chemistry project based learning

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Writing and Differentiated Instruction: Everything You Need to Know

Improving language proficiency and scientific literacy in learners, how to teach spelling: everything you need to know, product review of ticktalk 5, product review of the grid duffle backpack, product review of naturopathica’s active body bundle, the benefits of differentiated instruction: everything you need to know, teaching children inferential thinking: everything you need to know, why choose sharepoint learning management system, good readers and reading strategies: everything you need to know, 14 project-based learning activities for the science classroom.

One of the most popular methods of facilitating deep learning in K-12 schools in problem-based learning. It starts, as the name suggests, with a problem. In this model, students are presented with an open-ended problem. Students must search through a variety of resources, called trigger material, to help them understand the problem from all angles. What would project-based learning look like in a subject like science? That’s what I plan to explore in this piece. Below you will find a list of 14 project-based learning activities for the K-12 science classroom.

• Student Farm. Students will learn lessons about science, social studies, math, and economics through planting their organic farm. They can begin by researching the crops they want, figure out what kind of care is needed, and then use a budget to determine what materials they must purchase. They can even sell food from their farm to contribute to a cause or fundraiser.
• Bridge Building. Students begin by studying the engineering of bridge building, comparing the construction of famous bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge or Tower Bridge in London. Then they work in teams to construct bridges out of Popsicle sticks. The challenge is to get their bridge to hold five pounds (for younger students) or twenty pounds (for more advanced students).
• Shrinking Potato Chip Bags in the Microwave. Students can learn about polymers through hands-on activities using some of their favorite products, like shoes and sporting equipment. As a culminating activity, they can put a wrapper from their favorite chips or candy bar into the microwave for five seconds to learn about how polymers return to their natural state when exposed to the heat.
• Design an App. Students love using the newest apps and games, so take it to the next level by having them design their own! With Apple developer tools, kids can learn how to create an app or online game. They can learn about technology and problem-solving skills while engaged in what they love.
• Gummy Bear: Shrink or Grow? For a project-based lesson on osmosis and solubility, you will just need gummi bears and different liquids and solutions (water, salt water, vinegar, etc.). Children will place a gummi bear in each solution overnight and then measure the results.
• The Old Egg in a Bottle Trick . This old trick is an impressive PBL activity for kids to learn about the correlation between temperature and pressure,. Using just eggs, a wide mouth glass bottle, matches, and strips of paper, children will be able to make an egg “magically” fit through the bottle’s opening.
• Cabbage Acid-Base Indicator . Children will love this hands-on approach to learning how to identify an acid or a base just using purple cabbage and seeing colors change.
• Carnation Color Wonders . An uncomplicated way to teach the importance of the various parts of the flower, the carnation color experiment shows kids how stems provide nourishment to the whole plant.
• Polymers & Pampers . If your middle school scientist has a younger sibling at home in diapers, this is a great PBL activity to teach how polymers are essential for products like diapers.
• Make a Battery Using… Anytime a kid can turn produce into a battery, it is fun! So, why not compare a lemon battery to a potato battery to see which one works better?
• Helmet Drop Test . The helmet drop test is a practical PBL project to teach kids the importance of safety helmets. Simply gather different types of helmets and a several melons. Strap the helmets to the melons and drop each from the same height and measure the results.
• How Much Sugar is in that Soda? . Health-conscious parents will love this PBL activity because it teaches kids how much sugar is in their soft drinks. If you have soft drinks, sugar, and measuring cups, you can do this experiment in your kitchen.
• Ways to Clean a Penny . To teach children how acid reacts with salt works to remove the dullness of pennies, kids can do a simple PBL activity using salt and vinegar. They can also test other acids to compare results.
• Oranges: Float or Sink? . To teach kids about density, all you need are oranges and a bowl of water. You can add to this experiment by testing other fruits with peels.

Did we miss any. Please share your favorite project-based learning activities in the comments below.

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Engage Students with Science: 5 Project-Based Learning Activities

ALI Staff | Published  June 26, 2023

Learning about alternate teaching strategies is always exciting, especially when they can demonstrate proven results to engage students better.

After the excitement wanes, the challenge is figuring out how to integrate this strategy into your existing curriculum and/or rewrite it completely.

For those who have gotten a glimpse of project-based learning and want to try it, you don’t have to start with creating a project-based learning curriculum.

Taking a few activities and working them into your class can prove just as effective for those looking for new ways to get students interested in what you're teaching and motivate them to engage.

When it comes to project-based learning activities and science, we’ve compiled some examples of projects to get the ball rolling in your classroom.

What is project-based learning?

Project-based learning is all about creating opportunities to get hands-on with the subject matter.

This collaborative work gives students time to develop skills beyond those needed to learn science. They learn communication skills, time management, and navigating a group dynamic.

Developing skills like these can better prepare students for when they enter a professional career, regardless of what role science plays in their future.

PBL projects also help students retain the science they need to know.

Why should you use PBL? 

A PBL project is hands-on group work, making motivating students to contribute to the group and become active learners easier.

The level of engagement during group work can far exceed that of a lecture or even a classroom discussion.

Giving students the time they need to really work through project-based learning activities can help build their knowledge base and help them grow as a person.

Most PBL projects are also rooted in the real world. This creates an extra connection for students to the subject matter, making what they’re learning more relevant to them.

Students are more likely to stay engaged with the material when they understand why they should learn something.

They’re also more likely to retain what they learned.

Key characteristics of project-based learning ideas

Project-based learning activities must start with a project, but you can define how that project works.

Will you assign roles for each team member to take? Will you have a list of requirements each group must meet to complete the project?

You can step things out as much or as little as you want to guide students in the right direction and get the most out of each PBL activity.

Other characteristics of your project to consider include the following:

• Length of the project — in PBL, projects are usually longer, taking place over a few weeks to a month to give students time to really dig into the material.
• Level of tie-in to what’s currently being taught — is it a direct line to the material being covered or more indirect?
• Connection to the real world — add real-world elements whenever possible to bring the content you’re teaching into the day-to-day lives of your students. It ups the impact significantly.
• Presentation of results — think about how groups will showcase what they’ve learned and their conclusions. Will you allow other students to offer up feedback?
• Incorporating other disciplines — keeping science at the forefront, working on adding relevant information from other areas; it only enhances the project for students. 

Remember, PBL projects require students to complete a process. They should have to research, design and produce a shareable finished product.

They should also be encouraged to look inside and outside the classroom for usable information.

5 project-based learning activities your students will love

Whether you’re creating an entire project-based learning curriculum or just want to add a few PBL projects throughout the year, these five activities make motivating and engaging your students in science easier. 

1. Produce a video report

Like a book report, this project-based learning idea requires students to select a topic, read up on it and create a presentation. The difference is that this report is completed as a group, so collaboration is necessary.

Break the class into groups of 4-5 and ask them to pick a topic. This can be an animal if they’re studying biology, an element on the periodic table in chemistry, an invention, a scientific formula…anything. Just make sure there’s an overarching theme.

Students then assign responsibilities within the group, work together to collect information, write a script, and produce their own video report.

Have a viewing day where the videos are shown (keep them under five minutes), and let the students offer feedback.

2. Create a model / build something

Already a staple activity in many physics classes, building that bridge out of Popsicle sticks has been a PBL project in disguise for decades.

This collaborative assignment requires trial and error, grit, determination, and physics. It’s all about problem-solving, working together, and understanding the properties of physics.

The physics bridge is just one example of how asking students to model or build in science can activate their imaginations and really bring them into science ready to work.

These activities are always fun, especially when they culminate in a challenge, like which bridge holds the most weight or which “net” catches the egg without breaking.

3. Solve a real-world problem

Thinking about where our energy comes from, global warming, pollution, and so many other issues in the world, it’s often the fresh eyes that can truly think outside the box to hypothesize a solution.

Asking your students to take a real issue and postulate a solution makes that real problem relevant to them and actively engages them in the world today.  Their solution may not actually work, but project-based learning ideas like these allow students to collaborate, collect information, and look at the world around them to tackle a real issue.

Trial-and-error will also come into play, along with healthy group discussions, as each team works toward agreeing on a solution to present to the class.

4. Ask a hypothetical question

Sometimes, grabbing students' attention is easiest when you center a project around a hypothetical question.

Although this is sort of like tackling a real-world issue, it’s also one of those scenarios where you can really think unfettered by many restraints.

For example, ask students to create a plan to survive on a desert island. What would you do if you were stuck there for five days or a month? Give them different time frames to address, thinking about food, shelter, and strategies for rescue.

Put the island in a specific location so students can research natural resources they can utilize.

There are many great questions to use with this PBL activity, and many are all about science.

Examples include:

• What would the planet be like today if dinosaurs had lived?
• What if Earth was twice as large as it is now?
• What if we never had a moon?
• What would happen if we did discover an alien species (and what would they look/act like)?

Finding answers to questions like these is so fun that students may not even realize they’re researching accurate data to create their group’s response. It’s also an ideal framework for collaboration since there’s really no right answer, and often the seam of reality can be stretched.

5. Take PBL outside

There are so many examples of project-based learning activities that take students out of the classroom. If the weather is nice and you have the resources available, consider outdoor-based projects like:

• Planting and maintaining a small garden
• Creating a pollinator garden
• Attacking the issue of litter in and around the school’s propertyDesigning a better playground that’s safe, but more fun for students
• Building a solar oven and cooking in it

If you have existing nature trails or outdoor spots on school property, see if you can assign a project that improves those areas or strategize on what could be done.

Engagement happens with project-based learning ideas

Any time you can get your students working with each other, your likelihood of engagement goes up.

Engagement goes up whenever you can give your students more autonomy regarding how they problem-solve and collect information.

PBL projects put the responsibility into the hands of your students, but it also creates a strategy that makes it easy for you to infuse the real world into science.

It connects students to the material they need to know while allowing them to build essential skills that will help them throughout the rest of their lives.

To top it all off, project-based learning is fun.

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Chemistry Solutions

September 2022 | Nuts & Bolts

Teaching with Project-Based Learning in the High School Chemistry Classroom

By Barbara Nelson

Instructional Strategies , NGSS

Why use Project-Based Learning?

When children are very young, they have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. They spend their entire day trying to walk, talk, and be like their parents. But in my experience, by the time they reach high school, many have lost interest in learning, and desire only to earn good grades.

How can a teacher rekindle that desire to learn? How can we teach students to learn simply because they want to gain knowledge? As described in a post on Edutopia , one way to help students overcome apathy is to build bridges between a student’s interests and the content you wish to teach. 

My solution to building such bridges has been Project-Based Learning (PBL). According to the home page of PBL Works , “Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.”

PBL is different from simply doing a fun project at the end of a unit, or on the day before break. PBL uses authentic projects that require students to use the information that we want them to learn. Ideally, this means that they involve student choice and an actual, real-world audience. Projects are not just assignments that are turned in and thrown away as soon as they are graded.

Traditional projects versus PBL

A big difference between PBL and the types of projects that I assigned earlier in my career is how students view the projects.

Early in my career, I taught each unit in a traditional manner, then had students complete a related project at the end of the unit. I have heard this type of learning activity called a “dessert project,” because it is a fun application of the material students have just learned. For example, I used to do an end-of-unit project that required students to complete a qualitative analysis lab as their semester final exam.

In contrast, a PBL approach introduces students to a problem-based project at the beginning of the unit, and students then learn the material as they work on the project. In the process, we show them they actually need to learn the material in order to complete the project. For example, in one PBL project I’ve used, students were introduced to the water quality issues that recently occurred in Flint, Michigan. Then they worked through analyzing a water sample, and finally created a news article or newscast about what occurred, and how the problem was analyzed.

Another difference between a PBL project and a traditional project is authenticity . A PBL project should be centered around a problem that allows students to easily see how a similar problem might occur in their life, such as water quality testing. In that particular example, the way I used to present the project lacked this component, and instead was simply a high-stakes, stressful lab experience. Students turned in their data and identification of an unknown; but after grading the paper, I tossed it — effectively throwing away days of their work. Looking back, it seems clear that this would not encourage students to work for anything except a grade. However, when students create a product that is real to them, and they know will be viewed by others, I’ve seen that they become motivated to create something in which they can take pride.  

My journey to PBL

After the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were developed in 2013, many states, including Idaho where I live, began to adopt similar standards. The NGSS standards are written to emphasize teaching students to use information rather than merely memorize facts. For my recertification credits, I began taking classes offered by our state on the new standards, which led me to PBL. PBL not only seemed to emphasize using information, but also designing and refining experiments.

Initially, I could see the value of teaching students using PBL, but I struggled with how to implement it. I loved what I was learning and wanted that sort of experience for my students, but authentic projects in high school chemistry were hard to find.

While I was attempting to incorporate PBL into my teaching, I also decided to change schools, and began teaching in a large school whose entire science department was focused on PBL and mastery learning. All of our science teachers are working to implement PBL, but I am the only chemistry teacher among them, so I am able to experiment in my teaching strategies.

My new chemistry teaching job happened to come with an astronomy class assignment. Since I had never taught astronomy before, I started tackling this task by looking up the standards. There weren’t many, so I decided to include Engineering and Design standards as well. I took advantage of having few required standards, and used the time savings to implement projects to support a PBL approach.

From the beginning, teaching this class was amazing. Students came in each day excited to work on their projects, voluntarily worked on them at home, and wanted to take them home afterward to show their parents. With this success, I became determined to implement PBL in my chemistry classes as well. 

From then on, every spare minute was spent scouring the internet, looking for authentic project ideas. In the past, I had found it easy to find traditional project ideas. But often they were either not authentic, or did not require students to learn the content that was necessary in a high school chemistry class. I developed PBL units that taught standards and featured moderately authentic projects, and began to implement them.

I am continuing to work on improving the authenticity of the projects. Not all projects are as relevant as I might like, and I would like to have more students present their projects to an audience of experts (such as members of the community related to the project topic). Another struggle that I have encountered is finding projects that can be introduced at the beginning of the unit. Sometimes I’m in a non-ideal situation, when I have information that has to be presented to students before I can introduce the project.

Some examples of PBL Units

(Including NGSS Performance Expectations that relate to the content in each unit)

• Something Funny in Flint, Michigan ( HS-PS1-5 , HS-PS1-6 ) This unit is introduced with a video clip of a news story on the problem of lead in the drinking water in Flint. I collect water from a local river and contaminate the sample in order to represent a variety of water samples (for example, using acids, aluminum, but not lead due to its hazardous properties). Students analyze the water to determine what it is contaminated with. This activity involves solubility, equilibrium, and pH standards. We do conventional and conductimetric titrations to determine the amount of acid in the water. We also check for nitrates, phosphates, and coliform bacteria. As a final task, students create a newspaper article or newscast to explain what they found in terms of water quality.
• Tanker Car Implosion ( HS-PS3-2 ) This unit covers the gas laws, and is introduced with a MythBusters video in which a tanker car is imploded by filling it with steam, capping it, and spraying it with cold water. Students conduct a series of inquiry labs to understand the gas laws. As a culminating activity, students create particle diagrams showing what is happening inside the tanker car before capping, as the car is cooling down, and after the implosion.
• Is Biodiesel a Solution to the World’s Energy Problems? ( HS-PS3-1 , HS-PS3-3 ) To engage students in this unit, I start by sharing energy statistics. I also invite a guest speaker from a car dealership that sells vehicles that run on biodiesel (a video clip could work here as well). Students research a recipe for the synthesis of biodiesel and synthesize it. Then they compare it to conventional diesel in terms of soot and carbon dioxide production, energy per mole, and gelling in cold temperatures. Students design their own experiments to test these parameters. As a culminating activity, students create a trifold brochure answering the question based on their data. This meets standards of energy calculations and designing an experiment to analyze changes in energy.
• Alcohol Detective ( HS-PS1-3 ) This unit focuses on the concepts of intermolecular forces and polarity, as well as the processes of distillation and gas chromatography. Students are engaged in a scenario involving the seizure of bootleg alcohol. There are two suspects, both of whom have stills — and, using gas chromatography, students attempt to identify which still produced the seized alcohol, based on contaminants found in the sample. Note: It has required several grants to purchase gas chromatographs and organic kits for use in this unit.

Where we are now

Students love the PBL units! As our science department has been implementing PBL, we have seen large enrollment growth in our advanced science classes, and increases in average AP test scores. In addition to content knowledge, students are learning to use technology, present data, and work with other students. These are skills that my students were not previously learning through traditional teaching. What’s more, the problem-solving skills they are learning will continue to benefit them, whether or not they end up pursuing chemistry.

I still don’t feel like I am “there” yet. Some units could have better introductions or a more authentic final project. Sometimes the projects don’t flow as well as I would like them to, and I am trying to provide more choices to students. Though I know this will take time, I’m trying to add and improve each year, by picking the unit that I feel is the weakest and redesigning or fine-tuning it. I am also developing a network of community scientists who can be speakers and audiences, and also in helping to improve the projects.

Even with these difficulties, I feel that PBL is the solution to many problems that teachers face. Here are some of the benefits of PBL that I’ve experienced:

• Students come to class excited to learn every day. I never hear, “Why do we have to learn this?” I have a goal that if someone were to walk in my room and ask a student why they were doing a particular activity, the students could answer with a reasonable explanation.
• Class time is less stressful with PBL. The work of teaching PBL is in the development of the projects. Once the project begins, I am just a resource for the students, and each day is a joy. I have time to interact with students, and can help them learn at their own pace rather than forcing everyone to learn exactly the same material in the same way.
• Classroom management is easier than I experienced previously. Because the students are engaged, they want to learn and do their projects. As a result, nearly every student completes their project.
• Projects can allow for student choice in the nature of the activity, which increases engagement. Some examples of choices are creating an opening argument in a court case (for either the defense or prosecution), creating a news article or newscast, or choosing a variable to manipulate and test. When a project allows students to choose how they will demonstrate learning, and also has a less intimidating assessment piece, they are more willing to put in the effort to show me what they have learned. 
• When students know that their project will be displayed or in some way presented to others, they are more concerned with creating a quality project.
• Projects are easily differentiated for students with special needs. I can modify the extent of the project or aspects of the quality that I require for submission.
• While students are working on projects, I am available to talk to them. I can give feedback on their work while getting to know them as a person so that they understand that they are more than “just a number.” Through their choice of a final project, I also get to know what they enjoy doing and where their interests and talents lie. I am also able to conference with students to help them set goals for getting caught up and planning for their future.
• Cheating is eliminated. The projects have enough variation that it is not possible to look up the answer on the internet. For example, the biodiesel brochures contain pictures of the analysis procedures, which are different for each group. The water quality project has students creating videos or news articles that are unique to each student. When we do science fair projects, I do not even need to have student names on the projects, because I have watched their progress and can identify each project by sight.

Gauging success

Once the projects are finished, I grade the final project using a rubric for what our state calls the Competencies . These represent a set of knowledge, skill and attributes that prepare graduates for life after high school. This allows me to grade students on their readiness.

It’s worth noting that my biggest barrier wasn’t my willingness to learn PBL, but rather, developing the project ideas. I spend a lot of time looking for ideas that I can modify to meet my needs and those of my students. The American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) has been a helpful resource in my planning, as well as TeachEngineering . During my searches, I also look for dessert projects that I can modify to be the basis for a unit. Many times, I’ll find a project idea that is appealing, but just needs a little adjustment in order to work as a PBL. Examples include removing step-by-step guidance for students, and instead tasking students with designing their own procedures, or changing the final product to increase its relevance or authenticity. I’ve found this to be a manageable way to make successful progress on my PBL journey.  

I constantly keep my eyes open for ideas, events, and occurrences that can be the premise of a new PBL opportunity. I discuss ideas with colleagues, approach business leaders for topic input, and try to take every class about PBL that crosses my path. I’ve found that this process has been both addictive and rewarding for myself and my students! I’m eager to continue to move forward and learn more. I encourage you to get involved as well, and bring the excitement of PBL to your own classroom!  

Photo credit: (article cover) Bigsto ckphoto.com/mkabakov

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Green Chemistry

Project-based learning tools.

The MIT BLOSSOMS Project-Based Learning Tools are a resource we hope will be of value as you begin to explore the world of Project-based Learning. Some of these tools are used in our PBL lessons, while others are presented for you to explore and consider for possible use in the future. You can download a PDF of this here .These resources are a guide to providing the soft-skills that 21st century learning demands. They are designed to provide a structured process for learning and understanding, not to be memorized but applied.

___________________________________________________

Driving Question

Why do it: These questions provoke curiosity and thought for students to engage in throughout the several weeks or months-long unit. The question(s) make students excited as they’re becoming part of something and their work is important.

How to start it: If you are writing a driving question, you likely have an idea of the project your students will work on. Take a step back from the daily lessons the students will do, ask yourself what is the question these students are answering throughout this learning? What is the end of the journey from their daily learning?

Make sure the driving question is neatly typed or hand-written on your wall for all students to see throughout the unit.

Some examples : ● How can we improve our community’s environmental awareness? ● How does probability relate to games? ● Why is science important and how can it help save people?

3 links on Driving Questions ; Searching for the driving question and a video .

How to effectively use it: One of the first days of the PBL unit will be exposing the students to this big question. Instead of directly telling them, try creative ways to have them guess the concept through an exploratory class day. Create a station rotation, video clips, articles, all encompassing the driving question. If you’re low on time, you can make it more of a class discussion or simple video clip but it’s usually suggested to make the driving question day a semi-celebration about what students will get to do in the weeks ahead.

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Project Tracker

What is it: This self-reflective project tracker is a weekly journal for students to write where their learning is at a certain moment. It is not a grade. From a teacher’s prompt, they write in today’s date on each supporting target box, whether they are beginning the learning, approaching or meeting the target.

Also, just like a child measuring his or her height as s/he gets taller and marks measurement on a wall, the project tracker is meant for students to see his/her growth in the unit over time.

How to effectively use it: Continue using the project tracker as often as you see fit. I used them once a week, usually Fridays. Students need to have a safe space for these documents so they don’t lose it. At the end of the unit, students answer your final prompt and submit the tracker to you. You can sign it, check off whether you agree with them or not and hand it back. It can be used effectively as part of a portfolio.

Read about project trackers, similar to target trackers here .

What is it: The task log is a live task list that displays the who, what, where, when, how for daily tasks in student projects. The task log is either printed blank with post-its or is used online, as students are constantly updating the work that just started, is in progress, or is completed.

How to start it: This simple lesson plan offers basic steps to demonstrate in class.

How to effectively use it: At the very start of class and the last two minutes of class, students regularly use the task log on projects. If they are not regularly used, they are not worth using.

Team Agreement

Why do it: Soft skill alert: Students own their behavior much more! There is no such thing as a perfect tool, but you will notice students owning their actions instead of asking the teacher to fix the problem, which usually does not fix the actual problem.

How to start it: Here’s a simple lesson on team agreements . Students work together to create short, positively-written, agreements, keeping the list around 4-6. Less is better. Students think about what an effective team looks like, sounds like and acts like. For example, “Everyone removes all distracted devices during work.” They write down these ideas individually, share them with their group and rotate until everyone is heard. Write down all ideas and often find redundancies and remove these items. Then find ways to merge similar ideas. Once the agreements are concrete, keep the agreements on the top of the task log .

Keep it relevant: Check in as often as needed for teams to re-evaluate their agreements. Are they naturally doing a certain agreement without a problem? Maybe up the ante. Is another agreement still a challenge? Time to revisit this and have the team find a way to address the problem. How will they fix this issue.

Team Contracts

Why do it: They make students feel more accountable for their follow-through on team agreements. It also makes preventative measures for teachers who run into student collaborative work issues.

How to start it: If you are doing an icebreaker like the Marshmallow Challenge , it’s perfect to introduce contracts afterward.

How to effectively use it: On occasion, ask students to review their contracts. Do they need a revised contract? Have them change it as they see fit, with teacher’s approval.

What is it: Roles or titles for teammates to perform in class.

Why do it: Assigning (or teams assigning) deliberate roles ensures everyone understands their role, so all types of needs in an effective team are used. These are not needed for all level classes, but is a scaffolding method.

How to start it : A simple overview is here . After agreements and contracts are completed. For classes that need extra structures, team roles help ensure total participation. You can assign team roles to specific students or have teams assign their own roles, reminding them that it’s important to choose a role you’re actually not comfortable with, as to build the skill.

How to effectively use it: During lessons or projects, announce the role that’s needed during the specific time. For example, if you’re about to hand out a paper, ask the resource monitors to come to the front for the paper.

Grouping Teams

Why do it: It helps students work with other students they normally would choose not to work with, which can offer different experiences working with others. It also prevents teams from forming their best friends together which can cause distractions, also it prevents students from being isolated or ostracized.

How to start it: One way to group teams is have them choose their seats at first. Then once all students are settled, if you need 6 groups, tell students to remember their numbers that are said aloud. Then count students off, “1,2,3,4,5,6!” “1,2,3,4,5,6!” then once all students have a number, tell them to regroup based on others who have the same number.

How to effectively use it: Be mindful of any students with specific needs or have major conflict with other students that the students should share with you. If there are major issues, shifting the groups is fine. Also, rotate the groups on occasion so they are not working with the same one group year-long.

Ice Breakers

Why do it: Students are often not completely comfortable working with each other, or may not like another student. Icebreakers allow a new way for students to know one another without social pressure or grades in the way. They help students see their soft skill strengths and what they want to learn more about.

How to start it: Introduce the concept of teams with the famous “ Marshmallow Challenge ” from Tom Wujec that has been tried by thousands of teams, from CEOs to graduate business students, to kindergartners. Within 18 minutes, the team must build the tallest, free-standing structure with the marshmallow on top. Using: 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, 1 marshmallow.

At the end of this activity, congratulate the winner and then ask everyone to think about their team -- what worked well for the team and what created challenges. Then have them share out their thoughts, first to their team and then to the entire class. After this share-out, tell them that among the thousands of groups doing this exercise, the worst were graduates from business schools, while the best were graduates from kindergarten! Why do we think this is so? (Business school students learn through a linear approach whereas kindergarteners have not been taught how to think, so as a group they have a variety of ways to tackle this marshmallow challenge. Also, as a child, power struggles are not yet a challenge which allows kindergarteners an advantage of working together than the business school students).

How to effectively use it: Icebreakers can be introduced whenever teams seem to need a reset with each other. It’s always suggested to do them at the beginning of the year. After all ice breakers, reflections are critical. Make sure students identify effective and ineffective traits in the ice breaker projects so they can apply them to the real projects in class.

No materials for the marshmallow challenge? Try some of these icebreakers .

Expert Contact List

Why do it? It’s a simple way of keeping track of your experts instead of filtering through your emails.

How to start it: Use the expert contact list as soon as you have your contact information for your PBL. Remember experts will likely need to fill out a CORI form for school.

How to effectively use it: Not only should you keep in touch with your expert, make sure that you get their address so students can write a thank-you letter to the expert(s). Ask them if they are willing to be a contact for next year’s PBL. Also if they are comfortable with it, when you post your work, make sure to include their name.

Final Event

What is it: On the last day of the PBL work is the final event, or culminating event. This is where the experts, stakeholders, community, and anyone else that is part of this project one way or another is invited to see the students presentation. Sometimes these are large-scale events that are hosted in event spaces or gyms with a structured evening for visitors. Other times they can be simple and small. Regardless, final events invite the outside world to listen to student voices and information.

How to start it: From the very beginning, make sure you select a date where experts are able to attend and the space you need is available, and you are covering all of the necessary school requirements when hosting this day. If you’re hosting a simple class day with experts, you might need them to fill out a CORI form in advance. Make the final event fun but simple for a first year. Ask for planning with another teacher if you can.

How to effectively use it: You can remind students about a countdown along the way as they progress through the project. Try to focus on the flow of the audience and any needs they may have.

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JSmol Viewer

Steam project-based learning activities at the science museum as an effective training for future chemistry teachers.

1. Introduction

2. background, 2.1. formal, non-formal and informal learning, 2.2. non-formal learning and chemical education, 2.3. the role of science museums in chemical education, 2.4. stem (and steam) in chemical education, 2.5. project-based learning in chemistry and pre-service training of chemistry teachers, 3. methodology, 3.1. main actors and contexts of the steam project-based learning approach, 3.2. the partecipants of the pre-service chemistry teachers’ course, 3.3. the steam project-based learning methodology, 3.4. assessment and evaluation of the activities, 4. a case study of the steam project-based learning method with pre-service chemistry teachers, 4.1. from the visit to the museum to the design of the activities, 4.2. from the simulation to the implementation of the laboratorial activities in the science museum.

4.3. Feedback

5. discussion.

• Motivation . The question is: “Does the teacher motivate/stimulate the interest of the students toward the discipline, during the course?” Students should express their score taking into account the methodology used by the teacher, his/her behavior and the choice of the topics, and so on.
• Clarity . The question is: “Does the teacher explain the topics of the course in a clear and understandable way?” Students should evaluate the clarity of explanation and teaching.
• Project Evaluation . The question is: “How much do you think that the ‘integrated activities’ (projects, out-of-school activities, laboratories, additional training, …) proposed by the teacher during the course are useful for your learning?” In the case of the course of ‘ Chemical education ’, students should evaluate the STEAM project-based learning activities proposed during the course.
• Interest . The question is: “How do you judge your interest to the topics of the course?” In particular, students should evaluate their interest in learning the active methods and strategies to teach chemistry at different school levels and in different learning context.
• Gender Equality . The question is: “How do the teacher respect the gender differences and differences in general?” Student should express how the teacher is guarantee of the equal opportunities during the course.
• Course Evaluation . The question is: “What is your overall judgment of the course?” Students should give a final score to the course.

6. Conclusions

Institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Domenici, V. STEAM Project-Based Learning Activities at the Science Museum as an Effective Training for Future Chemistry Teachers. Educ. Sci. 2022 , 12 , 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12010030

Domenici V. STEAM Project-Based Learning Activities at the Science Museum as an Effective Training for Future Chemistry Teachers. Education Sciences . 2022; 12(1):30. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12010030

Domenici, Valentina. 2022. "STEAM Project-Based Learning Activities at the Science Museum as an Effective Training for Future Chemistry Teachers" Education Sciences 12, no. 1: 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12010030

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AP Project Based Learning Series

Register for ap project based learning.

In project based learning (PBL), students build knowledge and skills through sustained investigation of complex, real-world problems. Since it’s often a shift from traditional teaching methods, PBL resources include project implementation guides, instructional materials, and robust professional learning supports. These resources help students acquire and apply AP course content and skills through active engagement in project work.

Get More Scores of 3 or Higher

Powerful research shows that this approach can significantly improve student performance on AP Exams. A randomized controlled trial that compared AP Exam performance of students whose teachers used PBL curriculum and professional learning to a control group showed that PBL students achieved higher results on AP Exams . Read the detailed summary of these findings ( Project Based Learning Boosts Student Achievement in AP Courses ; High-Quality Professional Learning for Project-Based Learning ) from Lucas Education Research, a division of the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Bring PBL to Your Classroom

The AP Project Based Learning Series helps teachers adopt and implement a project based instructional approach that anchors their AP course in projects that encompass the content and skills in the AP course framework.

Workshops in the AP Project Based Learning Series are designed and delivered by PBLWorks, the premier organization in PBL teaching methodology. They’ll help teachers:

• Understand and plan how to teach their AP course by implementing projects developed using high quality PBL design principles.
• Identify how the projects help students develop the knowledge and skills outlined in the AP course and exam description.
• Modify and adapt the projects for successful implementation in their classrooms throughout the school year. 

This series is appropriate for AP teachers who are:

• Committed to using a project based learning approach for their AP course.
• Familiar with the AP course and exam description.

What’s Included in the AP Project Based Learning Series

Like other research-based workshops that are shown to have a positive effect on student performance, the AP Project Based Learning Series requires a sustained commitment to professional learning.

The $799 online or $1299 in-person registration fee includes:

• 4 days of  online or in-person professional learning during the AP Summer Institute (30 hours), including access to project implementation guides and instructional materials.
• Up to 5 online sustained support sessions during the school year (timed with the expected completion dates of each project). Teachers will be able to choose from several different dates and times for each of these job-embedded sessions.

Accordingly, participants receive more continuing education units (CEUs) than participants who attend a standard AP Summer Institute.

What’s the difference between a regular AP Summer Institute and the AP Project Based Learning Series?

The AP Program supports a teacher’s choice in selecting the professional learning experience best suited for them. Both professional learning opportunities offer in-depth exploration of the AP course and exam description.

The AP Project Based Learning Series is a one-year highly interactive and ongoing professional development experience. This program includes a 30-hour Summer Institute and follow-up workshops that focus on implementing a project based approach to teaching the course. This series is available for three AP subjects: Environmental Science, U.S. Government and Politics, and World History: Modern.

Traditional AP Summer Institutes are 30 hours of content-rich professional learning designed to strengthen how participants teach their AP courses. Participants leave with ready-to-use strategies and pedagogical tools shared by an experienced AP educator and explore the following AP resources in depth: unit guides, topic questions, progress checks,  the AP Question Bank, instructional planning reports, syllabus development guides, sample syllabi, and the AP Community.

How can I commit to the AP Project Based Learning Series without yet knowing the dates for the four follow-up sessions during the academic year?

The sessions will each be conducted on multiple dates, giving teachers considerable flexibility to choose a date that’s optimal. However, if you know that you’ll not be able to participate in the in-year support sessions, you shouldn’t register for the AP Project Based Learning Series. Your attendance is required to receive all eligible CEUs, and the exam score improvements that resulted from implementation of this project based curriculum are inseparable from the participants’ attendance not just in a Summer Institute but also in the follow-up sessions. Research on how to achieve improvements in student learning has consistently indicated that such sustained, job-embedded professional learning is essential. 

What’s the average class size that you would recommend to implement AP Project Based Learning?

This program is designed for all teachers interested in PBL regardless of class size. During the study, the average class size was approximately 29 students. That said, we understand that each school’s requirements for class size may vary.

I teach AP U.S. Government and Politics, World History: Modern, or Environmental Science in a semester. Am I still eligible to participate in AP Project Based Learning?

Although the projects in this series were designed for a yearlong course, participants who teach in a semester may still engage in this program. The support will be modified for participants whose AP U.S. Government and Politics, AP World History: Modern, or Environmental Science course is taught within a semester. Upon registration, note whether your course is on a yearlong or semester schedule. We’ll make sure that the program is tailored to your needs.

I am a new AP teacher. Will the AP Project Based Learning Series provide general information about AP?

This series addresses the course and exam description for your AP subject, and how to achieve its learning objectives using an inquiry-based project-driven instructional approach. Prior to attending your session, complete your part of the AP Course Audit to learn about AP curricular requirements and access teacher resources that will be referenced during the program. Learn how to complete your AP Course Audit tasks.

What kind of administrative support will I need to implement AP Project Based Learning?

The program includes up to five sustained support sessions that you’ll need to attend during the school year. It’s important that your administrator is aware of these sessions and supports your attendance.

Will the AP Environmental Science projects include hands-on laboratory experiments?

Yes. The projects collectively include the required 25% of instructional time engaged in hands-on laboratory experiments and provide opportunities for students to record evidence of their scientific investigations. This is aligned with the AP Environmental Science college-level curricular requirements.

Are there AP Summer Institute scholarship opportunities available for this AP Project Based Learning Series?

Yes. Eligible teachers can apply for a fee waiver when the application re-opens next year. The 2024 application is closed. 

Eligibility requirements : Fee waivers are available for teachers at schools where at least 50% of the student population consists of underrepresented minority students (African American, Hispanic/Latino, and/or American Indian) and/or at least 50% of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.  

What is Project-Based Learning?

Project-based learning (PBL) centers the learning around students meeting class objectives by engaging in practical real-world experiences that foster engagement.

Project-based learning (PBL) focuses on having students explore real-world problems and challenges in an active and student-centered manner. 

Instead of a traditional assessment, students in project-based learning STEM class might engage in a complex project that evolves hands-on work and takes weeks of preparation but ultimately demonstrates the student’s proficiency in the subject matter and has real-world applications. 

Below is everything you need to know about project-based learning as a new or veteran teacher looking to better understand this important pedagogy. 

What is Project-Based Learning?  

Project-based learning is all about the real-world application of classroom knowledge and student-centered learning. Students solve specific actual problems by working on projects over an extended period of time (often more than a week) that demonstrate their understanding of class content and produce a tangible result. The project is often meaningful to a student, which creates an opportunity to become more invested in creating a solution.  Project-based learning can be focused around STEM topics and aligned with Next Generation Science Standards and its three main dimensions: crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. 

When implemented correctly, proponents believe project-based learning fosters engagement and deeper learning by encouraging critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. 

In a project-based classroom, projects might include students making a documentary on local animal habitats, an investigation of local water quality, or the creation of a virtual museum app looking at a relevant moment in history. 

Common Project-Based Learning Misconceptions and Mistakes 

True project-based learning is not to be confused with a traditional “class project.” Traditional class projects often fall into a category that PBLworks.org calls “dessert projects,” which they define as short and intellectually light projects that a student presents after the teacher covers the course content in the usual way. In contrast, PBLworks.org notes that in true project-based learning, the project is the unit. 

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Project-based learning is not easy to implement as it requires a teacher who can guide students through engaging projects that challenge them intellectually and relate to their interests. However, it is easy to create a project-based learning environment that looks and feels deceptively engaging. 

Louis Deslauriers, who researches active learning and is director of Science Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, told Tech & Learning that he encounters this type of classroom often when visiting classrooms in K-12 and higher ed. “I see everyone is working hard on worksheets,” he says. “They have a piece of paper in front of them, and they're talking with each other, and they're trying to fill the worksheet. But then when I look more closely, I can see that the worksheet is actually less than useless. It's a complete waste of time.”

Because of these challenges, Deslauriers advises educators only implement project-based learning after they’ve received adequate training in pedagogy. 

What Does Project-Based Learning Research Show? 

Critics of project-based learning argue it devalues the importance of direct instruction, but some recent research offers strong support for effectively designed project-based learning classrooms. 

One randomized control trial compared project-based learning AP classrooms to traditional AP classrooms and found that in the project-based learning classrooms 8 percent more students passed the class. When teachers in the study taught the same curriculum for a second year, their students outperformed students in a traditional classroom by 10 percentage points. 

Another study of third-grade science classes found similarly positive results. These studies seemingly confirm what many teachers who engage in project-based learning see in the classroom: the practice can engage kids and help them get excited about the real-world applications of what they’re learning in school. 

Resources for Project-Based Learning  

•   How Project-Based Learning Can Increase Student Engagement  
•   How to Teach Project-Based Learning in a Virtual Classroom  
•   Essential Technology For Project-Based Learning  

Erik Ofgang is a Tech & Learning contributor. A journalist,  author  and educator, his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and Associated Press. He currently teaches at Western Connecticut State University’s MFA program. While a staff writer at Connecticut Magazine he won a Society of Professional Journalism Award for his education reporting. He is interested in how humans learn and how technology can make that more effective. 

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CHEMISTRY PROJECT-BASED LEARNING FOR SECONDARY METABOLITE COURSE WITH ETHNO-STEM APPROACH TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ CONSERVATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL CHARACTER IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Received June 20 2 2

Accepted August 20 2 2

This research aims to develop chemistry project-based learning with an Integrated Ethnoscience Approach in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Ethno-STEM) to improve students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character. The research method refers to the Research and Development (R&D) model with the Four D. The research samples are chemistry education students from Universitas Negeri Semarang. The model effectiveness test was conducted in secondary metabolite lectures at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia. Data collection techniques used expert validation sheets to assess the feasibility of the model and observation sheets and questionnaires to measure students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character. Based on the results of research, it was concluded that a chemical project-based learning model for the secondary metabolites course on essential oils and terpenes and learning tools with an Ethno-STEM approach was feasible and effective for improving students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character with moderate and high criteria based on the N-gain score. Entrepreneurial characters, which include persistence, discipline, and creativity, have been developed so that students can produce attractive and worthy chemical batik products for sale.

Keywords – Ethno-STEM, C haracter, C onservation, E ntrepreneur .

To cite this article:

1. I ntroduction

Higher education policies in Indonesia are implementing the Merdeka Belajar - Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program to face the 21st century, which emphasizes several competencies and higher-order thinking skills, such as creative, critical, collaborative, and communicative thinking. 21st-century competencies and skills can be developed through Ethno-STEM integrated project lear ning (Sudarmin, Sumarni, Endang &  Susilogati , 2019; Sumarni, Sudarmin, Sumarti & Kadarwati , 2022). On the other hand, the vision of higher education in Indonesia is not only to make graduates of i nternational reputation but also to be oriented towards cultural conservation, local wisdom, and the nation’s cultural values. This research aims to develop Ethno-STEM integrated project learning as an innovative product from research that will contribute to the development of 21st-century education science and technology.

The problem is that higher education in Indonesia has not fully prepared graduates to face the challenges of the 21st century and realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research is also in line with the vision of higher education to realize quality education and increase learning opportunities for everyone (Lisa, Rusmiati & Kesuma , 2021). Quality education is essential to produce quality human resources, so good conservation and entrepreneurial character education can realize quality education according to the SDGs. Sustainable development also means the protection of the contents of the environment and social life to preserve culture as a treasure trove of local wisdom (Anggorowati, Shinta, Nafi’ah & Lathif , 2020; Fakhriyah, Yeyendra & Marianti , 2021). Conservational and entrepreneurial character in the 21st century is a critical concern for education in Indonesia because quality education is essential to produce quality human resources, and good character education can realize quality education under the SDGs.

Based on the policy and vision of higher education in Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Semarang has a vision as a conservation-oriented university with an international reputation and aspires to become an entrepreneurial university (Renstra, 2019). To realize its vision and mission, challenging and actual work is needed for the academic community at UNNES. The problem is that the concern and commitment to realizing the vision and mission of UNNES have not been formed (Sudarmin, 2015). T his problem was found when an assessor of the National Accreditation Board for Higher Education (BAN-PT) was conducting accreditation activities in a study program at UNNES. Not all lecturers have developed conservation and entrepreneurial characters in their learning (Sudarmin, Sumarni & Susilogati , 2018). The results of interviews with several chemistry-education students found that most lecturers are still oriented toward mastering concept s (Sudarmin, Sumarni & Mursiti , 2019). Fr om these findings, it was identified that, for now, a facility is needed by lecturers to develop students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character.

A solution for developing students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character is the importance of implementing learning policies for each subject that integrates conservation character for all lecturers and downstream of research results to develop students’ entrepreneurial character (Re nstra, 2019; Sudarmin et al. , 2018). In addition, at this time, learning at UNNES must fol low the needs of 21st-century education and learning. In this research, the meaning of conservation character includes the character of loving the environment, caring for the environment, being responsible, and preserving the environment while still upholding the established cultural values to develop in the community (Hardati, Setyowati, Wilonoyudho, Martuti & Utomo , 2016). Meanwhile, the value of entrepreneurial character includes being persistent, creative, innovative, disciplined, and ready to face 21st-century challenges (Nancy, 2007 ; Sudarmin et al., 2018). Both characters will be trained and developed through chemistry project-based learning (PjBL) using the Ethno-STEM approach.

This study applies a project-based learning model because this model is under the decision of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology number 56 of 2022 concerning guidelines for implementing the curriculum in the context of learning recovery, including developing independent, creative, collaborative, and critical characters per 21st-century skills and entrepreneurial character. The ethnoscience approach was chosen for this research because Indonesia has various cultures with local wisdom as a science learning source (Suastra, 2010; Winarto, Sarwi, Cahyono & Sumarni , 2022; Winarto, Cahyono, Sumarni, Sulhadi, Wahyuni & Sarwi , 2022). The ethnoscience approach has developed a conservation carácter (Patton & Robin, 2012; Zakiyah & Sudarmin, 202 2 ). The ethnoscience approach can also develop students’ scientific and chemical literacy, thinking skills, and entrepreneurial nature (Sudarmin, Mastur & Parmin , 2017; Sumarni 2018; Tresnawati 2018).

One suitable local wisdom for instilling students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character in secondary metabolite lectures is the traditional technology of essential oil distillation by essential oil artisans in Cepogo, Boyolali, Central Java. This critical oil industry has been going on for generations and uses traditional technology. The situations are exciting to introduce to students. In the traditional essential oil refining process, apart from containing valuable scientific knowledge as a source of learning for secondary metabolites, students can also teach entrepreneurship to artisans about how the distillation technology is carried out, how the engineering is carried out to obtain essential oils with good yields, and how the artisans estimate the results of the oil yield mathematically. Thus, in this study, students can examine aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics based on Ethnoscience ( Sudarmin, Diliarosta, Pujiastuti, Jumini & Prasetya, 2020 ).

The research problem is how to develop and pro duce learning chemistry projects with an appropriate and effective Ethno-STEM approach to improve students’ conservation and entrepren eurial character. The Ethno-STEM approach developed in this research refers to the theoretical framework from Sudarmin, Sumarni, Endang and Susilogati (2019) . The Ethno-STEM approach was patented by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia. The STEM approa ch was chosen because it has been developed in several countries globally (Bybee, 2013; Reeve, 2013; Li, 2018), including Indonesia, and has been able to create human resources and thinking skills for students (Lam, Doverspike, Zhao, Zhe & Menzemer , 2008; Urban & Falvo, 2015; Firman, 2015; National STEM Education Center, 2014). In this research, chemistry project-based learning is applied to secondary metabolite courses.

It is integrated with Ethnoscience and STEM, called Ethno-STEM integrated chemistry project-based learning. A scientific study of culture in science learning is called Ethnoscience (Werner & Fenton 1970). Thus, the essence of ethnoscience is a study of community science related to cultural activities in daily life, which is passed down from generation to generation as local wisdom and contains scientific knowledge (Ahimsa-Putra, 1985; Suastra, 2010; Sumarni, Sudarmin, Wiyanto & Supartono , 2016). The Ethno-STEM approach has been proven to suit the needs of the 21st century and can develop critical, creative, innovative, and collaborative thinking skills (Reeve, 2013; National STEM Education Center, 201 4; Zakiyah & Sudarmin, 2022 ).

In this research, the scientific study material that is the focus of research is the study of secondary metabolites for Essential Oils and Terpenes according to the books by Satrohamidjojo (2004) and Saifudin ( 2012). The main study’s analysis results, the essential oil material in STEM and Ethnoscience, then Sudarmin et al., (2018) r econstructed the study material. The following are results of the reconstruction of the content: the nature of essential oils and terpene chemistry, traditional essential oil refining techniques and laboratories, various structures of important oil secondary metabolites, conventional essential oil production techniques and processes, ways to produce high yields essential oils, transformation components of terpene compounds into their derivatives so that they are more valuable, and a project to create a chemical motif batik design with a component structure of essential oils and other secondary metabolites. Thus, in this study, in addition to students taking secondary metabolites lectures, they were also given a project to conduct observations in the local batik industry, Zie Batik, in Malongan, Semarang, to practice making batik products with chemical structure motifs of secondary metabolites on canvas.

1.1. Ethno-STEM Integrated Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning models can equip 21st-century learning and develop conservational and entrepreneurial character s (Sudarmin, Sumarni, & Mursiti, 2019; Sumarni, Sudarmin, Sumarti & Kadarwati, 2022 ). In PjBL with the STEM approach (PjBL-STEM), students are given a project to solve problems based on STEM aspects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) (Patton & Robin, 2012; Uziak, 2016; Murphy, MacDonald, Danaia & Wang , 2019). Through the Ethno-STEM project learning, students can develop the conservation and entrepreneurial character needed in this 21st-century era (Ba ran, Karakoyun & Maskan , 2021). PjBL is widely applied in learning science and organic chemistry with natural materials, which is innovative and can develop critical, creative, and innovative thinking skills to solve projects or problems.

Stanley (2021) states that project learning requires students to be responsible, creative, and collaboratively involved in preparing and implementing project designs to solve problems given by the teacher. Students are required to think creatively in solving problems in everyday life. PjBL is an innovative learning practice that builds learning based on challenges in tasks or problems that lead students to design, investigate, conclude, and finally make decisions with a product . (Stanley, 2021). Based on the literature review, the PjBL learning model can be integrated with SETS (Sudarmin, Sumarni, & Mursiti, 2019; Sumarni, Sudarmin, Sumarti & Kadarwati, 2022), STEM (B aran et al., 2021), and Ethno-STEM (Ariyatun, 2021; Reffiane, Sudarmin, Wiyanto & Saptono , 2021) to equip students with 21st-century skills. This research applies secondary metabolite learning with the Ethno-STEM PjBL approach because it can equip students with skills needed in the 21st century and conservational character.

People are required to master several skills due to the demands of the 21st century, and so are students. Learning with a STEM approach has improved 21st-century skills (Triana, Anggraito & Ridlo , 2020; Reffiane et al., 2021). While STEM education, which includes courses that examine teaching and knowledge transfer between two or more subject matters, is a set of connected disciplines that involve mathematics for data processing and technology and engineering as science applications (Afriana, Permanasari & Fitriani , 2016; Bahrum, Wahid & Ibrahim , 2017). STEM education is being applied in a variety of methods around the world, especially in Asia. Various learning methodologies or models are blended and contrasted with STEM applications (Chung, Lin & Lou , 2018; Kuo, Tseng & Yang , 2019; Wahono, Lin & Chang , 2020). In many countries around the world, improving student skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is crucial for future economic and technological growth (Morrison, Frost, Gotch, McDuffie, Austin & French , 2021; Wilson, 2021; Bahrum et al., 2017).

In this research, PjBL is integrated with Ethno-STEM because ethnoscience can increase students’ awareness by presenting local knowledge values and incorporating them into the learning process. It has become one of Indonesia’s most important learning disciplines today (Dewi, Erna, Martini, Haris & Kundera , 2021). Integrating the Ethno-STEM approach with synergistic learning models such as project‑based learning (Ethno-STEM PjBL) will solve existing problems. This model involves project-based learning combined with four STEM areas based on local culture to develop critical, creative, innovative, and collaborative thinking skills. In addition, community-specific knowledge (Ethnoscience) is also fundamental to developing student character (Sumarni & Kadarwati, 2020) . T he success of learning with the STEM approach is demonstrated by several research findings. Different innovative learning strategies can be employed to facilitate the adoption of STEM integration. The integration of Ethno-STEM with the PjBL model can develop entrepreneur ial character (Sudarmin, Sumarni, Endang & Susilogati, 2019) and students’ critical, creative, inno vative, and collaborative thinking skills and understanding of concepts.

The Ethno-STEM integrated PjBL model contains integration between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics with ethnoscience. This Ethno-STEM integrated learning prepares to learn in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0, also known as the disruptive innovation phenomenon, which emphasizes that students must have technological literacy skills, are multicultural, learn and innovate, are skilled in social and cultural life, collaborate, think critically, and effective in communication (Sumarni & Kadarwati, 2020). The educational design framework for integrating Ethno-STEM in science learning is presented in Figure 1.

Ethno-STEM integrated project-based learning starts from exploring culture or local wisdom, which is proven related to the science material studied after being reconstructed. Studies related to technology and engineering as a form of science application and mathematics as data processing aids and the representation of symbols are also integrated into learning. So far, PjBL research has not been integrated with Ethno-STEM and has not been widely developed. The novelty of this research is between Ethnoscience with STEM and PjBL with Ethno-STEM so that three integrated models are formed.

Figure 1. PjBL-Ethno-STEM Model

1.2. Conservation Character

Character education must be established as early as possible to prepare children for increasingly complex future issues, such as their lack of responsibility, attention to the world around them, and lack of confidence. Honesty, discipline, responsibility, patriotism, respect, and care are values taught in character education and meant to be embraced, lived, and used in daily life in the classroom, home, society, and the state. Character education coaches students to become fully human beings with character in heart, mind, body, taste, and intentions.

As a conservation-oriented university, Graduates from Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) should possess conservation characters. The following are the conservation characters: inspirational, humanist, caring, innovative, creative, sporty, honest, and fair. In this study, the UNNES conservational characters provided to students are caring, innovative, and creative characters in conserving the environment, especially related to secondary metabolites. Caring character in this study is the ability to pay attention and a persistent attempt to stop environmental damage and ecological repair damage are qualities associated with caring value. Innovative character is the ability to apply thinking and imagination to create novel items (updates) defines innovative value, and creative character is an ability to reason through or take action to intelligently solve problems is what creativity value is.

This conservational character is realized through Ethno-STEM PjBL learning through the assignment of projects to make Ethno-STEM chemical batik motifs. These characters were assessed through observation and questionnaires. Caring, innovative, and creative conservation character raises conservational soft skills to love, care and be responsible for the environment (Hardati, Setyowati, Wilonoyudho & Martuti , 2015) . Nevertheless, if we rely solely on secondary metabolites course to shape students’ conservation characters, UNNES’ vision and mission as a conservation-focused university will take ages to realize. Ecological beliefs present and the relationship between humans and the environment (Bilir & Özbas, 2017; Halilović, Mešić, Hasović & Vidak , 2022). Conservation is an endeavor to protect and maintain cultural values and human behavior when engaging with the environment. Future environmental stability can be preserved by a conservation carácter (Khusniati, Parmin & Sudarmin , 2017).

1.3. Entrepreneurial Character

An entrepreneur is someone who creates a business by making products in the form of goods or services by looking at the availability and utilization opportunities (Sampurnaningsih, Andriani, Zainudin, Sunarsi & Sunanto , 2020). An entrepreneur can perceive opportunities and create organizations to pursue them. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship education is focused on developing students’ competencies and preparing them to be entrepreneurs. The competencies in question are skills or entrepreneurial character traits be mastered from the educational process. Therefore, entrepreneurship education aims to equip students in various activities with the skills, and even the entrepreneurial character, to be self-reliant and exceptional individuals.

The following is the entrepreneurial character assessed in this study which refers to Nancy (2007): (1) persistent, exhibited by their consistent efforts to produce essential oils despite limited facilities, finance, materials, and fluctuating prices; (2) discipline, evidenced by their production target and their diligence in watering and adding fuel; (3) creativity, indicated by their creative way to boost output and recycle waste as compost or fuel to sell it to local farmers. When learning organic chemistry with natural materials, the three main characters were conveyed to the students. In this study, local wisdom as an ethnoscience study material is a local plant that produces essential oils because essential oils contain secondary metabolites with interesting structures and can be used as Ethno-STEM chemical batik motifs.

2.1. Research Type

This research is Research and Development (R&D) type with 4D stages (Define, Design, Develop, Disseminate) (Thiagarajan, Semmel & Semmel , 1974). This research reaches the development stage. The results are in learning models and tools based on chemistry projects with an Ethno-STEM approach for secondary metabolites courses to improve students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character.

2.2. Research Procedures

The procedures refer to the research objective of designing and producing learning models and tools based on chemistry projects for secondary metabolites with an Ethno-STEM approach. In the initial or Define stage, a needs analysis and determination process is carried out regarding learning outcomes for the secondary metabolites of essential oils and terpene chemistry, and the characteristics of chemistry project-based learning are determined. In the next stage, a chemistry project-based learning design was carried out for essential oils and terpene chemistry using the Ethno-STEM approach. Experts validated the draft, and the results are applied to test the feasibility and effectiveness of students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character development. To develop students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character, the chemistry project assigns students to observe batik products in the Zie Batik, traditional batik industry in Malongan, Semarang, Indonesia. In addition, students were also assigned a group project to design the motifs of secondary metabolites’ chemical structure, followed by the practice of batik on canvas. The research team assesses the results of batik motif creations on canvas as a product of student entrepreneurship.

2.3. Location, Subjects, and Research Instruments

This research is located at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science of Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) and the Traditional Essential Oil Distillation Center in Cepogo, Central Java, Indonesia. The research subjects were chemistry students of Universitas Negeri Semarang who took secondary metabolites courses. The research instruments are observation sheets, questionnaires, and tests. The suitability between Semester Learning Plans (RPS) and their application in learning is determined using observation sheets. It also assesses various batik products on canvas and students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character. This research refers to the criteria from UNNES to measure the conservation character (Hardati et al., 2016): love for the environment, care for the environment, and responsibility for handling waste. While students’ entrepreneurial character refers to Nancy (2007): the ability to be creative, work hard, and never give up on producing chemical batik products with attractive motifs, creative in designing batik motifs and processes, as well as choosing contrasting batik colors, as well as originality.

2.4. Data Analysis

In this research, data on the feasibility of the resulting learning tools were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively. At the same time, the effectiveness of chemistry projects with the Ethno-STEM approach for the secondary metabolites was taken during the learning process and outcomes and the batik on the canvas production process. The data from research instruments are then analyzed to answer the formulated problems. Research data from aspects of conservation and entrepreneurial character use the N-gain formula (Hake, 1999) as follows:

It is in the high category if the N-gain score is ≥ 0,7. If the N-gain score is 0,7 > g ≥ 0,3, it is in the average category and a low category if the N-gain is <0,3.

3.1. Results of Gap Analysis and Current Secondary Metabolite Learning Problems

Before carrying out a chemistry project-based learning design at the beginning of the study, the research team analyzed the syllabus, lesson plans, and learning tools. The results of the analysis found that secondary metabolites learning so far have not been contextual, and chemistry project-based learning has not linked community knowledge, uses the STEM approach, is still oriented to mastery of concepts, and has not developed students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character (Sudarmin et al., 2018; Sudarmin et al. , 2020). The analysis results are used to design and build chemistry project-based learning with the Ethno-STEM approach and link essential oil scientific knowledge and community knowledge in an Ethno-STEM context. To gain a public understanding of essential oils, the research team conducted observations in the Traditional Essential Oil Industry in Cepogo, Boyolali. The analysis results of the observational data were then carried out with a Scientific Knowledge Reconstruction through a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) between the research team and students, and the results are presented in Table 1.

The reconstruction of scientific knowledge in the Ethno-STEM context is conceptualized according to Suastra, (2010) by verification and reduction of community knowledge data, followed by conceptualization and integration in chemistry project-based learning tools and models. Experts validated chemistry project-based learning tools and models, and then documentation was made in teaching materials for Essential Oils and Terpenes. The t opics refer to the secondary metabolites course syllabus and the textbooks of Satrohamidjojo (2004) and Achmad (1986) . The validation of the device and the learning model related to the content, syntax, and stages of chemistry project-based learning and the lesson plans designed by the research team are excellent and feasible to be implemented.

In this research for the learning design and referring to the results of the analysis of several references and discussions with the research team, the following are the learning characters of chemistry projects with the Ethno-STEM approach for secondary metabolites courses:

1. The learning model developed makes reference to Patton & Robin (2012) which is learning aimed at students designing, planning, and making products (batik of chemical structures).  

2. Students are required to make collaborative decisions and are in charge of handling information to select intriguing batik motifs. Students must create batik motifs of secondary metabolites structures for this study.  

3. The process of making batik is continuously evaluated by the lecturer.  

4. Lecturers and students periodically reflect on the activities in the batik project.  

5. The lecturer assesses the final product of the batik project with the designed instruments qualitatively and quantitatively.  

6. The chemistry project-based learning model with an Ethno-STEM approach is tolerant of change and increases students’ creativity and innovation.  

Table 1. Community Knowledge-Based Scientific Knowledge Reconstruction Results related to Essential Oils with an Ethno-STEM Approach

Table 2. presents the design results from the implementation of the Ethno-STEM integrated PjBL with activities using the stages from Sudarmin et al., (2020). The syntax for implementing Ethno-STEM integrated PjBL is as follows: 1) Lecturer assigns a project to make Ethno-STEM chemical batik from secondary metabolites; 2) Students in groups conduct discussions to understand the secondary metabolite material and determine the secondary metabolite compounds that will be used as batik motifs; 3) Each group discusses the chemical batik design; 4) Each group submits a chemical batik design from discussion to the lecturer and or batik expert; 5) Students and lecturers arrange schedules, tools, materials, and project implementation; 6) Each group strengthens the design of the batik project through a visit to make batik in Zie Semarang; During the visit, students conduct interviews about the meaning, manufacturing process, tools and materials, and the practice of batik-making; 7) Each group implements the experience they have gained at the batik-making site in Zie Semarang; 8) Each group presented the results of the batik making project to be assessed by the lecturers and other groups from the aspect of color, originality, and creativity as an outcome of students’ entrepreneurial character.

Table 2. Syntax of secondary metabolite learning model with Ethno-STEM approach on the topic of essential oils

3.2. Characteristics of Integrated Chemistry Project-Based Learning With Ethno-STEM Approach

The design and characteristics of chemical project-based learning for the secondary metabolite course on essential oils in this study, based on the results of discussions with the research team, an integrated pattern for the Ethno-STEM approach was designed as in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Ethno-STEM Approach Integrated Design Model for Essential Oil Topic

In this model, Ethnoscience and STEM are discussed separately based on the field of Ethnoscience about Indigenous Science and Secondary Metabolite Science, the topic of Essential Oils as scientific knowledge in STEM studies. Its application in the content and context of Ethnoscience and STEM is discussed together or integrated. Students have explained the meaning, types of principal components, and various essential oils in this approach. In the next lesson, we continued with isolation and identification techniques and transformation reactions of the main compounds in essential oils and assigned a chemistry project task in groups to design batik with a chemical structure motif and learn to make batik at Zie Batik Semarang. Students individually or in groups carry out projects by creating chemical batik motifs in the content and context of Ethno-STEM. Thus, the Ethno-STEM Integration section discusses projects related to observing the process and design of batik products with the main structure of various secondary metabolites, how to produce the best batik, understanding the character of the entrepreneurial spirit, conservation, and innovative and creative ideas from batik business people.

3.3. Results of Secondary Metabolite Learning Design with Ethno-STEM Approach to Develop Conservation and Entrepreneurial Character

In instilling conservation and entrepreneurial characters in students, the results of the interviews with the owners and workers were presented. It was found out that the conservation characters of the owners and workers are environmental lovers, caring, and conservation of local plants. Their conservation character is suitable for UNN ES (LPPM UNNES, 2019) . In this Entrepreneurship course, students were informed about the entrepreneurial nature of the owners and workers of the essential oil business in Boyolali based on the results of interviews. The following are entrepreneurial characters of the owners and workers: (1) persistent, exhibited by their consistent efforts to produce essential oils despite limited facilities, finance, materials, and fluctuating prices; (2) discipline, evidenced by their production target and their diligence in watering, adding fuel, and isolating essential oils; (3) creativity, indicated by their creative way to boost output and recycle waste as compost or fuel to sell it to local farmers. In other words, this research has taught students about the conservation character of love for the environment, care, and responsibility.

The assessment results of students’ conservation character are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. N-Gain Score of Conservation Characters of Students

Conservation characters are evaluated through a test that includes concept mastery questions and questions related to environmental love, care, and responsibility about Ethno-STEM content and context.

3.4. Results of the Implementation of Chemistry Project-Based Learning on the Character of Conservation and Student Entrepreneurship

In this research, the application of chemistry project-based learning with the Ethno-STEM approach was carried out on 23 UNNES Chemistry students who took the secondary metabolites course. In this research, the research team taught the students how to make batik and showed them a tutorial video. After that, the research team facilitated the students to learn batik at Zie Batik Semarang to develop creativity and entrepreneurship. The research team and other student groups evaluated the students’ batik results and products. The results are presented in Table 4.

Based on Table 4, the batik motif assessment by the research team found that the motif and originality indicators’ average N-gain scores were considered high. Contrarily, creativity, attractiveness, and color choice fell into the average category.

Table 4. Results of Batik Motif Creativity by students and their descriptions in the Ethno-STEM context

4. Discussion

The following are characteristics of the Ethno-STEM-integrated project-based learning model: 1) The learning model developed refers to Patton and Robin (2012) and the Ministry of Education and Culture, which aims at students to design, plan, and create products which, in this case, are chemical structure batik; 2) Students are required to make collaborative decisions and are in charge of handling information to select intriguing batik motifs. Students must create batik motifs of secondary metabolites structures for this study; 3) The process of making batik is continuously evaluated by the lecturer; 4) Lecturers and students periodically reflect on the activities in the batik project; 5) The lecturer assesses the final product of the batik project with the designed instruments qualitatively and quantitatively; and 6) The chemistry project-based learning model with an Ethno-STEM approach is tolerant of change and increases students’ creativity and innovation.

Students, teachers, classrooms, schools, and systemic problems are all related to factors contributing to high-quality teaching and learning and an effective educational system (Lee, Hung & Teh , 2014). Students must possess 21st-century skills beyond knowledge and encompass solid morals and character (Halilović et al., 2022). Qualified educators are essential for 21st-century learning (Ozsoy, Ozyer, Akdeniz & Alkoc , 2017; Lin, Tang, Lin, Liang & Tsai , 2019; So, Jong & Liu , 2020). Building, adjusting, and applying knowledge to real-world issues are all highlighted in classroom practice. Effective systems must continually adapt to change (Laar, van Deursen, van Dijk & de Haan , 2017). As it evolves from policy to implementation to produce quality learners, the system is cognizant of the context. This issue draws attention to creating policies and strategies to remain relevant today and uncharted territory in the future. This study examines how the education system is influenced by the school context, community demands, interrelated history, and local wisdom. Furthermore, try to understand how the reforms enacted have aligned the education system with the goals of 21st-century education.

Higher education is one of the institutions that can instill values and totality into the traditional order of society to function as a service institution in carrying out social control mechanisms (Liu & Low, 2015). In connection with the conservation process of regional cultural values, it functions as one of the community institutions in maintaining the traditional values of a society. Therefore, educational institutions play a critical role in developing and preserving local wisdom. Local wisdom acquired in the learning process is expected to shape students’ conservation and entrepreneurial characters who think globally and act locally. Because cultural competency will determine the professional value of educational services, teachers must enhance cultural aspects to accommodate cultural diversity in the classroom (Ethnoscience) (Ariyatun, Sudarmin & Triastuti , 2020). As one of the cultural values that live and develop in society, environmental wisdom has made the natural environment sustainable and maintained.

New conservation challenges emerged from the cultural heritage preservation community from the mid‑twentieth century to the present (Chalifoux, 2019). New conservation challenges have arisen when the cultural heritage preservation community from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The 21st century has seen global changes in science and technology (Sudarmin & Sumarni, 2018). The changes that take place have a good effect and an increasing effect on the emergence of new concerns linked to global issues that endanger the survival of the human race. Therefore, learning must go through various activities that show and perform/display their character during education. Through multiple activities in learning with the Ethno-STEM approach, students can actively work hard to unconsciously build positive characters within themselves during the learning process (Isnarto, Utami & Utomo , 2018; Chusna, Rokhman & Zulaeha , 2019).

Conservation character education is an educational effort to develop and sow the values of religion, honesty, intelligence, fairness, responsible, caring, tolerance, democratic, polite, loving the homeland, and challenging students to become healthy, superior, and competitive. The importance of conservation character in learning is also supported by research (Isnarto et al., 2018; Rukayah, Bharoto & Malik , 2018, Masrukhi, Priyanto, Supriyanto & Wahono , 2022). According to the study’s findings, students can acquire conservation-based character qualities by doing basic tasks that take place within an efficient learning process. This is the rationale behind entrepreneurship education activities that prioritize or inspire and develop students’ entrepreneurial characters (Rina, Murtini & Indriayu , 2019; Bakar & Ismail, 2020). Even in schools, it can help students develop the skills and characters necessary to succeed as entrepreneurs.

The success of implementing Ethno-STEM PjBL cannot be separated from the learning process, where the problems presented in PjBL are semi-open, which means that the answers are uncertain. Students are more motivated and interested in engaging in the problem-solving process when real problems are presented and integrated with the local culture. It is also simpler for students to engage with their groups to investigate social facts and phenomena connected to the concepts they study when Ethno-STEM PjBL learning is blended with the local culture (Sumarni, 201 8; Sudarmin, Sumarni, & Mursiti, 2019 ; Ar iyatun, 2021). It also encourages students to use higher order thinking skills, use direct experience methods, and involve various modes of communication to learn to find solutions to solve real problems by creating products.

5. Conclusion

The research concluded that a chemical project-based learning model for the secondary metabolites course on essential oils and terpenes and learning tools with an Ethno-STEM approach was feasible and effective for improving students’ conservation and entrepreneurial character with moderate and high criteria based on the N-gain score. Entrepreneurial characters, which include persistence, discipline, and creativity, have been developed so that students can produce attractive and worthy chemical batik products for sale.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This research was funded by the Directorate of Research and Community Service (DRPM) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of Indonesia from the Basic Research Scheme for Higher Education Excellence in 2020/2021, with SPK No. 21.23.3/UN37/PPK.3.1/2020

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Journal of Technology and Science Education, 2011-2024

Online ISSN: 2013-6374; Print ISSN: 2014-5349; DL: B-2000-2012

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• Open access
• Published: 06 January 2022

The key characteristics of project-based learning: how teachers implement projects in K-12 science education

• Anette Markula 1 &
• Maija Aksela   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9552-248X 1  

Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research volume  4 , Article number:  2 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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The aim of this multiple-case study was to research the key characteristics of project-based learning (PBL) and how teachers implement them within the context of science education. K-12 science teachers and their students’ videos, learning diaries and online questionnaire answers about their biology related PBL units, within the theme nature and environment, were analysed using deductive and inductive content analysis ( n  = 12 schools). The studied teachers are actively engaged in PBL as the schools had participated voluntarily in the international StarT programme of LUMA Centre Finland. The results indicate that PBL may specifically promote the use of collaboration, artefacts, technological tools, problem-centredness, and certain scientific practices, such as carrying out research, presenting results, and reflection within science education. However, it appeared that driving questions, learning goals set by students, students’ questions, the integrity of the project activities, and using the projects as a means to learn central content, may be more challenging to implement. Furthermore, although scientific practices had a strong role in the projects, it could not be defined how strongly student-led the inquiries were. The study also indicated that students and teachers may pay attention to different aspects of learning that happen through PBL. The results contribute towards a deeper understanding of the possibilities and challenges related to implementation of PBL and using scientific practices in classrooms. Furthermore, the results and the constructed framework of key characteristics can be useful in promoting research-based implementation and design of PBL science education, and in teacher training related to it.

Introduction

Project-based learning (PBL) can be a useful approach for promoting twenty-first century learning and skills in future-oriented K-12 science education. PBL refers to problem-oriented and student-centred learning that is organised around projects (Thomas, 2000 ). This means that the intended learning of new skills and content happens through the project that students carry out in groups (Condliffe et al., 2017 ; Parker et al., 2013 ; Thomas 2000 ). Thus , PBL can be described as a collaborative inquiry-based teaching method where students are integrating, applying and constructing their knowledge as they work together to create solutions to complex problems (Guo et al., 2020 ). It is important that students practice working like this at school, as future generations will need to be able to overcome global environmental problems. As such, science education has to equip students with deeper learning instead of simple memorising of facts; students need the ability to apply their scientific knowledge in situations requiring problem-solving and decision-making (Miller & Krajcik, 2019 ).

PBL relies on four significant ideas from learning sciences: learning is most effective when students (1) construct their understanding actively and (2) work collaboratively in (3) authentic learning environments, whilst being sufficiently scaffolded with (4) cognitive tools (Krajcik & Shin, 2014 ). Compared to traditional teacher-led instruction, PBL has been found to result in greater academic achievement (Chen & Yang, 2019 ; Balemen & Özer Keskin, 2018 ). Additionally, it has been shown to improve students’ skills in critical thinking and question-posing (Sasson et al., 2018 ). There is also some evidence that PBL might contribute to developing students’ intra- and interpersonal competencies (Kaldi et al., 2011 ).

Within science and technology education, one of the key benefits of PBL is arguably immersing students in using scientific practices, such as asking questions (Novak & Krajcik, 2020 ). Whilst various approaches can be taken to PBL, scientific practices are often considered as one of its key characteristics (see Table  1 for discussion about the key characteristics of PBL). The idea is that in PBL, students should participate in authentic research in which they use and construct their knowledge like scientists would (Novak & Krajcik, 2020 ). Using scientific practices has been found to contribute towards students’ engagement when learning science (Lavonen et al., 2017 ), and PBL does indeed appear to have a positive impact on students’ attitudes and motivation towards science and technology (Kortam et al., 2018 ; Hasni et al., 2016 ). PBL allows students to see and appreciate the connection between scientific practices and the real world, significance of learning, carrying out investigations and the open-endedness of the problems under investigation (Hasni et al., 2016 ).

Nevertheless, according to the review done by Condliffe et al. ( 2017 ), the efficacy of PBL in terms of student outcomes is not entirely clear. In a more recent review, however, Chen & Yang ( 2019 ) found more distinctive benefits to learning compared to previous studies. As they suggest, it may be that implementation of PBL has developed between 2000 and 2010, potentially owing to the better availability of training programmes and materials. Nonetheless, whilst Chen & Yang ( 2019 ) did find that PBL improves students’ academic achievement in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), they also found that the positive effect of PBL appeared to be somewhat bigger in social sciences compared to STEM subjects. Additionally, the various distinctions between different researchers for what makes PBL different from other closely related instructional approaches, such as inquiry-based and problem-based learning, make it challenging to confidently determine exactly how effective PBL is as an instructional method (Condliffe et al., 2017 ).

However, PBL is supported by governments, researchers, and teachers in many countries (Novak & Krajcik, 2020 ; Condliffe et al., 2017 ; Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ; Annetta et al., 2019 ; Hasni et al., 2016 ) . Studies have found that teachers consider PBL as an approach that promotes both students’ and teachers’ learning and motivation, collaboration and a sense of community at school level, student-centred learning, connects theory with practice and brings versatility to teachers’ instruction (Viro et al., 2020 ; Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ). However, regardless of teachers’ enthusiasm towards PBL, they can still struggle with its implementation (Tamim & Grant, 2013 ). PBL is a challenging method to use in practice, as it requires a fundamental understanding of its pedagogical foundations (Han et al., 2015 ), and it appears that teachers tend to have limited and differing conceptions about PBL (Hasni et al., 2016 ). For example, PBL is often defined through its distinct characteristics (Hasni et al., 2016 ; Thomas, 2000 ), but these tend to be unknown to teachers (Tamim & Grant, 2013 ). What is more, research has indicated that in order for PBL to be implemented as it is described by researchers, teachers require training and multiple years of practice with it (Mentzer et al., 2017 ). In fact, students display greater learning gains when their teacher is experienced with PBL (Capraro et al., 2016 ; Han et al., 2015 ), and it appears that partial or incorrect implementation of PBL may even have negative consequences for students’ academic performance (Capraro et al., 2016 ; Erdoğan et al., 2016 ).

Both Viro et al. ( 2020 ) and Aksela & Haatainen ( 2019 ) found that according to STEM teachers, the most challenging aspects of implementing PBL are project organisation (for example, time management), technical issues, resources, student-related challenges and collaboration (Viro et al., 2020 ; Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ). As PBL requires students to study a certain phenomenon in detail by using scientific practices, it takes longer than more traditional approaches (Novak & Krajcik, 2020 ). Researchers have also reported that teachers consider irrelevance to subject teaching and an unfamiliar teaching style among the significant negative aspects of PBL (Viro et al., 2020 ). Implementation of PBL should focus on teaching twenty-first century skills, being student-centred, and building strong and personal interaction between students and teachers (Morrison et al., 2020 ). This requires both teachers and students to take on new roles. In PBL, teachers are often having to act simultaneously as designers, champions, facilitators and managers, and students are expected to be self-directed learners who are able to endure the ambiguity and open-endedness of PBL projects (Pan et al., 2020 ).

Despite the move towards student-centred approaches (for example, inquiry-based teaching) in many national curricula, such as in the United States (National Research Council, 2012 ), Finland (Lähdemäki, 2019 ) and throughout much of Europe (European Commission, 2007 ), there is a distinct lack of research about PBL that is initiated by teachers (Condliffe et al., 2017 ). There is very little research into how teachers understand and use PBL when they are not guided by university researchers, and the models they develop for its implementation (Hasni et al., 2016 ). It is also important to research what kinds of changes teachers make to PBL curricula to adapt them to their classes, and how this process could be supported (Condliffe et al., 2017 ). Often the reality in classrooms differs from the visions in curricula (Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004 ), and simply reforming the science curricula does not mean that teachers understand how to implement the new concepts into their teaching (Severance & Krajcik, 2018 ). In order to gain a better understanding of how teachers implement PBL and the related possibilities and challenges in practice, and to promote the use of PBL in education, PBL units from K-12 schools were studied from the perspective of key characteristics of PBL. The studied schools were from several different countries and they all had participated in the international StarT programme ( https://start.luma.fi/en/ ) by LUMA Centre Finland (see ‘Participants’).

Key characteristics of PBL

Most projects done at schools are not considered to be PBL, as PBL is often defined more specifically through its distinct characteristics (Hasni et al., 2016 ; Thomas, 2000 ), also referred to as ‘design principles’ (Condliffe et al., 2017 ). However, there is still ambiguity among researchers about what the exact key characteristics or design principles of PBL are (Condliffe et al., 2017 ; Hasni et al., 2016 ). Krajcik & Shin ( 2014 ) propose the following six features as key characteristics of PBL: (1) driving question, (2) learning goals, (3) scientific practices, (4) collaboration, (5) using technological tools, and (6) creating an artefact. These characteristics, including their purpose and features, have been discussed based on the literature review in Table 1 .

In this study, the PBL units were researched by using the six key characteristics found in Table 1 as a framework (Krajcik & Shin, 2014 ). The categories in the content analysis (see Table  2 in ‘Methods’) were based on these characteristics. At the time of doing the analysis, the model proposed by Krajcik & Shin ( 2014 ) was the most recent and detailed description of the characteristics of PBL that allowed study into the quality of the PBL units in practice. Additionally, their framework is in line with the views of other authors who focused on the characteristics of PBL, including the recent systematic review by Hasni et al. ( 2016 ) into the characteristics of STEM PBL used by researchers, and with the reviews done by for example, Condliffe et al. ( 2017 ) and Thomas ( 2000 ). However, in order to study the quality of PBL units under each of the characteristics, the framework was developed further by using the most current literature. For example, the phases of inquiry-based learning (Pedaste et al., 2015 ) were used to study how scientific practices were carried out by the schools.

Most earlier science education studies have looked at teachers’ perceptions of PBL through questionnaires and interviews (Hasni et al., 2016 ), but this study analysed teachers and students’ reports of their projects in practice. Considering the widely recognised challenges in the implementation of PBL, and the shift in many national curricula towards PBL and similar approaches, there is an urgent need to understand how teachers are managing the change, and what kinds of models they are developing for the implementation of the new curricula in their classrooms. The aim of this study is to understand possibilities and challenges related to the implementation of PBL in practice through the key characteristics (Table 1 ). The detailed research questions are: (1) Which key characteristics of PBL do teachers implement in the projects? and (2) How do teachers implement these characteristics in practice?

This study was carried out as a multiple-case study (Yin, 2014 ) on schools that participated in the international StarT programme by LUMA Centre Finland from different countries. A multiple case study allows for comparison between the differences and similarities between the cases (Yin, 2014 ), and therefore to gain a preliminary idea of characteristics or issues that might be common across the schools. The PBL units of twelve K-12 schools were studied (see ‘Participants’ for further details on the selection criteria). The schools participated in the international StarT competition organised by LUMA Centre Finland ( https://start.luma.fi/en/ ) during the academic year of 2016–17 or 2017–18.

The StarT programme

StarT encourages teachers to share their best models for implementing PBL, and students to present the products and research they have done within their groups (StarT programme). The competition has two categories: teachers’ descriptions of the PBL units that were carried out by the schools (‘ best practices’ ), and ‘ students’ projects ’ that describe what individual student groups studied, created and learned during the school’s PBL unit. Each school was able to upload one entry to the teachers’ category, describing the implementation of the project unit from teachers’ perspective as a best practice for other schools, and an unlimited number of students’ projects related to this unit. As such, each ‘ student project ’ is part of the same PBL unit organised by the school, but it describes what one student group produced under the PBL unit implemented by the teachers. Depending on the school and how much freedom the students had in the PBL unit, the student groups might have had completely different research topics, or they might have just produced slightly different artefacts to the same problem.

To participate in each category, the schools needed to upload a three-minute-long video describing the best practice or the project and to answer questions on an online form. Additionally, student groups were required to upload a learning diary, the format of which could be freely chosen. As such, the schools had significant freedom in terms of what they wanted to report about their PBL units. At the time of the data collection, the participants did not receive any professional development training from StarT, but depending on how closely they followed the online channels of StarT, they had access to project ideas and videos from other participants via the programme website, and the programme also included voluntary webinars and newsletters. However, these materials were freely available to anyone on the internet, and participating in the competition did not require any other engagement with the StarT programme.

Content analysis

Deductive content analysis is suitable for research that aims to study an existing model or theory (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005 ). The key characteristics of PBL shown in Table 1 were used as a basis for the deductive and inductive content analysis, where it was determined which characteristics teachers implemented in the projects, and how they did this. In qualitative content analysis, data is analysed by reducing it to concepts that describe the studied phenomenon, for example, through pre-defined categories, whilst also acknowledging the themes rising from the data (Elo et al., 2014 ; Cohen et al., 2007 ). The final categories used in the deductive analysis, and discussion about decisions regarding them, can be seen in Table 2 . The data was looked at inductively within these categories (Marshall & Rossman, 2014 ). An example of the coding combining inductive and deductive content analysis is given in Table  3 .

The analysed materials ( n  = 12 project units and n  = 17 students’ projects; see details under ‘Participants’ and in Table  5 ) were written responses to questions on an online form, videos and learning diaries. The units considered in the analysis were words, sentences, and paragraphs from verbal communication. As the students’ projects were what individual student groups produced within the PBL unit of the school, all of the materials provided by an individual school were considered as an entity when studying how the school carried out PBL. Therefore, there was no differentiation between the source of the information (for example, learning diary or best practice video) but instead all materials from a single school were treated as equal evidence of how the characteristics of PBL were implemented (see Table 3 ). However, since two schools provided multiple student groups’ works as student projects, and there were differences in the approaches that different student groups took to carrying out their project work, also the number of student projects displaying each of the key characteristics is included in Table  6 under ‘Results’.

In order to see how the six key characteristics of PBL were distributed across the projects, the overall frequencies of characteristics displayed in a project unit (1 = present, 0 = not present) were counted. Table  4 displays the sections from the coding framework that were included in the frequency count. Each row in the second column was counted as ‘1’ if it was observed and as ‘0’ if it was not. Including these features in the frequency count allows a satisfactory picture of the distribution of the key characteristics across the studied schools to be drawn (See Fig.  1 and Table 6 ). Scientific practices are emphasised in the count due to their many subcategories, but this was deemed appropriate since they are a good indication of how inquiry-based and student-led the projects were. Learning goals and gains have a significant role too, but their role is similarly justified by their importance – they determine largely whether the projects have resulted in their intended purpose, learning. The results regarding the implementation and distribution of the key characteristics can be found under ‘Results’.

In order to improve the reliability and validity of the study, triangulation was employed (Turner et al., 2017 ) through the use of different types of materials as sources of information. This increases the reliability of studies looking at human behaviour (Cohen et al., 2007 ) and case studies (Yin, 2014 ), as that allows cues from different sources to be combined into a more representative image of a case (Baxter & Jack, 2008 ). Firstly, the materials consisted of three different types of media: written descriptions and answers to questions on an online form, videos, and a learning diary, the medium of which was not pre-defined for the participants. Secondly, the studied schools only consisted of learning communities that had participated in both the teacher category of StarT with a ‘best practice’ (a description of the PBL unit from teachers’ point of view) and the student category with at least one ‘student project’ (description of the work one student group did during the PBL unit). As such, this study includes the viewpoints of both teachers and students. Additionally, the results from coding were agreed upon by both of the authors.

Participants

The study analysed students’ projects and teachers’ best educational practices at K-12 school level ( n  = 12 project units and n  = 17 students’ projects; see Table 5 for details) that were implemented in 2016–2017 or 2017–2018. The projects were mostly ( n  = 9) created and implemented by teachers and students, and as such they reflect the reality of schools when it comes to implementing PBL. Only n  = 3 schools mentioned that they had participated in a (university-led) development programme. As such, the studied PBL units provide a plausible reflection of the reality of active teachers implementing PBL (see ‘Limitations’ for further discussion).

The studied PBL units within the theme ‘Nature and environment’ were chosen from the learning communities that participated in the international StarT programme in 2016–2017 and in 2017–2018. The other themes that the StarT participants could choose for their projects were ‘Technology around us’, ‘Mathematics around us’, ‘This works! A mobile toy’, ‘Stars and space’, ‘Well-being’, ‘Home, culture and internationality’. ‘Nature and environment’ was the most popular single theme during both years of data collection: n  = 132 learning communities from all n  = 277 learning communities indicated that they had done a project related to it in 2016–2017, and n  = 50 out of n  = 229 in 2017–2018. Whilst the studied projects focus on the theme ‘nature and environment’ in the context of biology education, the interdisciplinary nature of the theme makes the results largely applicable for other sciences. The decision to base the study on a single discipline was made in order to gain a more detailed understanding of the implications of STEM PBL for subject teaching; the case in this study focusing on teaching biology through PBL.

The first criteria in selecting the cases for this study was to include only PBL units implemented by K-12 school (ages 7 to 18). Additionally, only projects themed ‘Nature and environment’, where biology had a clear role, were included. Finally, only schools that had provided full sets of materials used in the analysis (written responses, videos and learning diaries) were included. Full sets of materials were required for both teachers’ descriptions of the PBL unit and students’ projects, either in English or Finnish (one school had to be excluded due to an insufficient level of English).

Table 5 presents participants and their school levels: 12 schools matched the criteria described above. In total, 12 project units and 17 students’ projects were analysed, with only two of the schools having provided more than one student project as a part of the project unit. 11 of the studied schools were from six different countries in Europe, and one school was from Southwest Asia. Schools D, E and F (Table 5 ) participated in the same PBL development programme implemented by a local university.

The participants gave permission for using their materials for research purposes upon their participation in StarT. However, as this study looks at the projects from an evaluative perspective, direct quotations or detailed descriptions of individual cases that could be used to identify the schools were not included.

The results for each of the research questions (see end of the chapter “Key characteristics of PBL”) will be presented separately.

(1) The key characteristics of PBL in the projects

The most frequently displayed key characteristics of PBL were collaboration, artefacts, technology, problem-centredness, and out of scientific practices, carrying out research, presenting results and reflection (see Table 6 for more detail). At least some form of collaboration (either between the students, between teachers or with outside partners) took place in all but one of the schools. Any interaction that the schools described as having taken place between different actors was considered as collaboration. Furthermore, technology was used as a part of the projects in all of the schools. Artefacts were also created in all of the studied projects. The results for each of the characteristics are summarised in Table 6 (research question 1), which also outlines how they were implemented (research question 2). As n  = 2 schools provided multiple projects by different student groups, the number of projects ( n  = 17) is higher than the number of schools ( n  = 12).

Regarding scientific practices that students participated in, presenting results (n = 12 schools), interpreting results ( n  = 11) and reflection ( n  = 10) were most commonly demonstrated. However, not all schools ( n  = 4) displayed clearly that students had done any research (such as searching for information, observation and collecting data). As testing hypotheses was not visible in any of the projects ( n  = 0), according to the definition of Pedaste et al. ( 2015 ), the research was considered as” exploration” ( n  = 8) instead of” experimentation” (n = 0). Only n = 4 schools included a mention of students having presented questions that had an impact on the course of the project or the investigations that were carried out.

Driving questions and learning goals were among the key characteristics that were not described well (Table 6 ). None of the twelve schools that were studied displayed evidence of having used a driving question in their projects. However, the majority of the schools (n = 8) did centre their projects around solving a single problem. According to PBL literature, this is not the same as having a driving question (see Table 1 for a more detailed description), but in the absence of driving questions it was considered useful to study whether the projects were at least centred around solving a single problem. Learning goals (goals with a reference to students’ development) were also not that commonly described; materials from n  = 6 schools displayed learning goals set by teachers, but none of the schools displayed learning goals set by students. However, students did appear to set practical goals (goals with no reference to students’ development) in the projects from n  = 3 schools, and teachers mentioned these in most schools too ( n  = 9). Furthermore, students’ descriptions of what they had learnt as a result of the projects were visible in the materials of n  = 10 schools, whereas teachers’ comments regarding that were only visible in those of half ( n  = 6) of the schools.

Figure  1 displays the distribution of the characteristics across the project units. The highest frequency values were for the schools E and F, which both had participated in the same development programme organised by a local university. However, although they did not receive help from researchers, schools A (f = 18), I (f = 17) and C (f = 16) still displayed a reasonably high count of PBL characteristics. In fact, school C had the same frequency of PBL characteristics as school D, which was the third school to participate in the university-led development programme. Figure 1 shows that there is a clear difference between schools whose PBL units were most closely in line with the PBL framework used in this study (f = 21, n  = 2) and the schools that provided project units with the least resemblance to it (f = 9, n = 2).

Frequency of the PBL characteristics demonstrated by the schools A-L ( n  = 12, see Tables  4 and 5 )

(2) Implementation of the key characteristics in the projects

The main results regarding the implementation of the key characteristics are summarised in Table 6 , together with their visibility. The detailed description about the implementation of each of the key characteristics of PBL can be found below: (1) driving question, (2) learning goals, (3) scientific practices, (4) collaboration, (5) using technological tools, and (6) creating an artefact.

Using central problems instead of driving questions did not stop schools from accomplishing some of the characteristics of a good driving question. In all of the schools where the project had a central problem, the problems were related to environmental issues, which meant that they were regarded as socio-scientific issues (Sadler, 2009 ). All of these schools also used local or familiar learning environments, which is another characteristic of a good driving question. For example, they researched everyday phenomena ( n  = 7 projects), used family or peers as audience ( n  = 6), created an impact on the local environment (n = 6) or studied it ( n  = 5). Some also visited local attractions ( n  = 2) or collaborated with students’ families (n = 2).

Interestingly, teachers and students seemed to report different kinds of learning gains; students focused on learning biology ( n  = 7 schools) more than teachers ( n  = 3), who paid attention to progress in learning social skills ( n  = 6), other twenty-first century skills ( n  = 2) and scientific practices ( n  = 2). Students reported these respectively in n  = 4, n  = 1 and n  = 0 schools. Furthermore, teachers did not mention students’ personal development (for example, new perspectives and experiences), which the students themselves noted in n  = 2 schools. Students also mentioned development of their environmental values more often ( n  = 4 compared to teachers in n  = 2 schools). ICT skills were mentioned in n  = 2 schools by students and n  = 1 by teachers.

When words that referred to the students’ development (for example, “develop”, “apply” or “learn”) were used in conjunction with the aims of the project, the goal was interpreted as a learning goal. However, when they were absent, the goal was interpreted as a concrete practical aim (for example, “creating an herb garden”). N  = 5 projects displayed practical goals set by students, all of which were related to biology too. However, none of the goals set by students were learning goals according to the definition described above; they all focused on the practical aims of the work instead. Learning goals set by teachers included learning related to biology ( n  = 5 schools), scientific practices ( n  = 4), social skills ( n  = 3), other twenty-first century skills ( n  = 1) and technical skills ( n  = 1). The learning goals related to biology could be divided into values ( n  = 5 schools), content ( n  = 3) and skills ( n  = 1).

The materials of the study did not allow extensive assumptions about what was teachers’ and what students’ viewpoint, but in terms of learning goals, it was deemed necessary to make a distinction based on the sentence structures. If a continuous part of the text displayed students as implementers and was written in third person (for example, “in this project students are expected to …” or “their goal is to …” ), the learning was interpreted as having been set by the teacher. However, if a continuous part of the text was presented in first person and the text clearly displayed that “we” referred to students, the part of the text that described learning was interpreted as students’ viewpoint to learning.

With regards to different scientific practices, it was not possible to identify how student-led the implementation was due to lack of teachers’ and students’ comments on this. Hypotheses were not presented in any of the projects, although n  = 8 projects included experiments that could have included a hypothesis. The three projects that did not show any signs of doing research and interpreting data were all from the same school and generally vaguely described; these projects did not show evidence of students drawing conclusions either. As all projects were presented to others at least through the video that was shared to StarT, all of them were considered as having presented the results of the project. However, all but one project described having done that in other ways as well, for example, by giving presentations for younger students and parents, and making posters.

Most of the projects were carried out in various learning environments and with a variety of partners. In terms of collaboration, three categories emerged: collaboration between students ( n  = 11 schools), collaboration between teachers ( n  = 9), and collaboration between the school and outside actors ( n  = 9). Collaboration between students was mostly group work ( n  = 16 projects) or presenting the work for other students ( n  = 9 projects). Teachers collaborated mostly with other teachers in the same school ( n  = 8 schools), and in some cases with teachers from another school ( n  = 4); however, n  = 3 of these schools participated in the same development programme of a local university, and this university organised the event where the collaboration happened. The materials did not provide information of how the teachers collaborated with each other or divided tasks. The outside partners were students’ parents ( n  = 9), universities ( n  = 5), media ( n  = 5), museums ( n  = 5), municipalities or other public agencies ( n  = 4), local people ( n  = 3), other experts ( n  = 3), and organisations ( n  = 2).

Technology used by students in their projects could be divided into two categories that emerged from the materials: ICT (information and communication technologies) and technology that was used as a scientific research tool. All technology that is commonly available and used at homes (and schools), such as editing videos, programming and text editing, and calculation programmes, was included in the ICT category. Any technology that is not commonly expected to be found at homes but that can be used to do scientific measurements and observations (for example, pH probes and nitrogen indicators, microscopes and voltage meters) was considered as scientific technology. According to this definition, students used scientific technology in n  = 6 projects and ICT in n  = 15 projects.

The artefacts included for example, reports, slideshows, lessons, webpages and miniature models. Multiple artefacts were created in majority of the projects ( n  = 14). Different categories emerged depending on what the role of these artefacts was in the project. In n  = 2 projects, the artefacts were part of a larger, final artefact. For example, one of the schools developed a webpage on climate change, and the contents of the webpage (for example, campaign videos and articles) were produced by separate student groups. Whilst multiple artefacts were created in many projects, it was more common for them to complement each other, meaning that they dealt with the same topic by answering it from a slightly different angle (n = 6 projects). In one of these projects, students had, for example, created both a video and a slide show on the same topic, or both a written report and a physical miniature model.

In the third category, in which multiple artefacts were made, students created artefacts that dealt with the same theme but did not directly attempt to answer the same question ( n  = 5). These artefacts were the result of multiple activities that were separate from each other. For example, in one project, students created weather maps, recorded air pressure, and made art related to weather. Although all of these activities were related to the same theme, they were clearly separate from one another, and they did not aim to solve a common problem. In the rest of the projects ( n  = 4), only one clear artefact was produced. In n  = 2 of these projects, the artefact was relatively simple, and the materials did not give evidence of students having had to carry out significant research or experimentation in order to create it. In the other n = 2 projects, the artefact was clearly a complex technical product, such as a miniature model of an energy-efficient house or an irrigation system for plants. These projects displayed evidence of the students having done smaller experiments to be able to create the final artefact. However, as the results of these experiments were not turned into clear artefacts, these artefacts were considered as separate from the first category (‘single artefacts form the final artefact’).

The main aim of this study was to understand the possibilities and challenges related to the implementation of key characteristics of PBL. These aims will be discussed in relation to each of the research questions below.

Key characteristics of PBL implemented by the teachers

This study shows that within the context of K-12 science education, using PBL creates opportunities for the implementation of the following key characteristics (Krajcik & Shin, 2014 ): collaboration, artefacts, technology, problem-centredness, and scientific practices (Table 6 ; carrying out research, presenting results, and reflection). However, it might also be true that these characteristics are generally commonly implemented at schools, or aspects of social constructivism or PBL familiar to teachers. For example, Viro et al. ( 2020 ) found that teachers saw development of teamwork skills among the most important characteristics of PBL. However, both Viro et al. ( 2020 ) and Aksela & Haatainen ( 2019 ) also found that teachers consider technical issues and collaboration as significant challenges in science PBL; as such, teachers’ attention may have been directed to describe the use of these practices in their project reports.

This study indicates that schools might struggle especially with implementing driving questions, using students’ questions, and having students set their own learning goals (see ‘Teachers’ implementation of the key characteristics’ for further discussion). Notably, the characteristics that were commonly visible in the studied PBL units were also well-aligned with the StarT format that promotes their implementation (StarT programme). As such, there might be potential in encouraging teachers to implement certain characteristics of PBL through a competition and its instructions and assessment criteria. For example, StarT does not mention driving questions, and although ¾ of the projects were centred around solving a problem, no driving questions were visible. Similar to this study, Haatainen & Aksela ( 2021 ) found that only half of the 12 StarT schools they studied included driving questions in their projects. Driving questions have previously been identified as the most challenging aspect of PBL (Mentzer et al., 2017 ), but it is likely that the studied teachers were not even familiar with the concept as there were no mentions of this ‘hallmark’ of PBL. Based on the results, it might be worthwhile to include the framework used in this study more visibly into the StarT programme in order to direct the teachers’ attention to the desired characteristics. However, although advocated for by StarT (StarT programme), students’ questions were hardly visible at all. Goals set by students were also rare ( n  = 3 schools), and none of them showed signs of learning goals set by students (see next section for further discussion).

Teachers’ implementation of the key characteristics

Artefacts and driving questions would seem to require further instruction. Nearly half of the schools produced single artefacts that resulted from separate activities only linked together through a common theme. Artefacts should, however, answer the driving question and draw the project together (for example, Mentzer et al., 2017 ). Although there were no driving questions, many of the projects that were centred around solving a problem still managed to demonstrate other characteristics of PBL and the qualities of a good driving question well (centred around solving a problem, use of socio-scientific issues, and local or familiar learning environments). This is in line with the findings of Morrison et al. ( 2020 ), who found that teachers are very aware of the importance of authenticity and working with real-world problems in PBL. However, although the driving question can be replaced with a central problem (Hasni et al., 2016 ), it has an important role in unifying the activities within a PBL unit (Thomas, 2000 ). Judging by the artefacts, many of the projects lacked the kind of unity described in literature, especially those with no central problem or one that was defined broadly. Therefore, the observations from this study support the views of Mentzer et al. ( 2017 ), Krajcik & Shin ( 2014 ) and Blumenfeld et al. ( 1991 ) on the importance of a driving question on unifying the PBL unit.

As only half of the schools displayed learning goals and many of the projects mentioned that they had been carried outside of regular lesson time, it seemed like most of the projects were not primarily used as a means to learn central concepts. According to Thomas ( 2000 ), this is not PBL, but Tamim & Grant ( 2013 ) suggest taking a broader outlook on what is considered PBL. Nevertheless, as collaboration, time and organisation of the projects have previously been found to be among the aspects of PBL that teachers find challenging (Viro et al., 2020 ; Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ), it is not surprising that teachers would prefer to use PBL outside of regular lesson time and focus on developing students’ soft skills, rather than focusing on content acquisition. However, spending sufficient time and covering central content have been identified among the central variables for successful PBL teaching in science education (Tal et al., 2006 ), in addition to building strong teacher-student relationships (Morrison et al., 2020 ). This indicates that for PBL to be a truly useful method for teachers, the recent changes in curricula towards less content and covering more skills (Novak & Krajcik, 2020 ) need to be sustained, and these changes need to be reflected in the standardised tests too.

The learning goals mentioned by the teachers were well aligned with the learning gains associated with PBL (for example, scientific practices, social skills and other twenty-first century skills, environmental values), but this does not equal working with concepts central to their curricula. Furthermore, for students to benefit from the learning gains associated with PBL, the focus should be on learning rather than doing a project; the teachers’ attention should be on what the students can research and find out, instead of focusing on what students can create and do (Lattimer & Riordan, 2011 ). Mentzer et al. ( 2017 ) found that projects implemented by teachers who had used PBL for no longer than a year did not resemble a coherent research project, and that this changed only after two or three years of PBL implementation. The projects tended to be a collection of lessons that were poorly connected to each other, and that consisted of either highly structured activities that had the same pre-defined outcome for all students, or of activities in which the main purpose was to research without a clear outcome (Mentzer et al., 2017 ). Similarly, in this study, the projects were often a collection of separate activities tied together through a common theme. According to Blumenfeld et al. ( 1991 ), this could be solved with a good driving question which brings cohesion to the project and ensures that students are working with central concepts and problems.

Although scientific practices were represented generally well across the studied schools, students’ questions were hardly visible, and goals set by students were rare ( n  = 3 schools). As such, it remains unclear how student-led the projects were exactly. For example, Herranen & Aksela ( 2019 ) highlight the importance of training teachers to use students’ questions as the basis of classroom inquiries, as this has clear implications for how authentically the inquiry will resemble that of scientists. Teachers might see PBL as student-centred (Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ) and use scientific practices in their projects, but the reality is that they can be employed in a highly teacher-led fashion too (Colley, 2006 ). Earlier research into StarT projects indicated that the projects varied from having “complete student autonomy” to having “teacher-led activities with little student choice” (Haatainen & Aksela, 2021 ).

Furthermore, Severance & Krajcik ( 2018 ) found that even with support from researchers, teachers struggled to understand the idea of using scientific practices in their teaching. Also, teachers themselves consider lack of support for PBL implementation, including teachers’ professional skills and motivation, among the most common hindrances to PBL implementation (Viro et al., 2020 ). In line with this, the n  = 3 schools in this study that received support for the implementation of PBL from a university, all displayed a higher count of PBL characteristics and scientific practices than most of the studied schools (Fig. 1 ). However, whilst two of them displayed the highest count of characteristics across all cases, one of them had a lower count, closer to the values of schools that did not receive help. This highlights the importance of providing additional support for the schools in terms of the pedagogy of PBL and implementing scientific practices, and the fact that even support from a university does not guarantee research-based implementation of PBL. Even when teachers implement PBL units designed by researchers, they can adapt the unit significantly when moulding it for their educational context (Condliffe et al., 2017 ). Depending on the teachers’ beliefs, it is likely that all of these adaptations are not beneficial for learning (Condliffe et al., 2017 ).

Additionally, teachers who intended to teach biology through the projects (5/12 schools) mainly focused on developing students’ values towards nature and environment. This can of course be expected as all projects aimed to solve environmental issues, but it should not give a reason to exclude goals related to subject-specific content and skills. Especially, as the data consisted of projects in which biology had a clear role, and the students frequently (7/12 schools) mentioned having learnt biology content. However, the teachers mentioned this in three schools only. The explanation could be that students had a more liberal idea of what constitutes as biology content, or that the teachers had not even attempted to teach core content through the projects, and thus did not pay particular attention to development in that area. Nevertheless, the different views between teachers and students in terms of perceived learning gains may be an interesting point to study in the future.

Overall, it seems like the teachers mainly used PBL for learning soft skills, which is commonly reported about PBL (Guo et al., 2020 ; Aksela & Haatainen, 2019 ). For instance, in a study of PBL in mathematics, Viro et al. ( 2020 ) found that less than half of the in- and pre-service teachers they surveyed ( n  = 64) considered learning mathematics among the three most important characteristics of a successful PBL unit. Other options that they considered as most important for a successful PBL unit in mathematics were all related to student motivation and learning of twenty-first century skills. In line with this, the results indicate a need to emphasise the importance of planning the PBL unit around the core curriculum so that in-depth subject teaching can occur (Grossman et al., 2019 ; Tal et al., 2006 ). Context-based and problem-based approaches to instruction are seen as useful for student learning in biology (Cabbar & Senel, 2020 ; Jeronen et al., 2017 ), but if the focus is not on central concepts, then it remains uncertain how useful the PBL units are from the perspective of academic performance.

Development of twenty-first century skills is vital for solving issues related to sustainability, which makes PBL an attractive approach for teaching topics related to it (Konrad et al., 2020 ). Using environmental issues as the starting point of PBL projects in science education has become increasingly popular, and there is a growing body of evidence of its usefulness as a way to implement STEM PBL (for example, Hugerat, 2020 ; Triana et al., 2020 ; Kricsfalusy et al., 2018 ). This study is in line with that as students stated that their environmental attitudes had developed in several schools ( n  = 4). Teachers mentioned developing students’ environmental values as learning goals of the projects in n  = 5 schools, and n  = 2 schools mentioned that the goal had been reached. However, as the participants of this study had a lot of freedom in terms of what they decided to report about their projects, teachers not explicitly mentioning the development of environmental values does not necessarily mean that the goal was not reached.

Limitations

Content analysis can only focus on what is visible in the materials (Cohen et al., 2007 ). As teachers and students have reported their project work to the StarT competition that searches good models for the implementation of PBL, it can be expected that the teachers would highlight (and instruct their students to highlight) the aspects of PBL that they consider important in the videos and written descriptions that they provided. Consequently, if a certain characteristic of PBL is not visible in their materials at all, it is likely that teachers are either not aware of it or do not consider it that important for the implementation of PBL. However, as participating in competitions such as StarT is usually extra work for the teachers, they might struggle to find the time to provide materials that accurately represent their views on what was essential for the project. Furthermore, the form of reporting was very open-ended (for example, videos and learning diaries). As such, it remains possible that if the instructions for reporting the PBL unit had included specific questions about certain characteristics, teachers might have been able to comment on them. Nevertheless, it remains true that in their reports, teachers would include what they valued and focused on most in their projects.

What is more, as participation in StarT is completely voluntary, it is likely that the sample of teachers and schools studied is limited to those that are already actively interested and implementing PBL. As such, the results cannot necessarily be expected to represent PBL that is carried out in an average classroom; the focus is clearly on teachers who are already actively engaged in PBL and science education programmes. As one would expect, PBL implementation can be greatly influenced by school context and whether it is supported by school leadership or not (Condliffe et al., 2017 ).

A further limitation to the results is the scope of the materials and the limitations they had for determining the extent of student-centredness in projects; only inferences can be ascertained about which decisions were made by the students and which by the teachers. However, the interpretations that were made during the coding process have been carefully described in ‘Methods’. As such, whilst the materials limited the deductions that could be made confidently, the analysis is reliable within said limitations.

The number of separate schools in this study is 12. However, three of them did interact with each other as they participated in the same development programme organised by a local university. Nevertheless, as Stake ( 2000 ) states, the main aim of a case study is not to generalise results but to understand the cases better. The aim of the study is not to claim that the results would be true to all teachers but to gain more understanding of how individual teachers might see PBL and find trends across individual cases.

This study supports the notion that teachers have varying conceptions of PBL and its characteristics (Hasni et al., 2016 ). The study provided new information of PBL that takes place at schools that are active participants in international education competitions, as they have not been researched from the perspective of the characteristics of PBL earlier. As such, it also shows how teachers who are actively engaged in PBL implement the characteristics, therefore giving an idea of what the ‘best-case scenario’ of the implementation of PBL units that are not guided by researchers might be. Additionally, due to the international sample of schools studied, the study is not limited to a specific educational context.

This study provides important information for teacher training, as it has paved the way into studying the quality of PBL units created by teachers as opposed to those created by researchers through the lens of key characteristics of PBL. Based on the results, the authors believe it is important to ensure that teacher training and curriculum development consider how teachers can use PBL to teach central content, and how schools can better support teachers to carry this out in terms of resources and time.

In line with Morrison et al. ( 2020 ) and Tsybulsky & Muchnik-Rozanov ( 2019 ), the authors believe it would be important for teachers themselves to learn through PBL during their pre-service training. Furthermore, for teachers to be able to fully grasp the pedagogical approach required in PBL, both teacher training and research should consider the key characteristics and their implementation, especially those that have been shown to cause more difficulties for teachers through this and earlier studies (for example, teaching central content, students’ questions and driving questions). Additionally, it may be useful to direct efforts into studying the key characteristics from the perspective of flexible implementation; which of the characteristics should be followed rigidly, and could some of them be interpreted more flexibly to suit local educational contexts better? For example, considering the importance placed on the driving question in PBL literature, and the difficulties in its implementation, it would be useful to understand how the characteristic could be contextualised into a format that is more easily accessible to teachers.

Finally, a viable framework was created for analysing how the key characteristics of PBL were implemented in teachers’ projects. It can be adapted for studying PBL units also in other settings. The used approach to analysing project units can also be used as a starting point for studying PBL artefacts, which has been advocated for by Guo et al. ( 2020 ) and Hasni et al. ( 2016 ). What is more, it allows studying PBL from the point of view of students, which has also been done clearly less in PBL research (Habók & Nagy, 2016 ).

The authors believe that research should continue to address PBL units from the perspective of the key characteristics of PBL. This allows research to be grounded in the practice of schools, and for researchers to pinpoint the most critical aspects of PBL that professional development initiatives should focus on. PBL remains a challenging instructional method and a lot more training and resources are still needed for it to live up to its potential. The results from this study and the constructed framework of key characteristics can be useful in promoting research-based implementation and design of PBL science education, and in teacher training related to it.

Abbreviations

• Project-based learning

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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Markula, A., Aksela, M. The key characteristics of project-based learning: how teachers implement projects in K-12 science education. Discip Interdscip Sci Educ Res 4 , 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-021-00042-x

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• Biology education

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Core practices for project-based learning, you are here, what is project-based learning, project-based learning (or pbl) is an approach to teaching and learning that has students take on real-world problems in authentic ways. it engages students in authentic roles like that of a scientist, historian, or mathematician to work on authentic problems, whether it be in their classrooms, communities, or societies, and to produce real solutions that have real impacts on real audiences., in doing so, students learn not only rich academic skills but also social-emotional skills, leadership, collaboration, and how to problem-solve with others to take on pressing challenges or opportunities..

While significant efforts have focused on building and researching curriculum materials for PBL, very little work has focused on how to prepare teachers to enact these curricula. This is where PennPBL comes in—the PennPBL program focuses on the important work of cultivating teachers’ capacity to enact the core practices of project-based teaching.

• WHAT IS PROJECT-BASED LEARNING?
• THE PENNPBL FRAMEWORK
• DISCIPLINARY LEARNING
• AUTHENTIC LEARNING
• COLLABORATION
• JUSTICE IMPERATIVE
• ABOUT THE PENNPBL TEAM
• RESEARCH BY THE TEAM

The PennPBL Framework

PBL is a remarkably powerful approach to teaching and learning, but it is also remarkably challenging to do it well. Teachers must draw on extensive knowledge and many skills in order to facilitate PBL effectively. And so at Penn GSE, we’ve studied the teaching practices that support the ambitious learning objectives of PBL and identified four driving goals of PBL that focus on what students learn, as well as ten core teaching practices that focus on what teachers do to support it.

The four driving goals of PBL include Disciplinary Learning , Authentic Work, Collaboration, and Iteration . These goals are what teachers hope students will achieve  through project-based instruction.

In order to support teachers’ pursuit of these four goals in their daily instruction, we have identified core practices associated with each of these goals that can be enacted across disciplines and contexts .

Read on to learn more about each of these four core practices, as well as view guiding questions, example instructional moves and strategies, and resources for implementing these practices into your own context.

Disciplinary Learning

A core goal of PBL is that students explore and deepen their understanding of the core content, questions, and practices within the disciplines. In other words, what are the big ideas and the tools and strategies of history or mathematics or science? In PBL, rather than asking students to learn about history, we actually engage them in doing historical inquiry. Students are not learning about science, they are actually creating and engaging in scientific inquiry to construct knowledge on their own.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support for students to engage in rich disciplinary learning.

Engage Students in Disciplinary Practices

Teachers  support students to do the kinds of work that practitioners actually do.

Ask Yourself...

• How am I encouraging all students to think, talk, and act like historians, scientists, mathematicians, civically-minded individuals, etc.?
• Is what all students are doing right now a thing that a scientist, historian, mathematician, legislator, or other professional would actually do in the course of their work?

Try This...

• Engage students in tasks that are open-ended, require different approaches and skills in order to be completed successfully, and which require students to engage in several different disciplinary practices.
• Disrupt common perceptions of “intelligence” or “competence” by conducting a “Multiple Abilities Status Treatment” at the onset of the project.
• Name the different skills and abilities that will be necessary to complete the activity by referring to the disciplinary practices that will be required.
• Convince students that the task relies on multiple abilities, and that every student will bring value and different abilities to their team —no one will have all of the abilities but everyone will have some.

Elicit Higher-Order Thinking

To elicit higher-order thinking, teachers support students to evaluate, analyze, test, or critique information.

• How will I hold all students to high expectations, and support each student to reach them?
• What question, prompt, or problem can I share with each student to push their thinking?
• How can I encourage all students to synthesize, evaluate, justify, or defend?
• Engage students in projects, tasks, and activities that are inherently open-ended and uncertain, such that there is no one right answer and their process and choices decide the direction of their group product.
• Engage students in multiple-ability projects, tasks, and activities that require students to engage several different abilities in order to be successful.
• Encourage students to justify their arguments, explore alternative solutions, and examine issues from different perspectives.

Orient Students to Subject-Area Content

Teachers continually center core disciplinary understandings, key concepts, or big ideas of their academic subject or discipline. Content and learning goals remain the focus, while students pursue answers to authentic questions of an academic discipline. 

• How can I help all students connect their work on the project with core ideas, skills, or content of the subject area?
• Is what we’re doing right now intimately connected to core ideas, skills, or content in my subject area? Is what we are grappling with important and meaningful ?
• Engage students in projects, tasks, and activities that deal with a central concept or big idea of the discipline.
• Provide specific evaluation criteria for the group product with clear connections between the activity and the central concept.

Authentic Learning

PBL engages students in exploring questions and problems that are relevant to themselves as individuals, their communities, and the world. This means that students have opportunities to draw on their own insights, interests, experiences, knowledge, perspectives, and skills to explore and make sense of what they’re learning about. They also have opportunities to draw connections between what they’re learning about in school and problems that exist in the broader community.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support for students to engage in rich authentic learning.

Support Students to Build Personal Connections to the Work

To support students to build personal connections to their work, we can ask students to share their personal opinions about the work in which they’re engaged. And students are asked to consider: what does the work mean to me?

Ask Yourself…

• Why is this work important or meaningful to my students?
• How can I support all students to build deeper connections between themselves and their work?
• Which of my students appear most engaged? Which of my students should I learn more about? How will I be curious about my students?
• Spend time getting to know your students through one-on-one conversations and empathy interviews.
• Consider if and how your students’ identities are represented in the topics and content that you’re covering.
• Create opportunities for students to consider what they're learning in light of their own experiences, beliefs, values, or interests.

Support Students to Make a Contribution to the World

Create opportunities for students to take on real-world roles as they work on authentic problems and create products that have a meaningful impact on themselves or their communities.

• Is this work addressing a real question, problem, or need?
• Are all of my students taking on real-world roles as they engage in this work?
• Are my students working with materials, data, or text that are also used outside of school?
• Will the product of my students’ work contribute to someone or some community?
• Consider how all of these authentic elements come together in your project.
• Hook students with an intriguing artifact or experience , such as a newspaper article, field trip, demonstration, or data set, and have them generate questions based on their own curiosities.

Collaboration

Most authentic problems require people to work together to solve them. PBL creates opportunities for students to practice and develop their skills at working with others on meaningful and complex questions and challenges.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support that enhance collaboration for students.

Support Students to Make Choices

Resist making all of the choices yourself throughout the project. Instead, offer students support for making big and small decisions that will affect their processes and their products.  

• Where am I giving all students opportunities to make real and consequential choices ?
• What support am I providing so that all students develop as thoughtful decision-makers ?
• Ask students to choose between a set of predetermined options, and provide a justification for their decision.
• Create predictable routines that allow students to lower their level of stress and “collect themselves."
• Consider asking a question rather than making a correction.

Support Students to Collaborate

Actively support student collaboration by defining student roles and responsibilities, designing and managing group processes, and supporting students to reflect on, and refine, their collaborative efforts. Scaffold collaboration and closely monitor participation, communication, and teamwork throughout collaboration. Intervene when necessary to support students’ capacity to work effectively together.

• What opportunities am I providing for all students to work together on meaningful and interdependent work?
• How am I monitoring student participation within groups, and what supports am I providing to encourage equitable participation ?
• What status issues am I seeing within groups? How will I disrupt harmful or unproductive patterns of talk and participation?  Read more about equity in cooperative classrooms here .

Design a task, project, or activity that is appropriate for collaboration.

• Require both a group and individual product.
• Design a task, project, or activity that requires positive interdependence, where students must depend on each other to be successful.

Support students to collaborate effectively.

• Support students with collaboration protocols.
• Determine which roles will best support student collaboration and learning , and support students to play those roles effectively.
• Establish clear behavior expectations, including the supportive behaviors you expect to see.
• Create space for students to reflect on their groups’ process and effectiveness; for example, by conducting an after-action review.

Monitor groups and intervene when necessary.

• Reinforce productive decisions by acknowledging when students attempt to make healthy connections with others or regulate their behavior.
• Observe groups for several minutes and take notes on interactions. Afterwards, discuss the quality of the group interactions using the observed evidence.

In many classrooms, one of the goals of PBL is to position students as active and iterative designers and creators. Whether it’s ideas, arguments, or proposals, they’re constantly  iterating and improving their work.

Consider the following questions as you plan a project and as you reflect on your own teaching, and consider the changes and modifications you can make to create more opportunities and provide more support to make learning iterative for students.

Track Student Progress and Provide Feedback

Provide feedback on student work throughout a given unit or project, rather than solely at its completion. Keep in mind that student feedback is not rationale for a grade; instead, it’s useful suggestions that students are expected to use to improve their thinking and work.

• What intentional opportunities am I giving all students to review each other’s work and provide feedback?
• What supports do all students need to give and receive high-quality feedback?
• Provide clear evaluation criteria that reflects multiple abilities
• Co-create rubrics with students and support them as they track their growth

Support Students to Give and Receive Feedback

Give students the opportunity to see and critique each other’s in-progress work. Support students to learn the skills of giving and receiving feedback.

• How am I assessing or tracking the progress of each student ? What data am I gathering about where each student is?
• How am I using that data to support each student ?
• How can I support all students to engage in self-assessment or self-tracking?
• Determine and communicate a specific feedback protocol. This may include modeling respectful communication and establishing clear behavior expectations, including the supportive behaviors you expect to see.
• Ask students to select a specific target area and ask their peers for feedback.
• Create several cycles of feedback.

Support Students to Reflect and Revise

Teachers dedicate time and provide ample support for students to reflect on their progress and to revise their plans, thinking, and work. 

• What intentional opportunities am I creating for all students to reflect on their work?
• How am I supporting all students as they use their reflections to revise and improve their work?
• Provide clear evaluation criteria that incorporate a broad set of learning goals.
• Ensure that students have several opportunities to receive feedback, and that those opportunities are timely and ongoing.
• Give students opportunities and support to revise their work after receiving feedback.

Justice Imperative

PBL can be a powerful tool to disrupt inequitable patterns in who has access to a meaningful and fulfilling education. When done thoughtfully, PBL has the capacity to create learning environments that are rich in (inter)disciplinary learning, authentic to students and their communities, collaborative, and iterative. However, like many approaches to teaching and learning, when done without high levels of intention and skill, PBL can serve to reinforce inequitable, unjust, and problematic realities.

The PennPBL program is committed to helping teachers build their capacity to pursue the four driving goals of PBL through the high-quality and equitable enactment of the ten core teaching practices of PBL in ways that support all students to grow, develop, and flourish.

About the PennPBL Team

A lot of work has been done around curriculum design of projects, but we know that curriculum doesn’t teach itself. While PBL requires a strong project idea, it also requires thoughtful and skilled teaching in order for students to fully realize the potential of the project. The PennPBL project at Penn GSE has focused on the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that teachers need to enact PBL and how teachers develop as PBL educators.

Christopher P. Dean Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh Ph.D., University of Washington

Pam Grossman Ph.D., Stanford University

Zachary Herrmann Ed.L.D., Harvard University

Research by the Team

You can read more about project-based learning and teaching here:

Core Practices for Project-Based Learning, A Guide for Teachers and Leaders

Preparing Teachers for Project-Based Teaching

Exploring Relationships between Professional Development and Teachers’ Enactments of Project-Based Learning

Professional Learning Opportunities

Project-Based Learning

The Project-Based Learning certificate program is designed for current educators who strive to create rich, meaningful, and rigorous learning experiences through student-centered approaches to teaching and learning. Developed in collaboration with the Science Leadership Academy, the Workshop School, Inquiry Schools, and EL Education, the program leverages the educational expertise of Penn GSE's faculty and some of the most skilled and experienced student-centered learning practitioners from across the country.

Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice

The Project-Based Learning for Global Climate Justice program equips educators with the knowledge and skills they need to design projects that engage students in this important environmental justice work. Learn about PBL for Global Climate Justice and how to engage your students in authentic, action-oriented, and meaningful learning experiences. The time to take action on global climate change is now.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) in Teaching Chemistry

Vital to Project learners put theory into practice. This can contribute in learner’s skills and competencies and determined the benefits and challenges in the utilization of PBL. This is an experimental research which utilized the Quasi design specifically the Non twenty respondents in the control group. The experimental group was method while the control group was exposed to conventional approach. The reliability and validated tested pretest were given prior to their exposure to PBL and conventional Approach methods. Posttest was administered af performance were analyzed using the mean, t post-test of Conventional Approach and PBL groups, a significant dif academic performance of learners exposed to each group, in favor to Project According to the interview conducted by the researcher, the evident challenges for both learners and teacher were the Clarity of In of Technology Used, Facilitative Skills; and the benefits were: Collaborative Learning with the students, Social participat...

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A pretest-posttest comparison-group quasi-experimental study was endeavoured to unravel the effects of the two forms of Microteaching Lesson Study (MLS), the Active MLS and the Passive MLS, on the critical thinking of aspiring physics teachers. Eighteen Bachelor of Secondary Education specializing in Physical Science students participated in the six-week study. Data were gathered using the Critical Thinking Inventory in Physics and were analysed utilizing the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, and descriptive statistics. Results revealed that both the Active and Passive MLS have positive effects on the overall critical thinking and on all of the critical thinking sub-skills of the preservice teachers. Results further showed that the Active MLS is significantly more effective than the Passive MLS in developing overall critical thinking and its sub-skills, specifically, inference and interpretation. The implementation of lessons by the Active MLS group in microteaching s...

Education Research International

christian basil

Education prepares one for the world of work; hence, the adoption of the innovative instructional approach employed in the process of teaching and learning is key to the attainment of this goal. To mitigate students’ poor achievement in computer programming (CP), innovative pedagogy (IP) was adopted to make students become active learners in classroom learning. In this study, a quasi-experimental design was used and nonrandomized the subject with pretest and posttest. Students (N = 145) were nonrandomized to the treatment and control groups. The researchers conducted a repeated measure of analysis of variance to determine the change between the experimental and control groups. Students’ attributes were tested for differences by comparing categorical data with chi-square statistics. The interaction effect was determined using an analysis of covariance. The results revealed that the experimental group’s CP achievement test results outperformed those of the control group at posttest an...

Journal of Education & Social Sciences

khalid khurshid

Abdulnasser A Alhusaini

The Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS) model was developed in 2004 by C. June Maker and colleagues as an intervention for gifted students to develop creative problem solving ability through the use of real-world problems. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the REAPS model on developing students’ general creativity and creative problem solving in science with two durations as independent variables. The long duration of the REAPS model implementation lasted five academic quarters or approximately 10 months; the short duration lasted two quarters or approximately four months. The dependent variables were students’ general creativity and creative problem solving in science. The second purpose of the study was to explore which aspects of creative problem solving (i.e., generating ideas, generating different types of ideas, generating original ideas, adding details to ideas, generating ideas with social impact, finding problems, generating and elaborating on solutions, and classifying elements) were most affected by the long duration of the intervention. The REAPS model in conjunction with Amabile’s (1983; 1996) model of creative performance provided the theoretical framework for this study. The study was conducted using data from the Project of Differentiation for Diverse Learners in Regular Classrooms (i.e., the Australian Project) in which one public elementary school in the eastern region of Australia cooperated with the DISCOVER research team at the University of Arizona. All students in the school from first to sixth grade participated in the study. The total sample was 360 students, of which 115 were exposed to a long duration and 245 to a short duration of the REAPS model. The principal investigators used a quasi-experimental research design in which all students in the school received the treatment for different durations. 13 Students in both groups completed pre- and posttests using the Test of Creative Thinking- Drawing Production (TCT-DP) and the Test of Creative Problem Solving in Science (TCPS-S). A one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to control for differences between the two groups on pretest results. Statistically significant differences were not found between posttest scores on the TCT-DP for the two durations of REAPS model implementation. However, statistically significant differences were found between posttest scores on the TCPS-S. These findings are consistent with Amabile’s (1983; 1996) model of creative performance, particularly her explanation that domain-specific creativity requires knowledge such as specific content and technical skills that must be learned prior to being applied creatively. The findings are also consistent with literature in which researchers have found that longer interventions typically result in expected positive growth in domain-specific creativity, while both longer and shorter interventions have been found effective in improving domain-general creativity. Change scores were also calculated between pre- and posttest scores on the 8 aspects of creativity (Maker, Jo, Alfaiz, & Alhusaini, 2015a), and a binary logistic regression was conducted to assess which were the most affected by the long duration of the intervention. The regression model was statistically significant, with aspects of generating ideas, adding details to ideas, and finding problems being the most affected by the long duration of the intervention. Based on these findings, the researcher believes that the REAPS model is a useful intervention to develop students’ creativity. Future researchers should implement the model for longer durations if they are interested in developing students’ domain-specific creative problem solving ability.

International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews

Michael L . Bordeos

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness, applicability, and instructional impact of using the IDEAL (Identify, Demonstrate, Explore, Act, and Look Back) method as a Problem-Based Learning Approach in Social Studies. The IDEAL method as a Problem-Based Learning is a constructivist, student-centered instructional strategy in which students work collaboratively to solve problems and reflect on their learning experiences to advance or gain new knowledge. The one-group pre-test and post-test experimental design were used to complete the study that was carried out for one week. In all, sixty (60) Grade Ten (10) students at Bagong Nayon II National High School were randomly selected as the participants of the study. The respondents in one group experimental research were taught prescribed by the curriculum of Social Studies using the IDEAL method as a Problem-Based Learning approach. The study shows the IDEAL method as a Problem-Based Learning approach to be a better instructional method for teaching Social Studies. The participants in the one-group experimental research who were taught through the IDEAL method as a PBL performed better as established through the pre-test and posttest scores; and they were also found more motivated towards the Social Studies classes. The data analyses and interpretation suggest that the IDEAL method as a PBL can improve Social Studies teaching and learning practices that lead to the improvement of the students' academic achievement. Hence, it is recommended that teachers use the IDEAL method as a PBL approach in Social Studies classes to enhance the critical and problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation skills of the students.

Maxwell E. Uduafemhe, PhD.

The study was designed to determine the Effects of Scaffolding and Collaborative Instructional Approaches on Science and Technical School Students’ Achievement in Basic Electronics in North Central Nigeria. The study adopted quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design. The area of study was Benue, Nasarawa, and Niger states. A total of 105 SS II students, comprising 77 males and 28 females, took part in the study. Four research questions and six hypotheses tested at .05 level of significance guided the study. Two research instruments: Basic Electronics Cognitive Achievement Test (BECAT) and Basic Electronics Psychomotor Achievement Test (BEPAT) were developed, validated, pilot tested and used for the study. The reliability coefficient of BECAT was determined using K-R 20 and was found to be 0.94, while the inter-ratter reliability of BEPAT was calculated using Spearman rank order correlation coefficient and was found to be 0.83. Mean was used to answer the research questions, while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that scaffolding and collaborative instructional approaches are effective in improving student achievement in Basic Electronics. However, collaborative instructional approach is more effective than scaffolding instructional approach. Also, there is no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of male and female students when taught Basic Electronics using scaffolding and collaborative instructional approaches. It was therefore recommended that teachers of Electronics in secondary schools should adopt collaborative instructional approach for teaching the subject.

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What is PBL?

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

In Project Based Learning, teachers make learning come alive for students.

Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience.

As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. Project Based Learning unleashes a contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

And in case you were looking for a more formal definition...

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.

Watch Project Based Learning in Action

These 7-10 minute videos show the Gold Standard PBL model in action, capturing the nuts and bolts of a PBL unit from beginning to end.

VIDEO: The Water Quality Project

VIDEO: March Through Nashville

VIDEO: The Tiny House Project

How does pbl differ from “doing a project”.

PBL is becoming widely used in schools and other educational settings, with different varieties being practiced. However, there are key characteristics that differentiate "doing a project" from engaging in rigorous Project Based Learning.

We find it helpful to distinguish a "dessert project" -  a short, intellectually-light project served up after the teacher covers the content of a unit in the usual way - from a "main course" project, in which the project is the unit. In Project Based Learning, the project is the vehicle for teaching the important knowledge and skills student need to learn. The project contains and frames curriculum and instruction.

In contrast to dessert projects, PBL requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication. To answer a driving question and create high-quality work, students need to do much more than remember information. They need to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team.

Learn more about "dessert" projects vs PBL

The gold standard for high-quality PBL

To help ensure your students are getting the main course and are engaging in quality Project Based Learning, PBLWorks promotes a research-informed model for “Gold Standard PBL.” 

The Gold Standard PBL model encompasses two useful guides for educators: 

1)  Seven Essential Project Design Elements  provide a framework for developing high quality projects for your classroom, and

2)  Seven Project Based Teaching Practices   help teachers, schools, and organizations improve, calibrate, and assess their practice.

The Gold Standard PBL model aligns with the High Quality PBL Framework . This framework describes what students should be doing, learning, and experiencing in a good project. Learn more at HQPBL.org .

Yes, we provide PBL training for educators! PBLWorks offers a variety of workshops, courses and services for teachers, school and district leaders, and instructional coaches to get started and advance their practice with Project Based Learning. Learn more

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The ML-PBL Curriculum was built as part of research to test project-based, literacy-focused elementary science curriculum and teacher professional development.  Our goal is to promote academic, social and emotional learning and equity in elementary students by using features of project-based learning and the three dimensions of scientific knowledge.

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It was yeah, science is great! I like thinking about these things and then sharing them with this group. I am really interested in science because of doing the things, like a valley with a river and then a pond.

After one year with ML-PBL, I feel like a science teacher again!

I also helped the group... And I can help the other kids learn. When I am quiet, other people can listen too, and when I do talk they hear me and they look at me instead of watching the teacher.

ML-PBL just did not affect my science teaching, it affected all my teaching... As a teacher you’re making students think about the world around them... I guess it’s basically ... opened up the way I teach, and this gives me a lot more freedom.

There's no going back. It's changed the way I have taught throughout the day, it just makes me a better teacher. The kids just get so much more excited about it… My administrators … can tell I am more excited about my job in general.  The units are so relatable; it's empowering for me as a teacher.

Sometimes other people say things, scientists, like that the dinosaurs died because the meteor hit and they say that it was a volcano and they argue about things. I like the unit because it teaches me more about how to do the same kind of arguing. Using evidence and reasoning to back up my claims.

I would be proud to have somebody come in to see how I teach now.

Science is when we learn the most, more than other times because we want to learn about the animals we don't know a lot about

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Virtual labs in chemistry education: A novel approach for increasing student’s laboratory educational consciousness and skills

• Published: 25 June 2024

Cite this article

• Vysakh Kani Kolil   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2035-3439 1 &
• Krishnashree Achuthan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2618-0882 1  

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The integration of Virtual Laboratories (VLs) into blended learning environments in science education offers a multifaceted educational experience that bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. This approach provides dynamic, interactive learning opportunities that can be customized to meet various educational needs and contexts. In this research, we propose the incorporation of VLs as a novel strategy in chemistry laboratory education. Our goal is to enhance students’ laboratory educational consciousness by improving engagement, learning outcomes, and enhancing their skills. Our investigation addresses four key research questions, which we approach through the lenses of various theoretical frameworks, including self-determination theory, self-efficacy theory, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology-2. These questions involve aligning laboratory experiments with curriculum objectives through VL utilization, effectively integrating VLs into in-class demonstrations, understanding the complementary role of physical laboratories (PLs), and identifying the challenges associated with implementing a flipped classroom approach using VLs. Our study’s findings indicate that the proposed laboratory design effectively reduces alternative concepts held by both male and female students. Survey results also reveal that instructors generally perceive the new classroom design as effectively simulating the hands-on experience of a traditional laboratory setting, with 60% of respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing with this notion. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of offering professional development opportunities for educators and emphasizes the necessity of using pedagogically sound virtual laboratories in the context of chemistry education.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work derives direction and ideas from the Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. The authors would like to thank the Amrita Virtual Labs team and CREATE team at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in developing and deploying virtual laboratories.

This work was funded by Virtual Labs project, NMEICT, Ministry of Education, Government of India.

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Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kollam, 690525, Kerala, India

Vysakh Kani Kolil & Krishnashree Achuthan

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Kolil, V.K., Achuthan, K. Virtual labs in chemistry education: A novel approach for increasing student’s laboratory educational consciousness and skills. Educ Inf Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12858-x

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Received : 05 February 2024

Accepted : 05 June 2024

Published : 25 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12858-x

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Title: is in-context learning a type of gradient-based learning evidence from the inverse frequency effect in structural priming.

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have shown the emergent capability of in-context learning (ICL). One line of research has explained ICL as functionally performing gradient descent. In this paper, we introduce a new way of diagnosing whether ICL is functionally equivalent to gradient-based learning. Our approach is based on the inverse frequency effect (IFE) -- a phenomenon in which an error-driven learner is expected to show larger updates when trained on infrequent examples than frequent ones. The IFE has previously been studied in psycholinguistics because humans show this effect in the context of structural priming (the tendency for people to produce sentence structures they have encountered recently); the IFE has been used as evidence that human structural priming must involve error-driven learning mechanisms. In our experiments, we simulated structural priming within ICL and found that LLMs display the IFE, with the effect being stronger in larger models. We conclude that ICL is indeed a type of gradient-based learning, supporting the hypothesis that a gradient component is implicitly computed in the forward pass during ICL. Our results suggest that both humans and LLMs make use of gradient-based, error-driven processing mechanisms.

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