Exploring Project-Based-Learning

Why did you choose this project as your favorite of the six? Identify specific aspects that appeal to you.

From the six sites that were given, I chose "How to Organize a Design Project for your class". This project was to let students design a state-of-the-art high school on a given site for the year 2050. The most interesting aspect was that the students presented their designs to professional architects in Seattle for their design to be chosen. I thought that this was a meaningful project because it incorporates learning from several subjects while collaborating with each other. Their tasks were real life tasks that actual architects had to configure, and they were in a position where they could design the school the way they wanted. It's important for students to explore the world by taking hands on learning rather than sitting in a classroom listening to lecture. I find PBL (Project Based Learning) an effective approach for students in the future.

Which higher-level thinking skills (from Bloom's Taxonomy) does the project utilize?
This project utilizes all the different levels including the top three, evaluation, synthesis, and analysis. The students were given a project they had to tackle, and were given specific requirements they had to address. Since this project actually led to a winner, students were more eager to win for their design to be chosen for the official design. Since they had to think of the problems they had to address in their design, lots of critical thinking is involved. They had to figure out how they would address each problem, and how their design was going to be an appropriate design for the particular site. Since it was a project for the year 2050, they would also have to address the problems for the future when we don't even know what's coming ahead of us. This project requires a lot of critical thinking, judgement skills, collaboration skills, and skills that are on all levels of the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid.

What (if anything) about the project could be improved?
If all schools in that area had a chance to compete against each other, I think this project would have been more effective. I think this is a great project for students to undertake and it's an opportunity that communities wouldn't want to miss. If it were to be improved, I would have mini competitions inside the school and chose the best design to represent their school. Then from there on, the schools in that community could compete with each other with the best design they chose to represent their school. It would be like having two competitions: a mini competition inside each schools, and a final competition against all schools in the district.

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