1. Learning About PBL: Project based learning is an exciting approach to education that allows students to take ownership of their learning, develop 21st century skills and engage in authentic assessment. The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is a leader in PBL professional development. The BIE website is THE resource on all aspects of PBL including rationale, how to plan your project, assessment rubrics, and search their project library.
PBL Improves Learning- Students understand the content more deeply and make meaningful connections to class concepts.
PBL Develops 21st Century Skills- Students build capacity in skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
PBL Integrates Technology- Technology becomes an integral part in curating knowledge and creating high quality original work.
2. Connect to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 goals defined by the United Nations to tackle the world's biggest problems by 2030.A key component to PBL is solving "real world" problems. Connecting your PBL to one of these Sustainable Development Goals, provides both an avenue for students to engage in relevant cross curricular questions and support global education outcomes.
Start by review the SDGs and finding connections to your current curriculum. Look for ways to make small adjustments to increase focus on a specific goal. For example, the content in US Government would closely align with SDG 16, "promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” Particularly, 16.3 (Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all) and 16.7 (Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels) would be relevant for class. There are many potential actionable outcomes based on the SDGs. Perhaps, writing to representatives about a equitable justice issue in our community or partnering with a school in another county to collect and compare data on suffrage and create voter registration campaigns.
Show students Malala introducing the World's Largest Lesson and get students thinking about their role as a global citizens and area of inquiry that connect to the curriculum.
Practical Action has free resources for teachers, specifically designed to help them teach the goals.
3. Explore Resources to Support International PBL:
Microsoft for Education has a online course for incorporating SDGs in to the curriculum with lesson plans and supportive resources.
TEACH SDGs is advancing the work the United Nations through the creation of an open database les lessons, resources, educators dedicated supporting SDGs.
The Pulitzer Center Lesson Builder provides free lesson plans with a focus on current events and world issues. This site helps teachers embed relevant, global, cross curricular issues into your content. The lessons are printable, thoughtfully constructed, aligns with Common Core standards and includes all applicable supplemental resources.
4. Take it Global: Engage your students in global collaborative project based learning through programs like iEARN. iEARN is a non profit educational forum that allows students to practice global competency skills with their international peers. There are over 100 ongoing cross curricular k-12 projects to choose from. iEARN also has supportive initiatives like the BRIDGE program that has PBL projects aligned to Common Core standards and Sustainable Development Goals.