It is never easy to change how a body of people have traditionally done things. As a catalyst of change, it is important that you understand this resistance and find strategic systematic ways to provide the body with a process that will make the change easy for them. By focusing on how you go about making these changes will determine the success or failure of your effort.
This year I took on growing my building from STEM projects that were completed in one day to Project based learning. How did I get the buy in? I asked the teachers what were the obstacles of the one day STEM activities? And most of the time, the teachers said they didn't have time to build background or complete the build in a day. Thus making the full impact of STEM not go through the entire Engineering Design Process. As a result of these conversations, I introduced Project Based Learning. I asked that the teachers be willing to learn as we teach. I asked my administrative team to allow me time to train the teachers each month. This provided the teachers with time to get to know the topic and develop a better understanding of what they were presenting to their students regardless of grade level. Additionally, each grade level could see their own standards in the project.
This process will take me the entire year. Mainly because I need to train the teachers through each part of the PBL. I want to touch every component of STEM. On day one, we built background with the students. We provided them with the problem that will be our focus. After the students read articles and watched videos about the topic, they developed essential questions for their class and the school as a whole.
Teachers were excited and amazed at the students buy in with the new process. They thought that taking the build away from the one day project would cause some confusion and concern. But to everyone's delight the students enjoyed being able to tell the adults what they wanted to learn about.
Each STEM day will focus on a different component of STEM. For our next STEM, our PBL will focus on math and mapping skills. Yes, math and social studies. STEM and PBL's can be inclusive of all contents if planned well.
I hope you continue to follow our journey into Project Based Learning.
