{"id":1571,"date":"2009-03-26T16:38:53","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T22:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2009-03-26T16:38:53","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T22:38:53","slug":"project-guide-sheet-and-core-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=1571","title":{"rendered":"Project Guide Sheet and Core Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

After attending the EduCon 2.1 Conference<\/a> in Philadelphia, I became acquainted with the Science Leadership Academy and their core values: Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection.\u00a0 The value of using these ideas to teach biology, as opposed to the traditional value placed on transmitting content knowledge, has been nothing short of transformational for both my students and myself. To help students design projects that help them develop these skills, skills that have proven themselves indispensible to successful people throughout history, a colleague, Mike Murphy, and I created this Project Guide Sheet<\/a>.\u00a0 The students struggle with this document, in a positive way,\u00a0 in more ways than I ever could have imagined. Working through this document with students to help them design projects has brought into my classroom some of the richest experiences that I have had in my career.\u00a0 I would love the feedback of the KABT community to help me to take this idea even further.<\/p>\n

The Project Guide Sheet<\/a> is divided into the following sections: Inquiry, Plan, Collaboration, Research, and Reflection.\u00a0 In the following lines, I will highlight some of the successes and insights I have gained from each section.<\/p>\n

Inquiry: In the first part of this section, I have seen just how difficult of a time students have creating questions to guide their projects.\u00a0 They are so conditioned for the questions to be asked for them that creating their own question proves to be tremendously difficult for students of all ability levels.\u00a0 This section leads to great one-on-one discussions with students.\u00a0 The second part of this section asks students to identify their intended audience.\u00a0 I have found that this is an area students never consider.\u00a0 For us, as successful educators, it is something that we do without thinking.\u00a0 For students, they almost never spend time thinking about who the presentation is for, let alone put into words.\u00a0 The third part of this section asks students to explain why their intended audience will find the project interesting.\u00a0 This section has been mind-blowing for me, because I discovered that students almost NEVER consider why their audience might find their project interesting. Typical answers from students are along the lines of, \u201c\u2026this project will be interesting because my classmates will get new information\u201d.\u00a0 My students are shocked to discover that not all students find all new information to be interesting!<\/p>\n

Plan:\u00a0 This section asks students to plan their projects.\u00a0 Again, this is an area students rarely consider because project plans are typically provided for them.\u00a0 Helping them through the struggle of planning projects has been particularly enriching for us all in my classroom.<\/p>\n

Collaboration:\u00a0 This section asks students to collaborate with family members, other faculty, fellow students, community members and\/or field professionals. This is my very favorite section because it brings the projects to life by bringing in new ideas and it expands the scope of project beyond the confines of our classroom.\u00a0 One of the best examples of the power of this section involves a student who was completing a project on genetic engineering and was absolutely positive that genetic engineering was morally wrong on religious grounds.\u00a0 Had she completed a traditional project, without collaboration, she would have found sources to solidify her viewpoint and that would have been the end.\u00a0 Instead, one of the people with whom she chose to collaborate was her minister who SHOCKED her by sharing that he saw no problems with genetic engineering as long as it benefitted God\u2019s children and was respectful of life.\u00a0 This was earth-shattering for this student, in a very positive way.\u00a0 She left the experience with the idea that this issue is much more complicated than she originally thought, and left her with more questions than answers, a hallmark of quality, meaningful learning.<\/p>\n

Research:\u00a0 This section is pretty traditional, and is an area where I would like more collaboration with colleagues in how to enrich it and make it more meaningful\/useful for students.<\/p>\n

Reflection:\u00a0 This is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of the process as it provides students the opportunity to make meaning from their experience.\u00a0 A successful project should leave students with new understandings, new questions, and a clear idea about how lessons learned from this project can improve the quality of projects they complete in the future, whether scholastic or otherwise.\u00a0 Giving the students the opportunity for metacognition is an ESSENTIAL part of a meaningful project experience.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt that with meaningful collaboration, this document will evolve over time.\u00a0 I sincerely hope that the KABT community will play a large role in that evolution.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to give this a try in your classroom, please feel free to modify it in any way you see fit.\u00a0 My only request is that you let me know how it goes for you and your students.\u00a0\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After attending the EduCon 2.1 Conference in Philadelphia, I became acquainted with the Science Leadership Academy and their core values: Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection.\u00a0 The value of using these ideas to teach biology, as opposed to the traditional value placed on transmitting content knowledge, has been nothing short of transformational for both my
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