![\"Real](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/real_world_pbl-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>At Burke Town School, in West Burke VT, students and teachers dove into integrated project based learning (PBL) last year. Here’s what we learned.<\/span><\/p>\nBuilding our PBL unit<\/h4>\n
This work started with an eighth grade unit, based on the <\/span>United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development<\/span><\/a>. After hearing about this work, teachers knew it would be an excellent organizer for a PBL project. They decided to build time into the school day for students to explore these Sustainable Development Goals, and build their own community service projects.<\/span><\/p>\n Extended planning time allowed educators to creatively deconstruct their traditional school day and work toward building student engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n Students showed their passion and creativity, as they dove into creating community gardens, energy committees, water wheels, community dinners, habitat restoration crews, education task forces and wilderness first aid courses.<\/span><\/p>\n In December, students participated in a community fair<\/a> and several field trips to hear about what was already happening in their community. Then, they researched different goals: <\/span>What did hunger look like in Burke, VT? How could students in Vermont help fight climate change?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n [huge_it_slider id=”25″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once students found goals they would like to work on they were put into task forces (3-4 students) with classmates who had similar goals. The groups then worked together to propose projects and wrote grants to the Vermont Rural Partnership Council<\/a> for funding. It was powerful for students to fund their own projects, and reach out to community members for help as they implemented projects all spring.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked what was engaging about the project, students said: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really good practice presenting, because that\u2019s a high school skill we\u2019ll need to work on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was very engaging because you thought of your own project, that was important to the town and to you. \u00a0We were really focused.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHands on, you were controlling how you were learning, and what you were learning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there was any question that was asked of me that I didn\u2019t know the answer to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI feel like this project really helped me understand my school and town b\/c I had to research a lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt really does help you learn how to fail, then restart. \u00a0We failed the first time, and then we got it back up, then we failed again. \u00a0We realized we couldn\u2019t overreact, and that helps make a project much better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBeing outside, being able to choose what we\u2019re going to work on, being able to work with community members. \u00a0Understanding our community through our goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to create our own schedules, we could decide what and when to do, we made our own goals. It was more interesting\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI liked being my own boss, we could schedule our work time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a lot of work, with calendars and dates of field trips, our workload was more complicated because we had to problem solve with other adults, more than just our teachers.\u201d<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Teachers wondered if we could build a continuum of transferable skills in grades 5-8, to help students build up to such a large, culminating eighth grade project. As with any good teaching, there was a need to reflect on what had gone well, and what could be improved in this PBL unit, and work to make future units better. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"UN](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/global_goals.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere’s how it worked.<\/h4>\n
But what did Burke’s students think of the project?<\/h4>\n
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\n \u201cI liked how we were able to choose our own project, it wasn\u2019t something assigned to you. \u00a0It was completely our own idea. It was something bigger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/h3>\n
As this work blossomed, there was interest in extending it to the younger grades. <\/span><\/h3>\n