This section provides starter questions that you can use to get students engaged in a PBL project. Questions Starters Stems are potential questions to start engaging students in problem based learning, Questions starters are questions related that can help guide projects and project starters are examples of PBL. The last section of the module you will find two full step by step PBL projects aligned with standards.
Question Starter Stems:
Question stems can be used to engage students identifying their own projects, or to introduce a PBL activity.- How can ______ improve _______?
- How can ______ be applied to ______?
- How can ______ change ______?
- How would you design a new ______?
- How does ______ affect ______?
- What impact did/does ______ have on ______ ?
- What makes a good/effective ______?
- How do/does ______ impact my community?
- What is the relationship between ______ and ______?
- What would ______ be without ______?
- If you were in charge of ______, what would you change?
- How can you use ______ to inspire ______?
- How might your community change if ______?
Question Starters:
- How can we make our community sweeter?
- How do stories from the past define who we are today?
- What new monument or museum should be built in our city to enhance the lives of our citizens and visitors?
- How can we create a more sustainable, efficient, healthy modern ecosystem?
- How can we manage scarcity?
- How can we create "farm to table" at our school during the winter months?
- How can we build community?
- How can we make getting around in the winter more safe and convenient?
- I what ways can I change the injustices I witness?
- What's the fastest and cheapest and healthiest way for me to get to school on time?
Project Starters:
Project #1: Here's an idea suitable for any school that is overdue for a makeover. The teacher behind this idea has built in constraints to force creativity: proposals must make the building more efficient and student-friendly.
Students will apply their understanding of math and art to generate scale drawings, which they'll pitch to school administrators (along with proposed budgets and rationale or justification for the change). I can also imagine students making
prototypes in a makerspace or using an online tool like SketchUp to generate plans.
Project #2: This project challenges "big kids" (grades 4-5) to enhance the health of preschool kids by proposing creative ways to encourage more outdoor play. I can
imagine how a strategy like design thinking would be useful for helping students understand the perspective of their intended audience (in this case, preschoolers and their teachers or daycare providers). For final products, students might
produce an online guide to local parks, or lead play days in which they would demonstrate games or activities to get little guys and their caretakers outdoors.
Project #3: This project invites students to be innovators. Where do they see opportunities for local improvements? How can they use engineering principles to design
and model improved purposes for empty lots or blighted spaces? Student investigations are likely to include surveys, interviews, prototyping, collaboration, and more as they take on this real-world challenge and share their results with local
decision makers. The same project could incorporate social studies or economics by having students consider the stories behind specific places. What used to occupy now-vacant spaces? What changed? What was lost?
Project #6: Grade 1-2 - Healthy eating campaign, (drinking water challenge for the school and community science eliminating plastics recycling, earth science or reducing sugary foods and drinks).
Project #7:
Create a solution or project that has students identify and effectively communicate and resolve conflicts. Projects could include a class bulletin board or a school-wide conflict resolution advocacy program with posters and practice
of conflict resolution skills.
How do we Feel?
Comprehensive Health Education Standard:
Standard 3: Social and Emotional Wellness
1st Grade: Demonstrate how to express emotions in healthy ways.
Kindergarten: Recognize the relationship between emotions and actions.
Background: Many kindergarteners and first graders struggle with identification and expressions of emotions.
Vocabulary: Emotions, anxious, sad, angry
Integration: Art , Literacy
Health Skills: self- management, interpersonal communication
Project Introduction: Read a book where the character might show emotions through words, faces, and even actions.
- Example : No David or Sad Monster, Glad Monster
- Class discussion discussing how they knew the character wasn’t feelling good or showed their feelings. What did those characters do when they were feeling a certain way
Need to Know List: After the introduction, discuss what we might need to learn and need in order to complete this for our class.
Logistical: These questions are typically questions about timeline, and restraints. What materials can we use? How big should our poster be?, Who is this for ?
Informational: These questions are driven by the need to understand the content. What are our different feelings?, What is the best way for us to calm down when upset, lift us up when we are sad?
Resources to Consider for this PBL:
https://classroom.kidshealth.org/prekto2/personal/growing/feelings.pdf
https://rmpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ket-earlychild-healthme/feelings-everyday/
https://www.lifehack.org/355326/12-illustrations-teach-kids-yoga-poses
Students Can:
Create a poster to express feelings , system to express feelings
- I feel …. Students could make the face or create a paper plate monster with the face of the feeling
- I do…. Images of pictures of students doing what can help them deal with the feeling. Examples: Yoga pose ( https://www.kidsyogastories.com/emotions-yoga/)
Essential Question: How can we better communicate with one another how we are feeling in our classroom and what to do when we have certain feelings.
Prompt: Create a visual interpretation for feelings the class to use as an anchor chart for our class to know what to do.
School Wide Sensory Station : 1st Grade kindergarten grade (1-2 weeks)
Comprehensive Health Education Standard:
Standard 3: Social and Emotional Wellness
1st Grade: Demonstrate how to express emotions in healthy ways.
Kindergarten: Recognize the relationship between emotions and actions.
Background: The smaller PBL is designed to focus on identification on emotions, where this PBL goes a step further than identification by asking students to apply this knowledge with creation of an interactive sensory course for their school to use. This PBL could be trimmed by introducing and asking for a solution from a class for a class obstacle course or using this model to create something for the whole school to use. Students will demonstrate knowledge of emotions, expression of emotions, connections to actions. The goal to create a classroom community that respects the feelings of others by building empathy and ways to foster personal awareness.
Vocabulary: Emotions, control, feelings, express/expression, actions
Integration: This PBL is considered a cross-content focus with Physical Education standard: Movement Competencies,
Math - Shapes, cardinal numbers , adding , measuring, English Language Arts - Communication, non-fiction reading and writing
Health Skills: Advocacy, Self-Management, Communication
Students Can:
- Identify and explain a variety of emotions
- Recognize that feelings influence actions
- Identify and demonstrate appropriate ways to express emotions and cope with strong feelings
Essential Questions:
- How does a person control their feelings?
- How do my actions affect others ?
- How does the way I feel change how I act?
The intended audience for this project should be fellow classmates, whole school, or principal.
Introductory Activity/Entry Event:
The Entry event for this PBL could begin with a problem, preferably one that has surfaced from a morning meeting or restorative circle.
Develop Driving Question:
Explain to the students that this problem from circle could be a great opportunity for us to feel better about developing our classroom community. We should begin by exploring Emotions.
- What were some of the times that made you feel… sad, mad, frustrated, anxious hurt ?
- What helped you feel better ?
- How could we help each other deal with our feelings
Need to Know List: In order to study all aspects of the issue, we will need to first develop a “need to know” list. A need to know list is an excellent tool to build buy-in for students. This is because the list will be the driver of what the class will learn. Most of what you plan will be determined by the development of the need to know list. However, if students don’t write down questions that are specific to what you need to learn about, it is completely acceptable to prompt them to think about certain learning objectives you would like them to learn about.
You can separate the list into two categories:
- Logistics- These are questions that are specific to requirements of the project. For example, Where would this obstacle course be located, How Big?
- Informational-These are questions that focus on the objective of the learning. For example, why would someone need this course?
Introduce the project Prompt/Driving question and form examples with the students regarding potential ideas for the work of the obstacle course. Possible ideas could be: Groups of students create different sections of the course and what it could look like
This might be a time to add additional questions to the driving question list.
Potential Activities
- Explore different emotions : Read Aloud -Resources: The Way I Feel by Jane Cain
- Students explore ways to control strong feelings.
- Research sensory stations and obstacle courses
- Research what makes an effective sensory station?
Title : Recess Revamp : 3-5th grade ( 3 weeks )
Comprehensive Health Education Standards
Standard 3 Social and Emotional Wellbeing
5th grade GLE's
- Utilize knowledge and skills to enhance mental, emotional, and social well-being.
- Analyze internal and external factors that influence mental and emotional health.
Standard 4 Prevention and Risk Management
- Demonstrate pro-social behaviors that reduce the likelihood of physical fighting, violence, and bullying.
- Demonstrate basic first aid and safety procedures.
Background: This unit will address and help create community within a building or a grade level. Statistically, most issues concerning fighting, arguing, and bullying happen at recess. Many of these issues are brought back into the classroom causing lack of focus and other distractions. Students can examine many aspects of the benefits of recess to their brain and their body in this unit. However the key understanding is around emotional health.
Vocabulary: Assertive, passive, aggressive communication, body language, effective communication, listening skills, advocacy, physical activity, peer mediation, safety.
Integration:
Social Studies: Civics and citizenship built on respect
Physical Education: Safety during physical activity
Math / Science: Analyzing data, graph interpretation
Reading, Writing and Communicating: Communication: Nonfiction reading and research, effective communication skills.
Health Skills: Interpersonal Communication, Decision Making , Analyzing Influences, Advocacy
Students Can:
- Analyze the factors that influence behaviors during recess
- Identify ways to make recess a safe space for all students.
Essential Question:
- How can we create a problem free recess?
- What structures could we create and provide to increase equity, safety, health and decrease emotional stress and fighting?
Prompt:
How can we make the school safer?
Some examples could be:
| Written Products |
Presentation Products | Media & Tech Products |
|---|---|---|
Research Report Letter Awareness Campaign Brochure Script Blog/Editorial Book Review Training Manual Math/Eng. Analysis Science Study/Experiment Field Guide Statistical Analysis |
Speech Debate Oral Defense Live Newscast Panel Discussion Play Musical Piece or Dance Lesson Public Event Sales Pitch |
Audio Recording Slideshow Drawing/Painting Graphic Design Collage/Scrapbook Photo Essay Video/Animation Website Computer Program/App Digital Story/Comic |
| Constructed Products |
Planning Products | Other |
Small Scale Model Consumer Product Device/Machine Invention Museum Exhibit Structure |
Speech Proposal Business Plan Design Bid Estimate Blueprint Timeline Flow Chart |
Public Audience: The audience for this unit project will be the School Accountability group, or School Leadership committee. The decisions/products can be presented in a variety of different multimedia.
Introductory Activity/Entry Event:
The entry event for this PBL could be a graph that shows the class data from recess and referrals or write ups? After students have discussed a problem and a Driving Question. Students create a Need to Know list, dividing between Logistics, and Informational .Develop Driving Questions:
- Explain to students that we, as a class, will explore safety and injury prevention in schools:
You can separate the list into two categories:
- Logistical - What can we change? Whole school or Grade level. These questions are specific to the project such as time frame and group work
- Informational - These are questions that focus on the objective of the learning. For example, “What does the research say about recess?” “What games create a safe recess” “What programs could we follow to help solve problems at recess?”
Potential Activities/ Resources to Consider for this PBL:
Last modified: Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 8:15 AM