Project-based learning engages kids a new level
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
Prairie View Elementary School’s project-based learning teacher Melissa Deutsch gave a presentation on what the program is and what the district wants it to be at the Dec. 14 meeting of the East Troy School Board.
Project-based learning is a student-driven learning method which engages the kids at a whole new level in their education, Deutsch told the board and audience.
She described how the kids themselves create the questions and find the solutions to a problem using the 5 C’s – communication, community, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
Deutsch has been teaching PBL at Prairie View for several years and she said she has not once seen the kids come up with the same project twice.
Right now, her fifth graders are working on an American history session and creating board games to teach about important topics or events in the history of the country. Deutsch has done this with other classes over the years and said Monday not one group had ever duplicated the work of another.
The kids come up with what topic they want to teach, create the game to impart knowledge of the event and even market their creations. The board games will be placed at two East Troy coffee shops – 2894 on Main and Wild Flour Bakery – over the winter break for the public to play and see what the students been up over the last several week.
Deutsch said the East Troy School District’s PBL initiative is expanding and was more than just one class a day and the goal was to have it used by “every teacher, every classroom and every subject.”
District Administrator Chris Hibner said with the new school being planned, the public needed to understand what PBL was to understand what the district wants to do with the classrooms.
PBL utilizes clean and dirty spaces within the same room to allow kids freedom of movement between stations as they work on projects. Teachers in these classrooms are more facilitators as opposed to traditional teacher, Hibner said. PBL is driven by the kids. They set the goals. They do the research. They form the plans. They build the solutions.
Deutsch said research has shown PBL improves learning outcomes for the kids and that everywhere it’s used, kids learn how to learn better.
“When you step back and let kids drive their own learning, it’s really amazing what they come up with,” she said. “It engages them in ways you can’t even imagine.
