mleader@hightechhigh.org

The post From Designing Project-Based Learning to Designing Professional Development appeared first on Getting Smart.

Over the past seven years, I have been fortunate enough to dive deep into problem and project-based learning. This includes research, professional writing and professional learning facilitation all over the country. I have worked with hundreds of educators and dozens of schools on implementing project-based learning.

To get started, teachers volunteered to attend summer professional development dedicated to PBL. This was not only a great way to get buy-in and launch more inquiry-based learning, but it also served as a fantastic way for me to work with groups of teachers whom I’d be serving. We worked to not only implement more problem and project-based learning this year, but also to chronicle our work. Here is a summary of our collective experiences thus far.

The Driving Questions

Teachers designed inquiry-based projects that challenged students to not only think, but to allow their creativity and ownership to emerge. A few examples of the driving questions are:

What is something in the world that you would like to see change?

How can you use the Hero’s Journey to recognize and celebrate a local hero?

How are roles of women today similar or different from the Victorian era?

How can stress and anxiety be useful components of productivity?

How would you rank decades overall based on political, social and economic impact?

Student Voice & Choice

Teachers focused on designing projects that offered menus of options. This included various ways for students to focus on diverse approaches to the driving question, as well as unique ways to share their learning. These included podcasts, infographics, documentary films and even live theater productions.

English teacher Patrick Shattuck fully embraced the power of student choice. Shattuck not only applied this to projects but also made it an integral part of the classroom culture. He said he continually tells his students that the classroom is theirs and not his.

“We come up with class expectations, policies, and even deadlines together,” said Shattuck. “When I assign a project, students are always given the option to create their own topic as long as it meets certain criteria.”.

He said that both he and his students benefit. “It gives students a sense of autonomy and they enjoy taking the reins of their thoughts and futures,” he said. “Student voice and choice enhance my teaching by making the curriculum fluid, fresh and exciting. I learn a lot too.”

Civic Engagement

Many of the projects this year thus far have challenged students to engage with their greater community and even partner with professionals.

English Teacher Casey Reck challenged her 9th graders with the Local Hero Project. Working in self-selected groups, students chose a local hero to interview and then used the Hero’s Journey to share their story. Final products included podcasts or videos and Reck was extremely enthused about the outcomes. (see sample project here)

“Students learned how applicable the Hero’s Journey can be to real people; it isn’t just something found in literature or movies,” said Reck. “They realized that everyone has to overcome obstacles in life–whether that is moving to a new country and learning a new language or paying for grad school or switching careers.”

Social Science Teacher Greg Wolf challenged his juniors to choose a current issue of their choice in which they would like to see change. Once issues were chosen, Wolf said that students had to conduct research to both tell the story of their chosen issue and then generate a ‘call to action.’

In effect, Wolf said that students took on the role of single-issue lobbyists. Products ranged from documentaries to podcasts to websites to social media campaigns to change.org petitions, all of which were actually published (check out examples on the Social Science Dept. Instagram).

“My biggest takeaway thus far is the realization that the more I focus on what I want my students to do with the content, the more it becomes about what skills I want them to develop and how meaningful the learning experience can be,” he said.

Wolf said that his students would learn if he formed the right relationships with them, creates the right environment, and then got out of their way.

“Students have been happier this year in my class than I have ever seen, which I attribute to the new dynamic of meaningful inquiry coupled with student voice and choice,” he said.

Student Ownership

One of the most powerful projects thus far this year emerged from the Advanced Drama Class. Teacher Jeff McKinnon decided to pursue a devised theater project that uses the procedures of docu-drama to create an original, collaborative, and authentic performance piece.

McKinnon said that the students were instructed to interview one another about how stress affects their lives. He said the initial objective was to compile enough perspectives on stress in the high school culture to normalize it as a potentially useful tool, rather than an affliction to be avoided.

After some initial work, McKinnon said the unexpected happened in the process. He said what began to emerge from the transcribed student interviews was a subculture of intolerance and sexual abuse that students had experienced both on and off campus.

“This is really the key when creating a collaborative project,” said McKinnon. “That is to pivot toward what is emerging, rather than forcing the issues into an expectation of a pre-packaged result.”

McKinnon said he was reminded that process beats product. “I suppose the real revelation for me too is that something so easily generated can have such a profound impact and can be easily replicated along a variety of topics,” he said.

McKinnon said he learned more than he had originally bargained for and felt honored to have the experience. “I felt I was being given a privilege, an insider’s peek into a culture that was not mine,” he said.

For McKinnon, the result codified the power of project-based learning. “It is, at its base, collaboration on a devised and original project from start to finish,” he said. “Often at the start we have no idea what it will look like at the finish, but that is what many of us educators crave and most enjoy about the process.”

Final Reflections

This journey thus far has only reinforced to me that deeper learning is as much of a mindset as a pedagogy. As a school site instructional leader, nothing is better than creating the space and culture necessary for both teachers and students to address real-world problems in truly creative and collaborative ways.

The post Santa Ynez Valley Union High: An Organic Project-Based Learning Journey appeared first on Getting Smart.

With the new school year and more systems embracing broader learning goals, we’re seeing renewed interest inquiry-based learning in which students explore real-world problems through individual and group projects.

Four recent studies show that rigorous project-based learning has positive effects on student outcomes across grades and subjects and across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and reading and language proficiency levels.                 

Project-based learning makes sense of why content is useful and how it might be applied. Projects develop critical skills including problem definition, design thinking, problem-solving, communications, collaboration, and project management. Projects also develop agency, the ability to regulate learning and behavior, and make skills more transferable to new contexts.  

Activities are easy, projects are hard

it can be challenging to develop and support good projects. When I visited a “project-based” northern elementary school in January 2020, the fall project was paper snowflakes. Yes, the kids were engaged and there was a public product, but it was a low-level activity, not a project packed with important knowledge and skill-building.  

Leading experts supported the development of the High-Quality Project-Based Learning (HQPBL) framework with support from Project Management Institute Education Foundation. It suggests projects should be authentic (relevant and community-connected), intellectually challenging multistep activities that result in a public product where student work is publicly displayed and critiqued.  

Each year, students should have the opportunity to do some individual projects and some team projects. Some projects can be embedded in a course (e.g. Math or English) but at least once a year students should engage in an integrated project that cut across disciplines and requires both student and faculty collaboration.

Providing real-time academic support can empower all students to contribute to demanding projects.  

Empowered communities

The Real World Learning initiative in Kansas City, sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is helping 75 high schools incorporate client-connected projects and entrepreneurial experiences.

The El Paso turnaround was spurred by a vision of Active Learning and kickstarted by a partnership with New Tech Network that resulted in 10 new schools that showcase high-quality wall-to-wall project-based learning. Teachers in the 172 New Tech schools are able to adopt, adapt or author projects utilizing a project-based learning platform.

Systems can promote powerful project-based learning by collecting high-quality examples of public products like Models of Excellence from EL Education,

Make diplomas meaningful

Good project-based learning is difficult to promote through legislation but barriers can be reduced and enabling conditions can be created.

Like Vermont, states can create proficiency-based graduation requirements that encourage interdisciplinary projects and demonstrations of mastery through portfolios.  

States can support sharing of extended transcripts. Texas supported the adoption of Greenlight Credentials which enables portions of a comprehensive record to be shared with colleges and employers. 

State universities could be encouraged to consider project portfolios and demonstrated competencies as evidence beyond test scores for admission. Both Georgia and North Carolina require a capstone project. Colorado encourages a capstone project as a demonstration of readiness.

States and regions could also sponsor science fairs and encourage participation at least twice in secondary education. The Society for Science has a hundred-year heritage of sponsoring science fairs. Check their Fair Finder to spot local opportunities.    

After two years of small problems, digital worksheets, and Zoom classes, it’s time for some real projects–work that matters to learners and their community. Rather than doubling down on drill aiming at “learning loss”,  states and school systems can support learning that inspires, engages, and empowers learners with projects that students will remember 20 years from now.  

“Learning things that matter; learning in context; learning in teams. Envisioning what has never been and doing whatever it takes to make it happen. Do that 20 times and you will be employable forever,” said Richard Miller, founding President of Olin College of Engineering.

This post is part of our New Pathways campaign sponsored by ASA, Stand Together and the Walton Family Foundation.

This post was originally published on Forbes.

The post How Systems and States Can Encourage Better Project-Based Learning appeared first on Getting Smart.

Kamanu Lind is a father, husband, 4th generation farmer, and recently-appointed farm manager at Mahele Farm, Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke’s fully-operational organic farm in Hāna, Maui.

Kamanu began his journey with Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke, an award-winning vocational training nonprofit for youth and graduates of our programs, back in 2014 as a student apprentice at the farm.

Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke’s student apprentices range in age between 14 and 18, and span across our core program areas: Building & Construction, Mahele Farm, and Mālama Hāloa.

Students within Building & Construction gain experience in woodshop class and receive training in community-based construction projects, such as tiny homes and cottages for the elderly, alternative energy systems, educational facilities for Hāna School, and other urgent community needs that arise.

Students at Mahele Farm learn soil sciences, planting and harvesting cycles, food safety and produce distribution practices, and other sustainable land management and agriculture methods. The farm produces approximately 2,000 pounds of produce each month, 100% of which is distributed to our local community here in East Maui.

Students within Mālama Hāloa become reconnected to Native Hawaiian foods, like kalo (taro), and the cultural practices surrounding them. Students also gain experience in the protection and restoration of loʻi kalo (wetland taro fields), and the development and implementation of culture-based educational activities for their peers at Hāna School.

With the knowledge and hands-on skills attained through student apprenticeships, youth in Hāna have grown and developed into full-time graduate apprentices and graduate teachers across our program areas. They begin mentoring and empowering up-and-coming student apprentices, continuing the cycle of teaching academic subjects through real-life, hands-on application.

Like student apprentices before him, Kamanu evolved within Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke. Following his student apprenticeship at Mahele Farm, Kamanu decided to transition into the Mālama Hāloa program, which launched in 2015.

Kamanu became a graduate apprentice, then a graduate teacher, and finally a manager within this program. He led culture-based activities on campus, like teaching the practice of pounding steamed kalo into poi or paʻiʻai (kalo mixed with water creates poi and kalo pounded without water creates paʻiʻai). Kamanu’s leadership helped expand our organization’s intentional efforts to increase students’ and families’ access to these sacred traditional plants and foods.

Fast forward to about one year ago, Kamanu felt the pull of returning to Mahele Farm, and a second managerial position was opening up. Kamanu was prepared to be an ambassador for the farm’s mission.

Today, Kamanu is a Mahele Farm Manager, working closely alongside Mikala Minn, Mahele Farm Program Manager.

There is an ʻōlelo noʻeau, Hawaiian proverb or saying, “ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi.” This translates to, “All knowledge is not taught in the same school” and “One can learn from many sources.” At Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke, we know this to be true.

Youth of Hāna who participate in and evolve throughout our programs are gaining knowledge and skills from diverse sources outside of the four walls of a classroom. They are growing into farmers feeding our community, carpenters building stable housing for our people, and cultural practitioners preserving our heritage and traditions.

About Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke:

Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke is an award-winning vocational training program for K-12 youth and graduates of our programs in Hāna, Maui—an isolated community on the island’s east coast with over two-thirds its population of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

Our approach is to teach academic subjects through real-life, hands-on application, where students can understand the concepts they’re learning through tangible examples. Our projects meet real school and community needs, so our students’ education immediately serves those whose lives it touches.

Self-sustenance, community relationship, cultural connection—these are some of the principles we aim to pass onto the next generation, as we create caretakers of our future, leaders of our island.

Hauʻoli Kahaleuahi is the Community Outreach Coordinator and Lipoa Kahaleuahi is the Executive Director at Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke.

The post Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke: In Working, One Learns appeared first on Getting Smart.

For me, STEM is all about finding patterns and connections. My pattern-finding intuition helped me develop my latest innovation, Spark Care+, an innovation that personalizes music therapy treatment for mental health improvement using artificial intelligence (AI), skin response (GSR) and photoplethysmography (PPG).

In 2021, I won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and the title of America’s Top Young Scientist. During that competition, hosted by 3M and Discovery Education, I got to put my intuition to the test. Here are some of the lessons I learned that might inspire other students to pursue STEM:

Question Everything

My favorite question is, “Why?” I find it gets to the heart of any topic and helps find the patterns in the world. “Why?” led me to ask questions about everything, including how many sounds a violin can produce; that is how I discovered the concept of infinite. It was a shock to me back then when I was 4-5 years old because the piano could make a finite number of sounds, only 88, but the violin has an infinite sound spectrum.

Teachers can help build curiosity-focused environments by having students ask questions about other classes. For example, in a math class, prompt students to ask questions about their music class. Why does a violin have an infinite sound spectrum while a piano doesn’t? Are there other instruments that do?

Questioning seemingly non-scientific things revealed the STEM in them – from things like puzzles and blocks, to music and art. Questioning everything nurtures natural curiosity and is a perfect first step to thinking like a scientist.

Student ideas are valid

I’ll be the first to admit, STEM can be daunting. There’s this myth that an idea needs to be big to be super impactful. But any idea – big or small – can improve your community in powerful ways. Begin from who you are, what you like, and what means the most to you. If you observe the world around you and research any questions or ideas you have, you are a scientist. In my case, I connected my musical passion to science which led to the creation of Spark Care +

Tell students that their ideas are valid and important. Encouragement helps them grow the confidence to ask questions and share more ideas. Teachers can help empower students in two ways. First, listen, listen, listen. Be an open ear and helping hand for any and all STEM ideas. You have no idea how important it is as a teenager to feel heard, especially when trying out something new or sharing your thoughts. Second, share all opportunities related to STEM. You never know what might come from them. 

Build a network

As teenagers, it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one thinking about or struggling with something. Whether it’s personal or for school, I’ve found one of the greatest things for building up STEM confidence is to create a network. For example, I keep my STEM curiosity alive by observing the world around me, asking questions to myself and others, and reading books related to my interests. I connect with my peers around the STEM questioning process by asking them what they thought about class, if they’ve read a particular book, or even chatting about that “new thing” on the internet.

As I entered middle school and then high school, I joined peer groups that shared interests and passions with me. Robotics club is one of them, math team is another, and through the summer camp experiences, I was able to get connected with kids from the broader community. The highlight of my middle school was entering the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, meeting with finalists from the nation, and meeting my scientist mentor. My STEM curiosity exponentially matured, and I love sharing that with others.  

Ultimately, it’s important to do what makes you happy. If that happiness can be shared with other people, expand it. Then, it will gradually change the world in a positive way. It begins with each student, and with teachers to help us students discover and explore the wonderful world of STEM.

Sarah Park is the winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and the 2021 America’s Top Young Scientist.

The post 3 Tips to Build Student’s STEM Confidence and Curiosity from America’s Top Young Scientist appeared first on Getting Smart.

A few dozen ASU Prep Digital students are meeting with ASU professors this semester to develop climate solutions. Topics range from recycling and rapid water testing to human impacts on microbiology. The students, who do most of their high school learning online, are thriving in a college environment. Students work with Environmental Science faculty on projects and receive presentation support from the Communications Lab on the ASU West campus in Glendale, Arizona.

During the project, several short sprints developed relevant skills. Professor Perla Vargas invited the students to observe physical traces of human impact on a natural setting of their choosing. Students observed parks, lakes, parks and roadways and reported back to Dr. Vargas and the class with a fresh perspective on human impacts and possible remedies.   

One team of ASU Prep Digital students studied the environmental factors of homelessness. For part of their presentation of learning, they developed an interview podcast (listen below) discussing mitigation strategies. In addition, please check out this post written by a 10th grader at ASU Prep Digital about how valuable their experience at ASU West has been.

ASU Prep is a network of innovative schools sponsored by Arizona State University. They include 12 campuses in metro Phoenix serving more than 3,100 elementary and secondary students and ASU Prep Digital which provides full and part time online learning experiences to thousands of students in Arizona and around the world.

ASU Prep students are encouraged to take ASU courses when ready to experience success in college and get a head start with affordable credits. They can choose from Universal Learning®️ Courses that allow students to decide at the end of their course if they would like ASU Academic credit or Concurrent Courses. 

The ASU Prep Digital experiences on the ASU West campus are one version of hybrid learning, mixing online and onsite experiences, to emerge during the pandemic. These hybrid experiments laid the groundwork for a new generation of microschools leveraging ASU locations and ASU Prep infrastructure. 

Coming Soon: New ASU Pathway Opportunities 

ASU Prep Pilgrim Rest will open in September as a P-6 school on the campus of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church just east of downtown Phoenix and a few blocks from Chase Field (home of the Diamondbacks) and Sky Harbor Airport. The beautiful school facility includes labs to support hands-on science and will feature an ASU DreamScape Learn virtual reality lab. (See video tour.) 

Two small hybrid high schools will open this fall, one on the ASU West campus and the second, focused on digital arts, on the new ASU Mesa campus. The new ASU Mesa facility (just opened this month) includes state-of-the-art digital recording and display equipment. It sits across the street from Mesa Arts Center, home to world-class theaters and studios. 

For more see:

• ASU Prep: Blended College Prep with a Little Extra Kick (2019)
• Podcast: Julie Young on ASU Prep Digital (2019) 
• Dreamscape Learn Pod Unveiled at ASU+GSV Summit (2021)
• Amy McGrath on Learning Under Quarantine (2021)

The New Pathways (#NewPathways) campaign will serve as a road map to the new architecture for American schools, where every learner, regardless of zip code, is on a pathway to productive and sustainable citizenship, high wage employment, economic mobility, and a purpose-driven life. It will also explore and guide leaders on the big education advances of this decade–how access is expanded and personalized, and how new capabilities are captured and communicated. When well implemented, these advances will unlock opportunities for all and narrow the equity gap. You can engage with this ongoing campaign using #NewPathways or submit an idea to Editor using the writing submission form.

The post ASU Prep: Experiencing College Success in High School appeared first on Getting Smart.