Project-Based Learning on the Net

What is PBL? Definition from the Autodesk Foundation

We believe that PBL is at the heart of good instruction because it brings together intellectual inquiry, rigorous real-world standards, and student engagement in relevant and meaningful work.  It is a comprehensive instructional model in which project work is central to student understanding of the essential concepts and principles of the disciplines.  Well-crafted projects:

• Engage and build on student interests and passions
• Provide a meaningful and authentic context for learning
• Immerse students in complex, real-world problems/investigations without a pre-determined solution
• Allow students to take the lead, making critical choices and decisions
• Connect students with community resources and experts
• Require students to develop and demonstrate essential skills and knowledge
• Draw on multiple disciplines to solve problems and deepen understanding
• Build in opportunities for reflection and self-assessment
• Result in useful products that demonstrate what students have learned
• Culminate in exhibitions or presentations to an authentic audience

Project Sites
National and International

Autodesk Foundation (Archived)

The Autodesk Foundation's web site (1996-2000) on Project-Based Leanring and School-to-Career is now archived at http://www.k12reform.com/.

PBL Web Ring

The PBL Web Ring links web sites that promote Project-Based Learning. You can find it at the PBLMM web site. Click on the PBL Web Ring "Next" button to go to these PBL sites:

Adventures

Classroom Connect
Global Learn Africa Expedition
Jason Project : Mediterranean Sea, Galapagos, Monterrey Bay, Rainforests , Hawaii
Adventure Online

Contests for Students

Global SchoolNet CyberFair 2000. See projects at GSN's Internet Projects Registry
Thinkquest

Collaborative National or International Projects

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is a worldwide network of students, teachers, and scientists working together to study an understand the global environment. Students and teachers from over 7,000 schools in more than 80 countries are working with research scientists to learn more about our planet.

DesignWorlds for Learning acts as a catalyst/convener of collaborative national and international projects. Headed by Ted Kahn, one of the nation's best PBL developers, DesignWorlds provides strategic technology planning and museum/informal learning-based collaborative PBL projects to schools, higher ed, and industry.

Co-NECT

Class-to-Class

I*EARN .Example of I*EARN project "Connecting Math to Our Lives"

Courses

Virtual High School

Teachers and Students as Project Organizers and Developers

Schools

North Coast Rural Challenge Network

See all Current/Ongoing and Completed Projects . See Voices of the Valley, Rural artists, and the Tidepool Guide

Mendocino Unified School District

Mendocino Unified School District Project-Based Learning Page.See Birds of a Feather, Science Mastery Units , Growth Patterns

Project-Based Learning at Drake High School

Project-Based Learning Page.See Drake academics, Academy X projects, SeaDisc Academy , Student projects , Virtual Tour 

Project-Based Learning at Brookside Elementary School

Brookside PBL section

Project-Based Learning at San Jose Middle School

PBL at San Jose Middle School, Project Clearinghouse

Napa New Technology High School Digital Portfolios

See Portfolio Page of current and past students.

Maplesden Noakes Secondary School, Maidstone, Kent, England

See PBL Website of current projects.

Organizations

Project-Based Learning with Multimedia: Challenge 2000

Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project web site at http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/ .See Project Grid, Teacher Web Pages, Selected Examples of Student Work, and Exemplary Projects: Water Pollution and Project Physlab

PBLnet.org

Exemplary Projects for Project-Based Learning (PBL)

TeachNet CSL for teachers to do projects with their kids

Boston TeachNet CSL features web-published projects and tools by K-12 Teacher Disseminators. The standards-based models utilized by these teachers show how technology helps students apply classroom learning to solve real world problems through developing career competencies, student mentors, addressing environmental and human needs, and practicing public safety and responsible citizenship as they learn to serve and serve to learn.

Sandi.Net Projects for Kids to Do
(includes Teacher instructions)

Teachers in the Triton and Patterns Projects learned to integrate technology in the curriculum by developing inquiry-oriented, standards-based curriculum units. Lessons are based on the WebQuest model developed by Bernie Dodge, project consultant and Professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. Exemplary projects: Ocean’s in Trouble , Biotechnology, Inc.

Gold River Discovery Center Challenge Units
Challenges to kids

http://www.sanjuan.edu/schools/goldriver/content/html/projects.html

Scoring Rubrics for Projects

Challenge 2000 Project Scoring Rubric
Global SchoolNet Peer Scoring Rubric