Problem-based Learning
The students are given an essential question at the beginning of a unit. This guides the instruction throughout the entire unit. With this type of learning, the instruction is very student-centered. The students participate in activities and do research to try to answer the essential question. The teacher plans the activities and provides researching tools for the students, but does not give much direct instruction.
I am actually in the middle of a unit right now that would be an example of problem based learning. The students are trying to answer an essential question which was given to them at the beginning of the unit: “How has the shape of Connecticut’s landscape come to be the way that it is?” The students have done numerous hands-on activities related to erosion and weathering, researched different types of erosion and weathering, and watched videos about how different features in CT have formed (CT River Valley, Morraine at Hammonasset Beach, beaches, Long Island Sound, etc.). They will then answer the essential question at the end of the unit by writing a scientific explanation about how CT’s landscape has come to be the way it is. The students use technology by researching information about Connecticut’s landscape on laptops and from videos on the SmartBoard. They also take a virtual field trip of Grinnell Glacier on Google Earth to see how a glacier is affecting Montana's landscape, and relating this to CT's landscape.
Project-based Learning
I am actually in the middle of a unit right now that would be an example of problem based learning. The students are trying to answer an essential question which was given to them at the beginning of the unit: “How has the shape of Connecticut’s landscape come to be the way that it is?” The students have done numerous hands-on activities related to erosion and weathering, researched different types of erosion and weathering, and watched videos about how different features in CT have formed (CT River Valley, Morraine at Hammonasset Beach, beaches, Long Island Sound, etc.). They will then answer the essential question at the end of the unit by writing a scientific explanation about how CT’s landscape has come to be the way it is. The students use technology by researching information about Connecticut’s landscape on laptops and from videos on the SmartBoard. They also take a virtual field trip of Grinnell Glacier on Google Earth to see how a glacier is affecting Montana's landscape, and relating this to CT's landscape.
Project-based Learning
The students create or design a solution to a real-world problem. This is similar to problem based Learning because students are investigating a question. However, it is different than problem-based learning because they are actually building an object or contraption that solves a problem. The teacher might present the students with a problem, and the students might collaborate in groups to engineer a solution. The teacher provides the materials, but the lessons are mostly student-centered.
Every student is required to complete a project-based learning project in our district. As a science teacher, I am responsible for rolling out the projects in my classroom. Some examples of what students might do for the project might be a science experiment or an invention. The students come up with a problem question that they would like to investigate or solve. Then they design an experiment to solve the problem question or an invention to solve a real-world problem. The students might use technology to create a graph using Excel to show their results from their science experiment or a commercial on iMovie to market their invention.
Case-based Learning
Every student is required to complete a project-based learning project in our district. As a science teacher, I am responsible for rolling out the projects in my classroom. Some examples of what students might do for the project might be a science experiment or an invention. The students come up with a problem question that they would like to investigate or solve. Then they design an experiment to solve the problem question or an invention to solve a real-world problem. The students might use technology to create a graph using Excel to show their results from their science experiment or a commercial on iMovie to market their invention.
Case-based Learning
Teachers uses a case-study to guide instruction. In this type of learning the students are given a real world scenario, and they have to come up with a solution to the problem in groups (student-centered). This is usually in the form of a written paragraph or formal proposal. This is different than project-based learning, because it is a written solution instead of a designed solution.
In my classroom, the students are given a real-world scenario about reducing the amount of polluted runoff that reaches the river in our town (We actually had a major water pollution disaster this summer from a factory near the river). The students write a proposal about how they would solve this problem if they worked for the local Water Department.
The following links have some examples of case-based learning lessons:
http://archive.tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/cases/casewhat.html
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/
In my classroom, the students are given a real-world scenario about reducing the amount of polluted runoff that reaches the river in our town (We actually had a major water pollution disaster this summer from a factory near the river). The students write a proposal about how they would solve this problem if they worked for the local Water Department.
The following links have some examples of case-based learning lessons:
http://archive.tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/cases/casewhat.html
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/
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