Active Learning

students baking bread

How does a school prepare students for the future when the future is unknown and the challenges that lie ahead for them cannot be identified? The focus must be on teaching process skills—the skills involved in making sense of new information and solving new problems. These skills must be so embedded in students that they are automatically retrieved and transferred when students encounter new challenges. In other words, students must actively learn how to learn. One of the ways Conn meets this educational challenge is through Active Project-Based Learning.

What is Active Project-Based Learning?
How does Active Project-Based Learning work?
What are the benefits of APBL? How does research support this concept?
How will the community be involved?
How will the students be graded?










What is Active Project-Based Learning?

The daily schedule at Conn includes Active Project-Based Learning Modules, a series of rich, integrated project-based learning units developed to make learning meaningful, engaging, and authentic. Through active learning, Conn students become resourceful learners, making use of a combination of reading, writing, organizing, collaborating, technological, mathematical, speaking, and presentation skills to solve the problem or complete the task at hand.

The Active Project-Based Learning Modules, engage students in a series of authentic, real-world projects, requiring them to be active learners. Students begin to understand the purpose of learning as they participate in real-world projects focused on problem solving. During the modules, students collaborate with peers and experts in the community. They practice the processes involved in solving new problems, understanding new information, and creating new ideas while collaborating with classmates.

Student data collection and interpretation play significant roles in each module. Students learn to use technology to enhance information gathering as well as presentation methods. Each learning module is grade-level appropriate and carefully designed to enhance the curriculum goals and objectives while integrating the traditional core subjects with the arts and technology.

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How does Active Project-Based Learning work?

Steve Stanley, president of Analyze and Apply, describes active learning modules: “Imagine a classroom ten years from now. It might look something like this: Learners are meeting in teams discussing the problem they are trying to solve. The project may be seated in any of these […] roles: citizen, worker, or parent. They will not be able to complete the project without learning new or activating prior skills from any combination of curricular areas. The teams will analyze the topic, formulate questions, identify resources, assign team members to locate, gather and otherwise manage information, report back to the team, divide the responsibilities, and ultimately complete the project.”

Conn implements this concept today with the Active Project-Based Learning Modules. View examples of the modules your student could participate in.

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What are the benefits of APBL? How does research support this concept?

A growing body of academic research supports the use of project-based learning as a way to engage students, cut absenteeism, boost cooperative learning skills, and improve test scores. Research has shown that when students are given latitude to pursue topics that interest them by doing what real scientists, special-interest groups, or business people do to solve problems, they go far beyond the minimum effort (Thomas, 2000—Educational Leadership).

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How will the community be involved?

Community partners will be identified for each module and established as resources for real-world projects. Through meaningful onsite connections with local businesses and organizations, students will heave the opportunity to enrich their learning. For example, 4th graders working on a project to organize a school-wide electronic equipment recycling initiative will visit a local recycling center to develop a clear understanding of disposing materials. A representative from the City of Raleigh Recycling Department will visit the classroom to help students plan for the project, develop an evaluation rubric, and evaluate the project. Community resource partnerships identified for the Active Project- Based Learning Modules include:

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How will the students be graded?

Students will be evaluated through the use of summative and formative standards-based assessments. Authentic assessments will include: projects, portfolios, and feedback from community partners. Students will keep portfolios and a reflection log as they progress through the learning module experiences. Teachers will guide students in the development of project rubrics based on the curriculum objectives and project-specific criteria. Community experts in related fields will also aid in the development of project rubrics and assist in final evaluation when appropriate.

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