{"id":16553,"date":"2018-09-17T15:37:50","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T19:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=16553"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:32:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T19:32:13","slug":"5-lessons-burke-town-school-pbl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/5-lessons-burke-town-school-pbl\/","title":{"rendered":"5 lessons learned from an integrated middle school PBL unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h1>\n

Reflections from the Burke Town School<\/h1>\n

\"Real<\/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>\n

Building 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

\"UN<\/a><\/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

Here’s how it worked.<\/h4>\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

But what did Burke’s students think of the project?<\/h4>\n

When asked what was engaging about the project, students said: <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\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

\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

<\/h3>\n

As this work blossomed, there was interest in extending it to the younger grades. <\/span><\/h3>\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

Teachers questioned how to better prepare students for self direction and also how to better structure time within a PBL unit, to ensure standards were addressed, students were assessed regularly, and challenged appropriately. <\/span><\/p>\n

With these questions in mind, teachers designed a 6\/7 Inquiry Unit to try out new structures in PBL learning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sixth and seventh grade students learned about forest ecology and also human impact on the environment. Then, they began an invention convention challenge, to build an invention that would lessen human impact. Students again worked in task forces (3-4 students) to research, build, test and improve their invention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are 5 lessons learned from implementing these units.<\/h4>\n

1. Connect with the community.<\/h4>\n

A huge success of the 8th grade Projects for Hope happened at the launch of the unit. <\/span>Read here about how teachers implemented a community fair to help students brainstorm project topics<\/span><\/a>. The importance of community connections stayed an important part of both units. Students embraced learning from a variety of adults in their lives, and teachers leaned on community members to present content information (such as how to teach yoga or remove honeysuckle) that emerged from student projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students spent a lot of time emailing and calling community partners. <\/span><\/h3>\n

This was important work, and just-in-time teaching was provided for students on how to draft professional emails, or make phone calls. Students grew in speaking and listening skills throughout this work. It was also important for teachers to design learning experiences by inviting partners in to teach lessons or lead events that the whole class could benefit from. For both units we also partnered with the local libraries (at Lyndon State College and the town library) to borrow books. Bringing in boxes of new books (fiction, nonfiction, picture books, field guides, and how to manuals) livened up the research portion of the unit. We also utilized the local Fairbanks Museum to teach field trips related to project topics.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Structure learning time.<\/h4>\n

One common misconception is that PBL time is free time. There is a fine balance to encouraging self direction and teaching it. Middle schoolers need structure and teachers need to ensure that there are checkpoints for learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few things that helped Burke teachers ensure this time was structured:<\/span><\/p>\n