“Bringing the student's world into the classroom is the most relevant act a teacher can perform.”

- Marc Robert

“A man who finds no satisfaction in himself seeks for it in vain in others.”

- La Rochefoucauld

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisble to the eye.”

- Antoine de St. Exupery

Websites About PBL

Edutopia Group focusing on PBL - Join this online bulletin board facillitated by our own Tristan de Frondeville, where teachers from around the world discuss issues and solutions to deliver high quality projects.

ThomMarkham.com - The man who wrote the handbook!

Buck Institute for Education - The people who sell the handbook :)

PBL-Online - The handbook on the web with videos from the George Lucas Educational Foundation

Edutopia - Great resources from teacher to teacher

Project Tools

http://christykeeler.com/EducationalVirtualMuseums.html
A blog entry about powerpoint templates that are like a 3-D museum space. Kids can focus on content, not technical wizardry. Downloadable templates are linked by her blog, but here are some quick examples.
Examples: Mayan Culture - Native Americans

Project Libraries

http://projects.hightechhigh.org/
Good to see ideas for Driving Questions and Final Products

http://www.pbl-online.org/
Good to see ideas for Driving Questions, I like how they have a lengthy list of sub-questions
In the Project Co-Laboratory Section - Search for middle school, Enhancing the environment – sub questions, possible products, and rubric ideas on the products, and Downloads Map the PROJECT Table with skills and concepts that need to know, prior, before and during.
Video Library Section – Gender Project – Developing the driving question. Focus for viewing: How would you make their question better based on the issues they are discussing?

http://wveis.k12.wv.us/teach21/public/project/Mainmenu.cfm
West Virginia – Very detailed and beautiful projects

http://pathways.ohiorc.org/
Has sub questions, entry events, business resources, teacher tips

http://www.envisionprojects.org/cs/envision/print/docs/750

http://www.wested.org/pblnet/exemplary_projects.html

http://virtualschoolhouse.visionlink.org/projects.htm

Article by Eeva Reader, the PBL Coach in the Aviation Wing Strength Design Project (below) with 6 high quality project examples

Videos Online

Setting up a classroom for High-Performance Teamwork - A 5th grade math teacher in Alaska sets up his classroom for collaboration at the beginning of the year, because 'how else can you teach all the kids who are at such different levels of success'. He uses language very well to set up his emotionally safe classroom.

The Aviation Wing Strength Design Project - Students at Aviation High School in Seattle design prototypes of wings and determine their strength and weight bearing efficiency.

Beginning the Journey: Auburn, Alabama - Kindergartners at Auburn Early Elementary show how even our youngest children get excited about project based learning.

Team Learning: Landry Middle School - Middle schoolers in Hahnville, LA display their project and teamwork skills.

Technology Empowers a Student Fieldwork Project - Toad Tracking in Washington State by 5th graders.

Key Learning Community - A K-12 school in Indiana explores teaching through multiple intelligences and Project Based Learning. See kids discussing PBL throughout the grades.

Tristan Math Project Web Pages

Graphic Design Competition
Entry Event
examples1
examples2
Longitude/Latitude Project

Math Project Sites

Google Earth Lessons - Use the free Google Earth tool to teach math lessons. Organized by Measurement, Projects (including one using Google Sketch Up, a 3D modeling tool now used by most architectural firms).

Math Matters - A moodle site from Indiana University with project examples in Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Login is free as a guest. Use the navigation on the left sidebar to find the projects.

BizWorld.org - Although these math projects that include entrepreneurship and stock market processes are not free, BizWorld works really hard to get funding to provide them to schools for big discounts, or sometimes free. Full Disclosure, I am on the Advisory Board.

Superintendent Benezet - Article about an experiment in math instruction in New Hampshire in elementary schools in the 1930's.