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10 Engaging Examples of Project Based Learning (PBL)
Project-based learning (PBL) is an inquiry-based approach that immerses students in real-world applications and provides students the opportunity to develop 21st century skills like critical thinking, communication and agency. In contrast to traditional instruction that focuses on rote memorization, project-based learning encourages student engagement, collaboration, and problem-solving, empowering students to apply their knowledge to solve problems in their local or global communities. PBL requires students to practice and learn communication skills in order to collaborate in small groups. For further information on the basics of Project-Based Learning, read A Comprehensive Guide to Project-Based Learning. This article gives an overview of PBL and provides examples of project-based learning units across grade levels and content areas.
Why Use Project Based Learning in Your Classroom?
By integrating project-based learning into the classroom, educators can provide many benefits for students. The research overwhelmingly supports the positive impact of PBL on students, teachers, and school communities. Additional studies documenting the impact of PBL on K-12 learning are available in the PBL research annotated bibliography on the New Tech Network website.
How to Structure a Successful PBL Unit
Project-based learning (PBL) design stands apart from traditional learning design by focusing on “beginning with the end in mind.” A quality PBL plan starts with state standards and student outcomes, ensuring that the curriculum’s goals are met while aligning these goals to the real-world problems students face within a project.
An effective PBL and inquiry-based learning plan includes several essential elements. These include:
Begin with the End in Mind
- Determine high-impact standards and Learning Outcomes for the foundation of your project’s design.
Design the Project Scenario
- Design an authentic scenario that will require students to learn the content standards and outcomes you chose.
- Create an entry event that will introduce the project, generate student curiosity and interest, encourage students to think critically, and elicit need-to-knows.
Create the Path
- Determine benchmarks that will serve as check-ins throughout the project and lead to the final product/s. Benchmarks can be assigned to students individually or in small groups.
- Determine scaffolding (workshops, graphic organizers, templates, investigations, learner-centered activities like Jigsaw protocol or Socratic Seminar) that will support student outcomes. When planning the day-to-day scaffolds, keep in mind the needs of your students and plan for support at all levels, including supports for students with special needs.
Plan the Assessment
- Create a project rubric that allows you and your students to assess progress along the project path and the final project presentations.
For more information on the design of PBL units, read the article: Guide to Project Planning Toolkit and download the free planning template.
Key Elements of Effective PBL Projects
- Real-world and authentic contexts: Project-based learning emphasizes real-world problems that encourage students to connect academic content to meaningful and relevant contexts. This enables students to see the practical application of what they are learning. By tackling personally meaningful topics and engaging in hands-on tasks, students get the opportunity to apply what they know, use critical thinking skills, and develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and its relevance in their lives. To learn more about authentic PBL, read What is Authentic PBL?
Student Voice and Choice: Project-based learning allows students to take an active role in their learning. Instead of rote memorization of information, students engage in meaningful learning experiences, exercise voice and choice, and develop student agency skills. This empowers students to explore their interests and take ownership of their learning process.
Reflection and Revision: Project-based learning environments emphasize student growth over time, intrinsic motivation, peer feedback, reflection, and revision. With the asset-based feedback loop naturally embedded into projects, PBL can help meet the needs of a diverse set of learners by focusing on what students know and can do and supporting them in growing those skills.
10 Project-Based Learning Ideas and Examples for the Classroom
Project-based learning requires thoughtful planning and design, and educators benefit from using a PBL-focused lesson plan. Below are ten examples of project ideas across various grade levels and subject areas. Some of the ideas include a “project snapshot” with further planning for support in PBL implementation.
1. Growing Food (Grade Level: Kindergarten)
- Project Driving Questions: What kinds of vegetables grow in our area? How can we bring healthy vegetables to more people in our community?
- Project Scenario: Students will learn about the importance of fresh, local vegetables for the health of a community. They will learn about the kinds of vegetables and crops that can be grown in their local area, considering weather patterns/seasons and local environmental conditions. They’ll help ensure there are vegetables available in their community for more people by caring for fast-growing produce in the school garden/greenhouse/containers and donating the produce.
- Activities: Students create a growth chart, compare plant growth in different conditions, track weather, discuss findings, and build teamwork skills.
- Final Project: Vegetables to donate, groups will present their findings in an infographic on what vegetables need to grow in their garden.
2. Honoring Unsung Heroes (Grade Level: 3 – Social Studies)
- Driving Question: How can we honor the unsung voices in our community?
- Project Scenario: Students will explore their diverse local community. Using historical texts, students will learn about the people, places, and events that have shaped the history and culture of their community. Using models of historical narrative stories, students will individually write a narrative story about a person in their community who inspires them or has influenced their life.
- Activities: Students take a community walk and/or fieldwork to a local history museum to learn about the history of the community they live in. Read a variety of historical texts about individuals and groups who have shaped historical events, and conduct student interviews with community members.
- Final Product: Interviews, along with photographs of the community members and students’ individual narratives, will be curated and exhibited within their classroom for presentations or in a local history museum.
Click the link to download a snapshot of the Honoring Unsung Heroes project.
3. Sustaining Our Tomorrow (Grade Level: 4 – Social Studies)
- Driving Question: Who is really in control of the changes to our Earth’s environment- humans or the environment?
- Project Scenario: Students will explore changes to the Earth’s environment due to both natural events and human activity and make predictions about what the Earth might look like in the future. They will research the use of natural resources and sustainable solutions in order to plan and implement an awareness campaign to help inform others of small changes they can make for a better tomorrow, drawing on evidence from their research and investigations.
- Activities: Students work together on analysis of sea level change data, Clothesline Math activity: compare and order numbers from “Our World in Data: Plastic Waste Generation”, workshop on energy sources
- Final Product: Group presentation at community awareness event – Stop Motion Animation Environmental Awareness Campaign. Students present findings to the class with supporting evidence (infographics, maps, data, research).
For more examples of hands-on learning and PBL in elementary, read Project-Based Learning Activities for Elementary School.
4. Words to Change the World (Grade Level: Middle School – Humanities)
- Driving Question: Who makes which decisions in the US government, and how can I have a voice in those decisions?
- Project Scenario: Students learn about the structure and function of their state government. Then students choose a topic, determine which government entity/official has jurisdiction, and advocate for their view on that issue to the correct individual/entity, ideally with the help of a representative from the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. They also write an Opinion Editorial arguing for their position, which they submit to a local paper.
- Activities: Stations on local, state, federal powers and responsibilities, Jigsaw protocol on Federalist Papers, Peer feedback on revised OpEd
- Final Product: Students must write a letter to congressperson or other entity advocating for a position and an individual Op-Ed
5. Cold Cats Hot Dogs (Grade Level: 7 – Science)
- Driving Question: How can thermodynamics help design a structure that provides animals with a safe and comfortable place to rest during dangerous weather?
- Project Scenario: Learners will work as teams to design a structure that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy for dogs or cats. This structure serves to answer the real-world problem facing pet owners who are unable to house their pets indoors, or local animal shelters needing to expand their outdoor capacity during times of dangerous weather.
- Activities: types of energy concept mapping, laboratory investigation on the effect radiation has on different colors, market research on current designs, local animal shelter guest speaker, blueprint of shelter, prototype of shelter.
- Final Product: Students will create a presentation with a final blueprint for the animal structure.
Click the link to download a snapshot of the Cold Cats Hot Dogs project.
6. Shower vs. Bath PrBL (Grade Level: 6 – Math)
- Driving Question: Which is cheaper- a shower or a bath?
- Problem Scenario: Students work in pairs or groups of three to answer the question: Which do you think is cheaper: a shower or bath? Ask students to answer the “Why” using a mathematical justification (unit rate).
- Final Product: Once each group has calculated an answer, students engage in a Fishbowl protocol around these questions:
- How would the situation have to change for the answer to reverse itself? Are there any other possible scenarios?
- How long of a shower can you have with the same amount of water he used for the bath?
7. Muckrakers (Grade Level: High School – US History and English Language Arts)
- Driving Question: Is dissent really “the highest form of patriotism?”
- Project Scenario: Students take on the role of modern-day muckrakers. Students will research the role of muckrakers in the Progressive Era and modern-day muckraking. They then research a locally relevant issue, such as prison or detention center conditions, working conditions, environmental effects of a particular industry, etc. They’ll produce a video exposing injustice they’ve uncovered and promoting social change, or for a screening with invited journalists/stakeholders.
- Activities: Muckrakers through Images and Political Cartoons Chalk Talk Activity, Text Discussion on The Jungle excerpts, workshop on Op-Ed writing, research different types of Modern Day Muckraking, documentary storyboard, peer editing on Op-Ed article.
- Final Product: Final product: Muckraker Video on the issue of their choice, and Individual Product: Op-Ed Article answering the driving question.
Click the link to download a snapshot of the Muckraker project.
8. Moving Day PrBL (Grade Level: HS – Algebra 2 )
- Driving Question: Which is the better company to hire and why?
- Problem Scenario: In this problem, students work in teams to compare two different moving companies’ prices for a one day move, comparing per hour prices, minimum hour charges, travel time.
- Final Product: Students use a mathematical model for both companies, and the model should include the following: Relevant functions that help turn the moving day comparison into mathematical formulas and graphs for each company to show what each charges in order to make a decision
Read Project-Based Learning (PBL) vs. Problem-Based Learning (PrBL): Which is right for your classroom? for more support.
9. Childhood Health Awareness Fair (Grade Level: HS – Child Development)
- Driving Question: How can we help inform new parents and community members about important topics that are relevant to children in our community?
- Project Scenario: Students will be putting on a fair/expo at their school for new parents to inform them in an interactive way about child safety, children’s health, child abuse, or CPR and First Aid pertaining to children.
- Activities: ongoing entries in a project reflection journal, CPR activity, CPS Speaker, Socratic Seminar after speaker, and research, peer feedback on booth informational handout
- Final Product: Groups will work to design their own information table at the fair, where they will interactively teach the community about their topic of choice.
10. Silk Roads (Grade Level: HS Global History and English Language Arts)
- Driving Question: Should we try to make everything in the USA? What are the pros and cons of globalization?
- Project Scenario: This project asks students to engage in a comprehensive exploration of globalization through historical and modern lenses. By examining the Silk Roads trade routes as an early example of globalization and comparing it to contemporary global trade practices, students will use critical thinking to analyze the pros and cons of globalization. They will investigate the origins of everyday items, discuss the implications of making everything domestically versus relying on global trade, and interact with local business owners who sell imported goods.
- Activities: Socratic seminars, text discussions, graphic organizers, written assessments, and reflective activities, students will develop a nuanced understanding of globalization’s impact on culture, economy, and society.
- Final Product: Your perspective on Globalization Socratic Seminar- Should we make everything in the USA? Individual: Essay explaining pros and cons of globalization.
Tips for Implementing PBL Successfully in Your Classroom
The planning of PBL is crucial, anticipating and adapting to unexpected challenges or student interests and needs is a necessity. If a project plan is too rigid, students will lose interest. If a project plan is under-scaffolded, educators lose the ability to meet the unique needs of their learners as they struggle within the project. Receiving feedback and support from colleagues before a project is launched and gathering post-project student feedback helps educators refine their project ideas for future planning and implementation.
Project-based learning requires students to develop essential skills for college and career readiness beyond just subject area content knowledge. Whether a project includes a mock trial, video project, research project or another type of performance assessment, connecting learning to real-world problems helps improve student engagement, knowledge retention and gives students a chance to have voice and choice in their learning and skill development.
New Tech Network (NTN) is a national nonprofit dedicated to systemic change in education. We center K-12 schools as the units of change, working closely with district leaders, school principals, and classroom educators, to co-design an approach to change that is specific to their context. With more than 25 years of change-making, NTN has the ability to recognize common patterns across systems and what is unique about each school and district community.
