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| Erie High School 2011 |
When I attended Erie High, we took the traditional courses in the traditional format. There were few electives, but we could take college courses our senior year as one of our class periods. We didn't have dual credits, online courses or the variety of extra opportunities students can select in school today. For a while now I had been reading in the Erie Record, the local paper, about the problem-solving class competing in the National Moon Buggy Race and how successful they were. I thought that was very cool and something that would be a great learning experience for students. Erie was also doing some interesting things with career education. Eventually I started to hear about the new Project Based Learning focus that Erie was working toward and wanted to learn more about it. They seemed to be THE school in the state for PBL, especially if one followed the educational circles.
I was excited to get the opportunity to visit; however, with all things new, there are bumps along the way. Since Erie High's move to the new school this year and with school finance troubles, I think the school has faltered in their vision of PBL. I was a little disappointed in what their PBL had become. After talking to a variety of staff though, I am confident that they will get back on track next year with the shuffling of personnel that will provide them with a variety of teacher advisers.
In PBL the teacher acts as a facilitator and provides the process for students to complete original projects. Students operate from their own Personalized Learning Plan, developed cooperatively with parents, advisers, and the student themselves. The whole world is the curriculum with state standards guiding the work. Students can gain credits or partial credits in multiple subjects from one project. Projects are done by individuals or in groups. Due dates are negotiable. Performance on the product is assessed by community panels, teacher advisers and mentors. Facilitators (experts in the field) are not just faculty members but can come from anywhere in the world. Erie High also stresses that all projects benefit the community in some way.
From Erie's informational packet, PBL functions on a continuum. Most of what happens here at Kingman High involves projects as part of the curriculum where all students do the same thing in the same time-frame, and it is graded as part of the unit or class. Some teachers have projects that operate where the students have the ability to frame their own questions, and choose their own topics, but all students have the same time-frame and the project is part of a class unit. At times, project types can be chosen by the student, but the topic must still fit within the unit of study. Today, Kingman High School is only in the beginning stages of the continuum. While some argue that shop classes have always been PBL, true PBL allows for students to gain multiple types of credits and / or partial credits from a variety of areas. For example, one PBL project might yield partial credits in English, science, history, agriculture and music; while at Kingman High a project will get you a partial credit in only one subject. Erie is working at moving toward the last step of the continuum of PBL where projects are authentic and student-directed, and where the teacher is only the adviser, the world is the curriculum, time-frames are negotiable, and the amount and types of credits earned are limitless.
The question to ask then, 'Is this the direction in which we want to move?' I think it is worth looking into as we prepare students for the 21st Century.
To learn more about Erie High School and Project Based Learning visit their website @:
http://www.usd101.com
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| Moon Buggy Race Display |
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| Posted Online School Paper using Issuu.com |
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| Student Centers for PBL |
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| Different view of PBL Room - Total Open Concept |
