George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge.

  • How to Use a Play for Project-Based Learning

    Seventh graders staging an adaptation of A Christmas Carol work on literary and historical analysis as well as the design process.
    Teague Tubach

  • How to Find Experts for Your Next PBL Unit

    Guest speakers can help teachers convey content and assess students’ understanding, and they may be easier to find than you’d expect.
    Heather Wolpert-Gawron

  • Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning

    Educators can take advantage of digital tools that students want to use to enhance social and emotional learning efforts.
    Matthew Farber

  • Creating a Student-Run Museum in Your Classroom

    Letting students establish a museum exhibit with everyday items offers an opportunity to sharpen their storytelling skills.
    Laura Lee

  • Inquiry-Based Tasks in Social Studies

    Assignments that are bigger than a lesson and smaller than a unit are a good way to experiment with inquiry-based learning.
    Andrew Miller

  • Project-Based Learning and the Research Paper

    Students take responsibility for their learning and develop solutions for complex problems when their research paper becomes a PBL unit.
    Brandie Provenzano

  • Projects That Work: Mission to Mars

    Physics students assume the role of aerospace engineers to explore the real-world problem of how to land a rover on Mars.

  • Staying On Task During Project-Based Learning

    Brief daily meetings give students working in groups the structure to hold each other accountable on long-term projects.

  • Twenty Ideas for Engaging Projects

    Twenty ideas for getting engaging projects going in your classroom.
    Suzie Boss

  • Getting Started With Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don’t Go Crazy)

    A handful of tips to help teachers ease into PBL without getting overwhelmed.
    Andrew Miller

  • A Research-Backed Science Curriculum

    Learning collaboratively through projects yields results for middle school students.

  • 6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning

    Reflecting on learning and student voice and choice are core elements of project-based learning, and they’re also key to differentiation.
    Andrew Miller

  • Designing Science Inquiry: Claim + Evidence + Reasoning = Explanation

    The Claim, Evidence, Reasoning framework is a scaffolded way to teach the scientific method.
    Eric Brunsell

  • New Study Shows the Impact of PBL on Student Achievement

    Researchers in Michigan show that project-based learning in high-poverty communities can produce statistically significant gains in social studies and informational reading.
    Nell K. Duke, Anne-Lise Halvorsen

  • Podcasting Creates an Audience for Student Storytellers

    A six-phase process for podcast design guides students to an engaging final product in an interdisciplinary project-based learning unit.
    Suzie Boss